Celts

The Celts or Celtic peoples (/ˈkɛltɪk/ KEL-tik) were a collection of <a href="/facts/Indo-European_languages/L34TfgSr">Indo-European peoples</a> in <a href="/facts/Europe/DTAtrKfh">Europe</a> and <a href="/facts/Anatolia/vMkrLrPr">Anatolia</a>, identified by their use of <a href="/facts/Celtic_languages/edRrGrMF">Celtic languages</a> and other cultural similarities. Major Celtic groups included the <a href="/facts/Gauls/r8nFrHmV">Gauls</a>; the <a href="/facts/Celtiberians/tIRXID79">Celtiberians</a> and <a href="/facts/Gallaeci/b4TztJu6">Gallaeci</a> of Iberia; the <a href="/facts/Celtic_Britons/M3CTJ3o3">Britons</a>, <a href="/facts/Picts/Y2M50Ulj">Picts</a>, and <a href="/facts/Gaels/Vm9XaXpL">Gaels</a> of Britain and Ireland; the <a href="/facts/Boii/ckxnTPdB">Boii</a>; and the <a href="/facts/Galatians_(people)/hFFgNPkL">Galatians</a>. The interrelationships of ethnicity, language and culture in the Celtic world are unclear and debated; for example over the ways in which the <a href="/facts/Iron_Age_Europe/WnvERtpx">Iron Age</a> people of Britain and Ireland should be called Celts. In current scholarship, 'Celt' primarily refers to 'speakers of Celtic languages' rather than to a single ethnic group.

The history of <a href="/facts/Pre-Celtic/NcL5GDcH">pre-Celtic</a> Europe and Celtic origins is debated. The traditional "Celtic from the East" theory, says the <a href="/facts/Proto-Celtic_language/RLla8fIB">proto-Celtic language</a> arose in the late <a href="/facts/Bronze_Age_Europe/kaqyoMry">Bronze Age</a> <a href="/facts/Urnfield_culture/BUxYt9Sw">Urnfield culture</a> of central Europe, named after grave sites in southern Germany, which flourished from around 1200 BC. This theory links the Celts with the Iron Age <a href="/facts/Hallstatt_culture/brpJ6dWw">Hallstatt culture</a> which followed it (c. 1200–500 BC), named for the rich grave finds in <a href="/facts/Hallstatt/1RtvzbFU">Hallstatt</a>, Austria, and with the following <a href="/facts/La_T%C3%A8ne_culture/gsSxxffn">La Tène culture</a> (c. 450 BC onward), named after the <a href="/facts/La_T%C3%A8ne_(archaeological_site)/T4tQtzEN">La Tène site</a> in Switzerland. It proposes that Celtic culture spread westward and southward from these areas by <a href="/facts/Trans-cultural_diffusion/EURDJKVV">diffusion</a> or <a href="/facts/Human_migration/r2oTzF6F">migration</a>. A newer theory, "<a href="/facts/Celtic_from_the_West/41MCFlc3">Celtic from the West</a>", suggests proto-Celtic arose earlier, was a <a href="/facts/Lingua_franca/dlGrD7ra">lingua franca</a> in the <a href="/facts/Atlantic_Bronze_Age/usPyLDzd">Atlantic Bronze Age</a> coastal zone, and spread eastward. Another newer theory, "Celtic from the Centre", suggests proto-Celtic arose between these two zones, in Bronze Age Gaul, then spread in various directions. After the <a href="/facts/Celtic_settlement_of_Southeast_Europe/qXn8m65E">Celtic settlement of Southeast Europe</a> in the 3rd century BC, Celtic culture reached as far east as <a href="/facts/Central_Anatolia_Region/9dQVayMU">central Anatolia</a>, <a href="/facts/Turkey/KIYAWAs0">Turkey</a>.

The earliest undisputed examples of Celtic language are the <a href="/facts/Lepontic_language/4nSv4bXC">Lepontic</a> inscriptions from the 6th century BC. <a href="/facts/Continental_Celtic_languages/nw58apFS">Continental Celtic languages</a> are attested almost exclusively through inscriptions and place-names. <a href="/facts/Insular_Celtic_languages/GxWCv26A">Insular Celtic languages</a> are attested from the 4th century AD in <a href="/facts/Ogham_inscription/59JKplgC">Ogham inscriptions</a>, though they were being spoken much earlier. Celtic literary tradition begins with <a href="/facts/Old_Irish/79xpaDv5">Old Irish</a> texts around the 8th century AD. Elements of <a href="/facts/Celtic_mythology/jP7VnaSX">Celtic mythology</a> are recorded in <a href="/facts/Early_Irish_literature/NXTKE3dg">early Irish</a> and <a href="/facts/Medieval_Welsh_literature/XlAvd3AN">early Welsh</a> literature. Most written evidence of the early Celts comes from <a href="/facts/Greco-Roman_world/17Wzn8n0">Greco-Roman</a> writers, who often grouped the Celts as <a href="/facts/Barbarian/k61mm4mC">barbarian</a> tribes. They followed an <a href="/facts/Ancient_Celtic_religion/FKgV8XEV">ancient Celtic religion</a> overseen by <a href="/facts/Druid/BVkmDmtJ">druids</a>.
The Celts were often in conflict with the <a href="/facts/Ancient_Rome/cGqIuxPd">Romans</a>, such as in the <a href="/facts/Roman%E2%80%93Gallic_wars/N99lnXhd">Roman–Gallic wars</a>, the <a href="/facts/Roman_conquest_of_the_Iberian_Peninsula/Df7r2KUl">Celtiberian Wars</a>, the <a href="/facts/Gallic_Wars/g9cUYxbl">conquest of Gaul</a> and <a href="/facts/Roman_conquest_of_Britain/cs1bj1qo">conquest of Britain</a>. By the 1st century AD, most Celtic territories had become part of the <a href="/facts/Roman_Empire/l4E1aUuV">Roman Empire</a>. By c. 500, due to <a href="/facts/Romanization_(cultural)/XtyKWbgT">Romanisation</a> and <a href="/facts/Migration_Period/wfQ7PU21">the migration</a> of <a href="/facts/Germanic_peoples/N16QoPA7">Germanic</a> tribes, Celtic culture had mostly become restricted to Ireland, western and northern Britain, and <a href="/facts/Brittany/XvquwmIg">Brittany</a>. Between the 5th and 8th centuries, the Celtic-speaking communities in these Atlantic regions emerged as a reasonably cohesive cultural entity. They had a common linguistic, religious and artistic heritage that distinguished them from surrounding cultures.
Insular Celtic culture diversified into that of the <a href="/facts/Gaels/Vm9XaXpL">Gaels</a> (<a href="/facts/Irish_people/6Ykz2Dxl">Irish</a>, <a href="/facts/Scottish_people/0rp2bd12">Scots</a> and <a href="/facts/Manx_people/wtvbr7Vc">Manx</a>) and the <a href="/facts/Celtic_Britons/M3CTJ3o3">Celtic Britons</a> (<a href="/facts/Welsh_people/gWY430zy">Welsh</a>, <a href="/facts/Cornish_people/zxGlI9jK">Cornish</a>, and <a href="/facts/Bretons/0yN9dlNg">Bretons</a>) of the medieval and modern periods. A modern <a href="/facts/Celts_(modern)/TNlNCFkX">Celtic identity</a> was constructed as part of the Romanticist <a href="/facts/Celtic_Revival/4b9AEQW7">Celtic Revival</a> in Britain, Ireland, and other European territories such as <a href="/facts/Galicia_(Spain)/9gQqlueg">Galicia</a>. Today, <a href="/facts/Irish_language/Kw97s2l4">Irish</a>, <a href="/facts/Scottish_Gaelic/KMI4MmzJ">Scottish Gaelic</a>, <a href="/facts/Welsh_language/4Pz8r6yk">Welsh</a>, and <a href="/facts/Breton_language/e0Rpgyvf">Breton</a> are still spoken in parts of their former territories, while <a href="/facts/Cornish_language/DtPyMKHv">Cornish</a> and <a href="/facts/Manx_language/lG7JMRr0">Manx</a> are undergoing a revival.

Celts open-in-new

Celts