The Celts: A History

Rating:
Summary: Intersting review of the subject
Review: The Celts a History is a very readable overview of Celtic culture, archaeology, and history. The author Peter Ellis is a renown Celtic scholar whose other works include the Celtic Empire and A Brief History of the Druids.

The book covers a great deal of ground for its 221 pages, but achieves its goal of acquainting the reader with a subject generally less well known than that of their rivals the Romans. The author particularly interests himself in a recent debate over the existence of the Celts as a people, and discusses the issue at some length in the preface to this edition. In general I would agree with his statement that while there may not have been a Celtic ethnic identity as such, there was a large population of individuals who shared a common culture and language whom we many call Celts for lack of a better identification.

I found the first two chapters the most interesting. Here the author deals with the origins of the Celts and the subject of their literacy. The spread of the culture throughout Europe and into Anatolia, even possibly into Asia is discussed. I had read of the red haired, Caucasian mummies with their woven tartan clothing found in the Taklamakhan Desert and of their possible link with the Celtic population movements before, and found that Mr. Ellis' portrait of the people helped put some of this information into perspective.

The next six chapters discuss members of Celtic society, including kings, chiefs, warriors, women, physicians, druids, and farmers, while the final chapters deal with material and intellectual culture. I had read something of this material in Barry Cunliffes' books so was already familiar with the sources of some of the information. The latter's book, Facing the Ocean: the Atlantic and its Peoples 8000 BC. - AD 1500, provides an even greater in depth view of the early European people, and his The Extraordinary Voyage of Pytheas the Greek describes the amazing connectedness of the early Celtic world.

The only negative that I found in Ellis' book was the author's almost fanatic romance with his ancient subjects. One might believe he credited the Celts with the invention of the internet and the space program, so intent is he to find the "first" everything a Celtic accomplishment.

The book would make an excellent complementary source for a course on ancient Greece and Rome, since it shows that the rest of the European world wasn't just on hold until Julius Caesar focused a spotlight on it! It would also serve as a balance to the biased Greco-Roman accounts of the Celtic people.