This is a readable, if very academic, exposition on the Celts. The approach is largely archaeological, but it is backed by the written sources from the time. I found it both fascinating for the content and useful as a primer in how archaeologists work and think. Supplementing the text are a treasure trove of images and more than 50 maps, all of which are essential and often beautiful. Finally, Cunliffe places it all in context in relation to classical culture and history into the early medieval period.
The proto-Celts emerged at the end of the Bronze Age (1200 BCE), near to a number of Indo-European peoples that had settled in Central Europe. Their language was apparently closely related to early Italic and German at the time that they were differentiating. Their economy was based on farming and salt mining, later developing expertise in metal working. The surplus that their economy generated allowed an elite culture to emerge (the Hallstatt culture), which was not particularly marshal and had many fine arts, spreading slowly to the west as bearers of smithing techniques. Around 450 BCE, some kind of system failure necessitated migrations south and east of the expanded populations. It was at this time that a Celtic band sacked Rome, at that time only a minor city state.
For the next 200 years, the Celts became much more of a warrior culture, though they also developed an artistic style that was accepted and traded over vast distances. This was the La Tène Culture, which took over and absorbed native populations from Ireland and Spain to pockets as far as Turkey (Asia Minor). They gained the reputation as fierce, barbaric fighters that could wreak terrible damage but were also prone to panic and indiscipline. At the moment that they began to settle into more permanent agglomerations, they came into conflict with the rising world power, Rome, which had just won the Punic Wars and was expanding beyond Italy. The Celts were a market for surplus Roman goods, a supplier of slaves and mercenaries, and a buffer against the Germans.
Once sedentary, the Celts began to develop primitive fortified villages (oppida), which were often the center of tribal power centers but also served as nodes of commerce. Oppida were at once a defensive reaction to Rome but also an adoption of its culture. While sharing a common language and culture, each oppidum was essentially autonomous in a political and/or tribal sense, based around a strong-man leader who might be hereditary or perhaps even elected. As such, the Romans found them easy to conquer one by one, though they did occasionally unite to face a common threat, as they did under Vercingetorix to fight Julius Caesar. While tough and valorous, the Celts eventually proved no match for the Roman machine; up to 2 million Celts (of 7) either died or were enslaved in Caesar's war.
At this point (50 BCE to 50 CE), the Celts were largely absorbed into Roman Culture, first by coopting elites and then offering a life style and career paths (military, etc.) to many more. Only those in remote regions that lived under more dispersed and primitive conditions survived and retained their language. Though periodic rebellions broke out, most Celts were under Rome's thumb until 4C CE.
Beyond this pieced together history, Cunliffe addresses many of the basic questions about the Celts. While an ethno-linguistic group, they were never a unified empire and so their many communities evolved separately and even sometimes in isolation, making them difficult to pigeonhole with simple generalizations. Moreover, their language may have served many as a lingua franca, adopted for convenience rather than spoken in the home, even though there was no question they did represent a "culture". In terms of religion, they had multiple deities, many of whom resembled Greek Gods, but whose identities seemed to merge in a manner reminiscent of monotheism in some cases. Druids were elite priests who oversaw religious rituals, due to their profound learning of the proper forms during decades of apprenticeship; they also served as judges, who could sanction deviants by barring them from ritual observance, rendering them outcasts and "unclean". Interestingly, the holiest gathering place of the Druids in France is now the site of Chartres Cathedral, which apparently emanated some kind of powerful Godhead.
The method of the book is very fun. Like all archaeologists, in the absence of reliable contemporary written sources, Cunliffe concentrates on pottery, artifacts, geographic sites, burial practices, and bones. Strictly based on hard material evidence, he extrapolates but never indulges in speculation, presenting various possible conclusions instead. I learned a great deal from this, which interests me personally given that we have an archaeologist in the family. Fortunately, Cunliffe only rarely gets bogged in descriptions of obscure findings or proofs, the bane of many academic books that fail to cross over to lay readers.
Recommended with enthusiasm. This is a masterpiece of rigorous, yet popular, writing on a fascinating subject. It will serve students but also engage serious readers who are willing to put in the effort.
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