Abstract
ABSTRACT One historical actor in Antiquity are the populations of Western-Central Europe, commonly called ‘Celts’ by classical authors. Themselves (mostly) illiterate until approximately the 1st century BC/AD, reports about them, written by foreigners like Polybius, Caesar, Diodorus and others have survived. The study of ‘Celtic’ societies thus can hardly rely on classical historiography, but is mainly based on archaeology. Historical sources and archaeology are difficult to reconcile, even if common themes can be identified in both types of sources. This article examines the differences, but also similarities between the various ‘Celtic’ societies of Europe and their neighbours, and the use of the term ‘the Celts’. The case study of the excavations at Meillionydd in North Wales is used to demonstrate how different types of source material and local and global scales can be integrated into a single, coherent explanatory model.
Highlights
One historical actor in Antiquity are the populations of Western-Central Europe, commonly called ‘Celts’ by classical authors
The Celts first appear in historical sources after, around 600 BC, Phocaean Greeks advanced into the western Mediterranean and established their colony Μασσαλία
As early as the mid-4th century BC at the very latest, the term ‘Celts’ had become established as the name used in classical Greek ethnography for barbarian communities inhabiting much of Europe, from the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, across much of Western and Central Europe and down into the Balkans
Summary
Entre os atores históricos da Antiguidade estão as populações do Noroeste e Centro da Europa, denominadas “Celtas” pelos autores clássicos. Em sua maioria, até por volta do século I a.C./d.C., foram mencionadas por autores estrangeiros como Políbio, César, Estrabão, Diodoro e outros. O estudo dessas sociedades “célticas”, portanto, dificilmente se sustentaria com base apenas na historiografia clássica, mas precisa considerar a Arqueologia. Este artigo examina as diferenças, mas também as semelhanças entre as várias sociedades “célticas” da Europa e seus vizinhos, e os usos do termo “Celta”. O estudo de caso das escavações de Meillionydd, no Norte do País de Gales, é usado para demonstrar como diferentes tipos de material e escalas local e global podem integrar-se em um único e coerente modelo explanatório.
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