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Celtic Paganism
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Black Irish > Celtic Paganism > Notes > 02/06/01

The Celtic Gauls

Celtic Paganism

  • rustic, villager
    • pagus
  • non-Christian, pre-Christian religious practices continuing after Christianity is generally accepted by the Roman Empire.
  • Barbarian
    • term for a non-Greek speaker
  • heathen
    • someone who lives on the heath
  • primitive
    • primal, 1st stage, original, underived

Social organization of the Celts and land distribution

  • tribe
    • basic social unit
    • described by Greek and Roman ethnographers
  • tribus
    • term used by Romans
    • tri-
      • three
    • -bus
      • dative / abl. plural
  • Roman
    • originally 3 tribes
    • 1 section = 1/3 = tribus
    • later came to mean a division of Roman society (35 tribes)
  • phyle
    • term used by Greek writers
    • a group united by kinship -->the area inhabited by that group
  • 3rd century BC
    • tribes coalesced into civitates (vivitas)
    • tribe retained integrety as the basic social unit
  • Irish
    • túath
    • 35 túath in Ireland in the early medaeval period
    • a number would coalesce into a larger group
  • Toutiorix
    • toutio
      • earlier form = people
    • rix
      • king
    • teut-on
    • teutonomy
  • a number of túatha would coalesce into a provence
    • coíced /coigeth/
    • 1/5
    • ~civitates
  • each of the tribes occupied an area called a pagus
    • on open space with fixed boundaries.

pagus / pax

  • same root
  • pax
    • cessation of quarrels, interruption of war
  • pagina - page
  • several pagi form a civitas
    • noun refers to the people as well as the area occupied by the people

Bruneax

  • tribal terriotry ranged from 60,000 to 200,000 hectares
    • 1 hectare ~2.5 acres
  • 60k - 231 square miles, 15 x 15 miles -- smaller end of area
    • 5-hour walk
  • Boston proper - < 50 miles^2

1st century BCE

  • divided into 16 civitas
  • Nora Chat < The Druids -- Helvetii - 4 pagi -->civitas
  • civitates had thei own napme, fortified centeres, 'captials'
    • called oppidum
    • Parisii
      • oppidum at Paris
    • Traveri
      • Triere
    • Boiigi
      • Bohemia

archeologiests

  • isolated farmsteads
  • Pigott - druids
    • villages teh basic unit of the continental Celts, farmsteads in Britain/Ireland
    • towns are the exception --some of them did become oppida
  • fortified wood/forest
    • Caesar -- oppidum

attempt to describe space on the basis of archeological discoveries

  • given a bunch of huts, and another isolated one, larger, and off the ground
    • king? priest? grainiary?
  • every pagus had an oppidum
  • every civitas (federation) also had an oppidum
  • probably was a marketplace, perhaps also a stronghold
  • archeologists are certain that the oppidum of the civitas did serve as a place of defense. Pagi could come together in times of threat

The Celts -- 1991 exhibition

  • brief essays on a number of excavated oppida
  • most importantly -- represented a closeed-off space
    • political space
    • seeds of organisation
    • sacred space -- sanctuaries found within oppida
      • sacred function might be older function of oppida, older than the political function

mediolanum

  • these sites correspond to sites where oppida discovered
  • means middle of the plain/opening
  • site of religious gathering
    • eg. Milan -- mediolanum older than the oppidum
    • Gorney
  • sacred spot, mediolanum, ippidum served other functions, political/economic, developed around that.

patterns in comparative religion

  • long before military use, magic defense
  • marked out an enclosurep. with a center
  • middle, center, navel
    • Mide /mithe/
    • 4 provinces in Ireland
    • 5th one (Meath) where Tara hill is, seat of high kingship of Ireland
    • so loaded as to be taboo
      • medon /methon/ took over middle function

topographical features as sacred spaces

  • examples in Ireland
  • Marne
    • river name < matrona -- mother goddess, divine mother, teutelary deity
  • Sequana
    • goddess of Sequani tribe
      • Sen
  • Danube
    • Donau (Greek) < Dôn -- goddess, Tuatha De Danann, tribe of the goddess Danu
    • Welsh, chilren of Dôn
  • gods attached to features of landscape
    • rivers
    • fortifications dedicated to various deities -- Lugh
    • hills, promintaries 'sacred hill'
  • clues that the Celts invested places with the divine
  • religous worship -- nature
    • mediolanum
    • privite sites

Types of sacred enclosures

  • built sanctuaries (cf. natural sanctuaries)
  • 2 types of sacred enclosures
  • Belgic type
    • mostly in Belgic Gaul, NE part of Gaul
    • consists of
      • enclosure
        • the basic cult site among the Celts was delimiated by a ditch, perhaps enclosed by a palasade
        • early La Tene, 500-250 BCE
          • enclosure may have been the only thing that marked it as a cult site
        • témenos (Greek)
          • a cut-off space, space set aside, dedicated to a god or goddess
        • temulum (Latin) -->templum (Latin)
          • cut off, dedicated space
        • in some Indo-European tradition, not a permanent space, but boundaries traced each time
        • lann (Irish)
          • sacred enclosure, grounds around a church
        • llan (Welsh)
          • place set off and often dedicated to a saint
        • temair /tevir/
          • g. singular -- tara
          • no accepted linguisted etymology
          • right kind of site to be a sacred spot
        • would expect to see a reflex in Ireland and Wales
          • llan-fair
            • fair = Mary
        • the enclosure is a cut-off place
        • the palasade serves to concel the enclosure, hdies the sacred space
        • a ditch marks the boundary
      • entrance
        • special
          • go from profame to sacred world
          • Sur-a-rout
            • originally just a break in the ditch marked the entrance
            • the palasade was a secondary development
            • then change it to a bridge over the bridge so there is a reall crossing over
            • then a gate could be added
            • passage from one kind of space to another kind
            • then eventually a portico up over the gate
            • crossed over, entered the sanctuary
            • may not have been different from the porticos with human skulls
              • entremon
              • betuse -- carved skulls in pillars
            • evidence for a cult of the head among Celts
              • atropoten
                • warding off evil function of heads
      • center
        • most sacred spot in the enclosure
        • marked by a post or pit or small cell, chapel, temple
        • best spot -- farthest away from profane world
        • closer to divine, world of gods
        • pits/posts in center may have had astronomical significance
        • pits -- communication with netherworld deities/cthonic deities
      • temple
        • later development
        • Celts didn't make images of their deiteis in their early period.
        • images done under imitation of Romans after conquest of Gaul, part of Romanization
        • cella -- cella
          • small building/structure, might have held something, talismatic objects
          • open gallary built around the cella
          • allowed faithful to circumambulate the tabernacle
          • evidence from early and recent folk tradition
            • circumambulate holy trees, sacred wells
            • Irish -- have to go righthandwise, way the sun goes
            • widdershins -- an insult
          • fanum
            • the whole thing
            • Latin words archeologiest use to describe
            • fanum would be roofed
            • Pocidonius -- evidence
              • Greek Historian 135 BC - 51
              • Celts are off coast of Gaul
              • women of Sanitae
                • no men may land on island
                • every year, remove roof and reroof by ending.
                • anyone who drops their load is torn up and carried around
              • ritual destruction of a sacred site not uncommon in Irish / Welsh literature
              • fierectshanzen -- evidence as well
      • deposites and trophies
  • German type -- fierectshanzen

43 - 410

  • Romans in England, after 30 year service, retire, Roman citizen
  • married British women, etc.
  • 2AD -- Romans hiring Germans
  • a mix from the very beginning
  • moving around a lot, trade, amber from Baltic area, tin

  • Belgic type NE part of Gaul
    • 1) enclosure
    • 2) entrance
    • 3) center
    • 4) temple
    • 5) deposits and trophies
  • firectschanzen
    • quadrangular enclosure
    • 1st century BCE
    • Ann Ross - Pagan Celts
    • Br. -- Belgic has rich yields of sacrificial offerings, other matter, in ditches (Celtic Gauls)
    • firectschanzen -- almost complete absence of all sacrificial material, animals or remains
    • contradictory evidence
      • L. 25-foot shaft, upright wooden stakes at bottom, surrounded by breakdown of organic material.
    • Piggot -- druids
      • rep. of cult c. -- ritual shafts communicate with underworld deities
      • botris, mundis
      • Daubissa -- pit -- holy offerings, buried
      • continuation of Indo-European idea
    • mundus (Roman)
      • world/universe -- heavens, cosmos, netherworld, underworld
      • located at the place of Roman assemply -- forum
      • covered by a stone, 24 Au. 5 Oct. 8 Nov
      • stone covering removed and fruits thrown into pit as offering
    • Ovid/Plutarc
      • foundation of Rome
      • Romulus dug deep trench, with fruit c., traced tra. with plow.
      • trench -- mundus
      • whole world became a mundus
    • microcosm of trench
      • end
      • center
      • pit
    • firectschanzen -- mostly in southern Gaul -- tribal variation?
    • numerous ritual shafts
      • like Celtic Britain
    • Britain
      • 7' top of pit, 250' deep, top 7' lined with flint
      • Ann Ross - pottery, deer carcasses -- cult of stag
      • 1st fruits, sacrificial animals -- votive offerings
  • Celtoligurian sanctuary
    • monum. in stone -- found in Gen.
    • Antremon -- t. p. 37 -- Bruneau
    • -touse -- lintal, 2 colomns, niches for human heads
    • human heads and bird
    • Irish war goddess -- carrion crow
    • Antrem
      • pillar carved with stylized human heads. Inside of oppidum, 15 human heads, some still with iron nails
      • nailing heads ond oorway of house

natural sanctuaries

  • in early period, did they have any built structures?
  • sacred trees, wells
  • La Têne, Switzerland
    • horde of weapons, jewelry, tools, coins
    • base of stream from large pool
      • cult site -- votive deposits
  • Caesar
    • areas of Gaul under Roman sway -- lakes auctioned off. Commonly known Celtic practise of water-submersion
  • natural clearings
    • nemeton
      • sanctuary in a wood/clearing
      • nemos (Latin)
        • wood/clearing in a wood
    • Strabo (Greek)
      • leaders of Galacians -- conduct business in a drunemeton
        • dru-
          • oak
        • nemeton
          • survives in Irish
            • nemed /neveth/
            • sacred persons -- class of people who are sacred
            • kings, poets, clerics
        • Fotunatus (Latin)
          • vernemeton
            • great shrine
            • ver -- super, great
        • Scotland
          • medio-nemeton
        • Gaul
          • nemeto-durum -- nantere
    • What happened in these sanctuary?
  • Piggot
    • past as past -- never know
    • past as known -- however fragmentary
    • past as wished-for -- fill in blanks
  • wells
    • similar to pools/lakes
      • those of insular Celts known by Irish/Welsh literature
        • Well of Nechtan 00 only he and his 3 cupbearers can approach it. Anyone else will suffor losst of sight -- shattered eyeballs.
        • Boand -- pride -- approached well. It rose up against her. Destroyed 1 hand, eye, and thighs, and pursued her has far as the sea -- Boyne River
        • cupbearer
  • rivers
    • source of (inspired) wisdom (seer)
    • dinsheanchas -- place lore
    • otherworld river, hazelnut tree, eaten by salmon
  • after Christianity -- wells, cults of Saints
    • pilgrimages to sites still common
    • trees with holy wells -- hazel/ash
    • circumambulate wells -- approach syaing rosary 3 times, elave something, pieces of cloth tied to trees
    • image in stone at well, rob cross on stone
  • cauldron
    • portable pool
    • Strabo
      • 1st century BCE, p. of war, throats slit over sacred cauldron, drowing in cauldrons.
      • hanging, burning, drowning
    • Welsh
      • spoils of Anofn -- feature of otherworld -- huge cauldron where spoils are
      • one of e. ref. to Arthur
      • raded otherworld to acquire magical things
      • rules of en. weapon if not immersed no one can take or ostr.
    • cauldrons at bottom of wells/laeks -- pool within a pool
    • shaft, pit, well, mundus -- points of contact with otherworld
  • Findon, West Sussix -- Ross -- Pagan Celts

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