3611
Online museum and repository for historical and ancestral knowledge.
Pictish sandstone cross-slab from Invergowrie Church, in Angus, Scotland; late 9th century AD. 🏴 The stone is believed to date to the early years of the kingdom of Alba/Scotland. On the obverse are displayed what appear to be two wolves and three Christian monks.
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
Performers & audience fall silent to hear the sound of the Celtic Carnyx Festival Interceltique de Lorient (2019) @offgridiireland ☘️
Читать полностью…
Gold coin (1/4 stater) of the Gallic Unelli tribe, discovered on the coast of the Cotentin Peninsula of Normandy, France; 2nd century B.C. 🇫🇷 The enigmatic image on the reverse shows a figure blowing a carnyx while mounted on a horse, which is held up by a mysterious female figure, presumably a goddess.
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
Chouan Ambush; Breton peasants prepare to attack a French military column. 1883 Painting by Évariste Carpentier. 🇫🇷
The painting depicts what’s commonly known as the Chouannerie, a royalist uprising that took place in Brittany and some neighboring districts against the government of revolutionary France, lasting from 1794 to 1800. The Chouannerie occurred in tandem with a similar revolt in the neighboring region of Vendée (1793-1796). The revolt was triggered by the French government’s wanting mass military conscription and by it’s promulgation of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy in 1790, which essentially aimed to give the secular government control over the Catholic church in France. But another motivating factor was that the revolutionary government had repealed the special laws and customs of the Duchy of Brittany in 1789. The Chouans and Vendéens fought a protracted guerrilla war before being overwhelmed and crushed by superior numbers and firepower. The Vendéens in particular were able to inflict multiple humiliating defeats on the French army before finally succumbing. These were the largest and most severe royalist uprisings that took place against the new regime, but by no means the last ones.
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
Gallagh Man; naturally mummified body discovered in county Galway, Ireland; dated between the 5th and 2nd centuries B.C. 🇮🇪
Gallagh man was found buried in a peat bog not far from Castleblakeney. The body was naked except for a long deer-skin cloak. It had a rope made from willow fibers wrapped around the neck and was pinned down with stakes, which indicated that the victim had been strangled to death and deliberately placed in the bog. Gallagh man would have been in his mid 20s when he died. He was six-foot tall, had tawny hair, and was otherwise healthy. Bog bodies like this have been found all over Europe, particularly in areas inhabited by Celtic and Germanic peoples. Many, including Gallagh Man, were victims of ritual human sacrifice. According to the Roman historian Tacitus, the practice of strangling people and placing them in bogs as an offering to the gods doubled as a way of punishing criminals for specific offenses:
Traitors and deserters are hanged on trees; the coward, the unwarlike, the man stained with abominable vices, is plunged into the mire of the morass, with a hurdle put over him.
Dear friends: I would like to thank everyone who has been following and enjoying the content of this channel. As one might guess, it takes effort and time, and I hope to be able to continue providing enjoyable and edifying content well into the future. For that reason, I am opening the door for folks who might be interested in supporting Celtic Europe via donations. This will be totally anonymous and voluntary, but any support will by highly appreciated. An e-mail address has also been created for any folks who might have feedback or questions: europeceltique@gmail.com. I will try to respond to messages/inquiries, and do so as timely as possible, though I may not always be able to depending on the volume and how busy I am at the moment. Once again: Thank you all, and have an amazing week.
USD Adress (Cash App):
$CelticEurope
BTC Adress:
367bkSBYyPdCfmYrHQzRydFxpwCEZytVTB
XLR Adress:
8APe7A7vqwzXMvMdsjasjPB3MsFeNPAJ8A1twXTi2buX7pKxtDMoWYMNdmru7ZPQSzYbhqxymx2KAgyT6BZQ439mF8vB9D3
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
The city of Turin (Italian: Torino), in Piedmont, Italy. 🇮🇹 Alps visible in the background. 🏔
The city of Turin was originally built by the Celtic Taurini tribe, and still bears their name (formerly it was Taurasia). The Gallic Taurini played a key role during the wars between the rising Roman Republic and the Celts of Cisalpine Gaul. Together with the Gallic Cenomani and the Italic Veneti (ancestors of today’s Venetians), the Taurini formed a pro-Roman faction in northern Italy that provided invaluable aid to the Republic in its struggle to subdue the native Celts and Ligurians of the region. This traitorous disposition eventually proved to be a fatal miscalculation on the part of the Taurini. They couldn’t have foreseen that their Roman allies would become embroiled in the 2nd Punic War against the other major power of the western Mediterranean: Carthage. In 218 B.C; Carthage’s most talented general, Hannibal Barca, crossed the Alps with a large army of mostly Spanish and Berber troops that also included war elephants. The Gallic tribes of northern Italy who’d chafed under Roman domination, the Insubres and Boii, were quick to revolt and make an alliance with Hannibal, bolstering his army with much needed manpower. But as a price for their alliance they demanded his assistance in exacting brutal revenge upon the hated Taurini. Hannibal acquiesced and Taurasia was besieged. After three days of nearly continuous battle, the defenders were overwhelmed and the city was sacked and completely destroyed. The area remained uninhabited until around 27 B.C; when the Romans founded a colony named Julia Augusta Taurinorum, which became modern Turin.
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
Interesting article suggests —based on exotic items found by archaeologists among their grave goods— that Anglo-Saxons from Britain may have travelled to the Middle East to fight as mercenaries. For folks less familiar with the terminology used, “Sasanian” just means Persian, (i.e. Iranian), while “Byzantine” just means Eastern Roman, (i.e. the “Byzantine Empire”).
https://www.sott.net/article/492817-6th-Century-Anglo-Saxons-may-have-fought-in-northern-Syrian-wars-grave-goods-suggest
The life and career of Jeanne de Clisson, a.k.a. the “Lioness of Brittany”. 🇫🇷
https://medievalreporter.com/jeanne-de-clisson/
The coat of arms of Sir Owen Tudor (Welsh: Owain ap Maredudd ap Tudur). 🏴
Owen Tudor (1400-1461) was a Welsh courtier who married the queen dowager of England, Catherine of Valois. Their grandson went on to become king of England as Henry VII, the first of the Tudor dynasty. Tudor’s coat of arms was derived from that of his ancestor, Ednyfed Fychan, which was conferred upon him by king Llywelyn ap Iorwerth of Gwynedd. The original arms granted by Llywelyn were different, however, as they displayed three severed human heads rather than three helmets. Ednyfed had earned the honor during a series of violent clashes against English invaders in the years 1209-1212. At that time, Ranulf de Blondeville, the 6th Earl of Chester, had been tasked by king John of England with carrying out several military campaigns against the Welsh. In one of the encounters, Ednyfed presented the heads of three English lords whom he’d killed in combat to king Llywelyn. The king was so impressed that he elevated Ednyfed to the position of cynghellwr, essentially making him his prime minister, and ordered that the same heads should be depicted on his family coat of arms from thence forward.
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
Bronze anthropomorphic sword-hilt found in Ballyshannon Bay, in county Donegal, Ireland; 1st century B.C. 🇮🇪
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
Bronze belt-hook decorated in La Tène style from the burial-mound of a Gallic chief at Glauberg, in Hesse, Germany; 5th century B.C. 🇩🇪
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
The ruins of the city of Entremont, in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of southern France. 🇫🇷
Entremont was the capital city of the Salluvii, who were, according to Strabo, a people of mixed Gallic and Ligurian origin (Ligurians seem to have been a Celtic-speaking people, related to and hardly different from the Gauls). At the time Entremont was built, the Salluvii had formed a powerful tribal state that dominated southeast France and often clashed with the Greek colony of Massalia (now Marseille, France).
The city was built on a grid pattern and protected by stone walls and bastions modeled on Greek designs. Archaeologists have found furnaces for metal-working, ovens, and oil-presses within the town. It was even outfitted with drainage systems. Many statues of warriors and sculptures of human heads were also found within the town, attesting the inhabitants’ warlike culture and the classic Celtic cult of the severed head.
The town was eventually destroyed by the armies of the Roman Republic around 123 B.C. Roman consuls Marcus Fulvius Flaccus and Gaius Sextius Calvinus intervened in the region at the behest of the Massaliot Greeks, who were being consistently worsted in their conflicts with the native Celts and Ligurians. The Romans would later build the city of Aquae Sextiae (now Aix-en-Provence, France) to replace Entremont.
The defeated king of the Salluvii, Teutomalius, fled to the Gallic Allobroges tribe for asylum. When the Roman Republic demanded that he be handed over, the Allobroges refused, leading to war. The Allobroges requested help from the neighboring Arverni tribe and their king, Bituitus, son of Louernius. There was a battle near Bédarrides, on the banks of the river Rhône on August 8, 121 B.C. The Roman consul Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus achieved victory by using war elephants to shock the Gallic host. The following year, consul Quintus Fabius Maximus completed the defeat of the Allobroges and Arverni with another battle at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Isère. Bituitus and his son Congonnetiacus were taken as prisoners, paraded in a Roman triumphal procession, and held for the remainder of their lives at Alba Fucens in Italy. This conflict resulted in the annexation of southern France and its reconfiguration as the Roman province of Gallia Transalpina. The power of the Arverni was greatly reduced and they lost their hegemony in France in favor of their neighbors the Haedui, who were Roman allies.
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
Bracelet from the burial of a Gallic noblewoman in the Vins de Bruyère necropolis near Prosnes, in the Marne Department of France; 5th century B.C. 🇫🇷
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
The opening of the Tailteann Games in Croke Park, Dublin; 15 August, 1924. 🇮🇪
This was the first time in several centuries that the Tailteann Games were held in Ireland. More people attended this traditional Celtic athletic event than did the Olympics in Paris that same year. They were organized by James Joseph Walsh (1880-1948), who was Minister for Posts and Telegraphs for the newly independent Irish Free State, and also a leading figure in the Gaelic Athletic Association.
The Tailteann Games were originally part of the Fair of Tailtiu (Irish: Óenach Tailteann), which was part of how the harvest festival of Lúghnasadh was celebrated in late July and early August every year. These were traditionally held at Tailtiu, a grouping of mounds and earthworks located at Teltown, in county Meath. The contests traditionally included running, hurling, boxing, wrestling, spear and sword sparring, leaping, as well as dog and horse races, and even board game matches (i.e. the Celtic chess game known as fidchell). Ancient lore held that the Óenach was instituted by the god Lugh Lámhfhada (“Lugh the Long-handed”) in honor of his foster-mother Tailtiu, who died from exhaustion after clearing the plains of Ireland for agriculture, and was buried by him at the place that subsequently bore her name.
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
Bronze carnyx (war trumpet) shaped like a wild boar with giant ears, discovered within an ancient Gallic sanctuary at Tintignac, in Limousin, France; 1st century B.C. 🇫🇷 Second two images show a modern replica by Jean Boisserie.
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
Heather covered hills in the Brecon Beacons of south Wales. 🏴 Llangorse lake visible down in the valley. Photo credit: http://www.beckythetraveller.com
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
Bronze fibula found in a cremation burial within the Celtiberian fortress of Castil de Griegos, in Guadalajara province, Spain; 8th century B.C. 🇪🇸
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
Silver tetradrachm coin found at an unspecified location in eastern Bulgaria; 3rd century B.C. 🇧🇬
The obverse displays a portrait of the Greek hero Hercules, while the reverse bears the Greek inscription Basileos Cavarou (“King Cavarus”), indicating that the coin was minted by the Gallic king Cavarus, who ruled the Kingdom of Tylis in eastern Thrace from 230 to 212 B.C. Cavarus, whose name is cognate with the Welsh word cawr, meaning “giant” or “mighty man”, is mostly known from mentions of him by the Greek historian Polybius. He was remembered as a wise and excellent king, who was often helpful to the Greek city of Byzantium (later Constantinople and now Istanbul), brokering peace treaties for them with Rhodes and king Prusias I of Bithynia, thus bringing destructive wars to an end. Tragically, Polybius recorded that Cavarus was eventually corrupted by one of his own advisors, a Greek from the city of Chalcedon named Sosthenes, whom he referred to as a “flatterer”. It’s inferred that the resultant change in Cavarus’ politics led to the destruction of Tylis by native Thracians in 212 B.C. The fate of Cavarus himself is unknown, though it’s presumed that he perished together with his kingdom.
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
Scottish Deerhound. 🏴
The Scottish Deerhound is not as well known a breed as its close relative, the Irish Wolfhound. Both are descended from the hunting dogs used by Gaelic peoples since remote antiquity. Hounds were of enormous value in Gaelic culture, being one of the most prized possessions a person could have. A little known fact is that the Irish Wolfhound actually went extinct in the early 19th century. The modern Irish Wolfhound was “bred back into existence”, so to speak, by a British dog breeder named George Augustus Graham (1833-1909). This was done in large part using Scottish Deerhounds and Great Danes for the breeding program, which started with two (non-purebred) Irish dogs that were descended from Wolfhounds.
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
The “Viking canal” at Rubh’ an Dùnain; on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. 🏴
Rubh’ an Dùnain is an artificial canal connecting the small lake known as Loch na h-Àirde to the sea. Archaeologists have found remains in the loch of a small Scandinavian type clinker-built boat, carbon-dated to the 11th or 12th century, as well as stone-built quays for docking and unloading vessels. The canal seems to have permitted ships to enter and exit the loch when the water was at high tide. It’s assumed that the canal and wharfs were placed there and used by the Norse, who’d colonized Skye and the Hebrides and lived there alongside the native Celts since the late 8th century AD. However, the ruins of an iron age dwelling known as a “dun” (from the Gaelic word dùn, meaning “fort”) can also be found nearby. Duns are one of the most commonly attested types of native settlement in western Scotland, usually dating to the iron age and early medieval period. They were small stone forts; usually just the farmsteads of local chieftains. The presence of this structure nearby could mean that the canal was in existence and use even before the arrival of Norse settlers in Skye.
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
The Irish hero Cú Chulainn 🇮🇪 as imagined by Angus McBride (RIP: 1931-2007), riding into battle during the Cattle Raid of Cooley, with his trusty charioteer Láeg, and horses Liath Macha and Dubh Sainglend.
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
Arthur rescues Guinevere from Maleagant, scene from the Cathedral of Modena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy; 12th century. 🇮🇹
This scene depicts a little known episode from Arthurian lore. The original story can be found in the Life of Gildas, a hagiography written by the Welsh cleric Caradoc of Llancarfan. It tells of how Arthur’s wife, Guinevere (Welsh: Gwynhwyfar; “White Ghost”), was abducted by one of Arthur’s associates, by the name of Melwas (“Maleagant” in later lore). Both Melwas and Arthur were underkings within the Celtic Kingdom of Dumnonia, Arthur ruling in Cornwall while Melwas ruled the “Summer Country” (Welsh: Gwlad yr Haf, now Somerset, England). Melwas took Guinevere to his fortress, located at Glastonbury, whereupon Arthur went in pursuit with an army, laying siege to the place. The monk Gildas then intervened and arbitrated a negotiation, persuading Melwas to return Guinevere to her husband unharmed.
More about this drama can be gleaned from an old Welsh poem known as The Dialogue of Melwas and Gwynhwyfar. In an episode preceding the abduction incident, Melwas is depicted courting the married Guinevere, who scornfully rejects his advances. She points out his youth, small size, unimpressive appearance, and non-existent prowess. Interestingly, she showers praise on one of Arthur’s best warriors, a young man from Dyfed in Wales named Cai, son of Cynyr Ceinfarfog (“Sir Kay” in later lore). The poem has driven speculation that Cai was the man with whom Guinevere had an affair, rather than Lancelot, who doesn’t even exist in the original Welsh lore about King Arthur.
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
The town of Ourique, in Alentejo, Portugal. 🇵🇹
According to a Portuguese tradition recorded in the 20th century Album Alentajano, Ourique was the site of a battle in 146 B.C; between the Lusitanian war-leader Viriathus and a Roman army commanded by the governor of Hispania Citerior, Claudius Unimanus. The battle was mentioned by the Roman poet Florus, who stated that Unimanus’ army was almost completely annihilated, and that the victorious Lusitanians later hung the standards and official robes they’d captured from the Romans all over the Sierra Morena mountains as a taunt. The Roman historian Orosius quoted a lost account of the war by Unimanus himself, describing a remarkable incident in the lead up to this battle:
In a narrow pass 300 Lusitani faced 1,000 Romans; as a result of the action 70 of the former and 320 of the latter died. When the victorious Lusitani retired and dispersed confidently, one of them on foot became separated, and was surrounded by a detachment of pursuing cavalry. The lone warrior pierced the horse of one of the riders with his spear, and with a blow of his sword cut off the Roman’s head, producing such terror among the others that they prudently retired under his arrogant and contemptuous gaze
Traditional Scottish waulking song commemorating one of the heroes of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, Alasdair Mac Colla (1610-1647), performed by the band Capercaillie. Gaelic lyrics with subtitles are displayed and more information is available in the description section of the video.
Helpful tip: Brave browser can help block out annoying youtube ads.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iD23nutagtY&pp=ygUSQWxhc2RhaXIgbWFjIGNvbGxh
The Small Isles, Rum and Eigg viewed from Muck, in Garmoran, Scotland. 🏴
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
The Dunaverney flesh-hook, discovered in a bog near Ballymoney in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland; dated to around 1,000 B.C.
The flesh-hook would have been used to remove chunks of meat out of a cauldron and serve them up to guests during feasts. The metal sections went over an oak-wood shaft that kept them together, only a small piece of which still remains.
The top of the metal shaft is rich with imagery from Indo-European myth and cosmology: Families of ravens and swans facing off. Being carrion birds, ravens were associated with death, while swans (and other types of water-fowl) were symbolic of resurrection and the renewal of life, as they often emerge flying out of watery places (water symbolized the underworld to many ancient cultures). The object thus depicts the dualistic nature of the cosmos and the cycles of death and rebirth that govern the natural world.
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
The broch tower of Mousa, in Shetland, Scotland. 🏴
At 13.3 meters high, the stone tower is the tallest and best preserved structure of its kind in Scotland. It was built around 300 B.C; probably a residence for a prominent local chieftain. Centuries later, it wasn’t uncommon for people to use the abandoned structure for shelter. Scandinavian sagas mentioned Mousa broch more than once: Egil’s Saga described an episode in the 10th century when a young couple traveling from Norway to Iceland became shipwrecked nearby during a storm and took shelter in the broch. The Orkneyinga Saga also described an incident in the year 1153 in which the Norse jarl of Orkney, Harald Maddadson, besieged the broch because some enemies of his had abducted his mother and were holding her prisoner there.
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope
Manx Loaghtan sheep (Manx: Lugh Dhoan; “Mouse-Brown”), a rare breed from the Isle of Man. 🇮🇲
Celtic Europe - channel link (please share!): /channel/CelticEurope