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Heidetränk-Oppidum | acoolsha :: a personal culture log :: robert bruce rodger

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Heidetränk-Oppidum 7 November 05

Section: article

Categories: Travels

The earliest traces of the Celts can be found in this area of Germany dating to the Iron Age, in the last two millennia BCE. The Heidetränk–Oppidum is one of several enormous fortifications (oppidum/oppida) comprising a Celtic settlement in the Taunus mountains near Frankfurt, Germany. The walls are still evident in the form of giant, extended mounds circling the mountaintop, with some laid stones visible in places (see photos).

Heidetränk-Oppidum Wall, 6 Nov 05

The Celts

The term Celts (pronounced "kelts") refers to any of a number of ancient peoples in Europe using the Celtic languages, which form a branch of Indo–European languages, as well as others whose language is unknown but where associated cultural traits such as Celtic art are found in archaeological evidence.

Development of the term "Celt"

The first literary reference to the Celtic people, as keltoi or hidden people, is by the Greek Hecataeus in 517 BC. According to Greek mythology, Celtus was the son of Heracles and Celtine, the daughter of Bretannus. Celtus became the primogenitor of Celts (Ref.: Parth. 30.1-2, [1]). In Latin Celta, in turn from Herodotus’ word for the Gauls, Keltoi. The Romans used Celtae to refer to continental Gauls, but apparently not to insular Celts, which were divided into Goidhels and Britons, and possibly other peoples.This is likely due to the posibility [sic] that, at those times, the term "Celta/Keltos" was tied to those cultures or people descendant from the Central Europe Celts, while no ties were known to the insular people (especially the Gaels whose language was extremely different from that of Brythonic Celts). [...]

The term "Celt" or "Celtic" can be used in several senses: it can denote a group of peoples who speak or descend from speakers of Celtic languages; or the people of prehistoric and early historic Europe who share common cultural traits which are thought to have originated in the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures. In contemporary terms the "Eight Celtic nations" are usually defined as Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, Isle of Man, Brittany Galicia and Asturias(Spain). Other areas of Europe are associated with being Celtic, such as England (particularly Devon and Cumbria). Modern day DNA research (such as that by University College London) indicates that the current population of England is primarily descended from Celtic/ancient British ancestry, although England lacks a surviving common Celtic language. In Scotland, the Gaelic language came from migration and settlement of the Irish Dalriada/Scotti and is therefore still more predominant in the country’s northern and western fringes.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celt →

Heidetränk-Oppidum Fortification and Gate, 6 Nov 05

De Bello Gallico

De Bello Gallico (literally "On the Gallic Wars" in Latin) is an account written by Julius Caesar about his nine years of war in Gaul. [...]

In De Bello Gallico, Caesar vividly describes the battles and intrigues that took place in the nine years he spent fighting local armies that opposed Roman domination. The "Gaul" that Caesar refers to is sometimes all of Gaul except for the Provincia Narbonensis (modern day Provence), encompassing all of modern France, Belgium and some of Switzerland. On other occasions he refers only to that territory inhabited by the Celts (that Romans called Gauls), from the Channel to Lugdunum (Lyon). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Bello_Gallico →

Links

(in German) hassiaceltica.de/namen/heidetraenke →

www.acoolsha.org/article/57/das-raetsel-der-kelten-vom-glauberg →

www.livius.org/a/1/maps/hecataeus_map.gif →

  • Title: Heidetränk-Oppidum