The Celts - IELTS Listening Answers & Explanations

Welcome to this introductory lecture on the Celts. Who were the Celts? The Celts were an Indo-European group, that is, related linguistically to the Greeks, the Germanic peoples, certain Italic groups and peoples of the Indian sub-continent. They arose in central Europe at the beginning of the first millennium B.C. and were an iron using and horse rearing peoples. By the end of the first millennium B.C. their cultural group had spread up and down the Danube and Rhine, taking in Gaul, Ireland and Britain, across central Europe, into northern Italy and northern Spain. Their roaming across Europe led some of the Celtic tribes to sack Rome in 390 B.C. creating a fear of the northern barbarians that was to haunt Romans for hundreds of years to come.

The Celts are defined archaeologically by the type-sites of Hallstatt and La Tène, the former being taken to relate to an earlier phase of cultural development. Hallstatt, an ancient salt mining area, was excavated from 1876 onwards by the Viennese Academy of Sciences and provided the first classification of the prehistoric Celts. In 1858, the waters of Lake Neuchatel in Switzerland sunk to a low level, revealing a large prehistoric settlement with a huge number of surviving artefacts. The nearby town of La Tène gave its name to the second phase of Celtic cultural development. However, please note that these phases overlap through time, and are defined according to geographical area. Let's look at each of these, taking the Hallstatt first.

Hallstatt culture is characterised in 4 stages. A & B were during the late Bronze Age, from about 1200 to 700 BC; C was in the Early Iron Age, from about 700-600 BC; D was from about 600 to 475 BC. The Hallstatt culture spanned central Europe, with its centre in the area around Hallstatt in Central Austria. There were two distinct cultural zones - the eastern and the western. At the start of the period, long distance trade was already well established in copper and tin - the basic requirements for manufacture of bronze. From about 700 BC, trade in iron also became established. The Hallstatt area also already controlled the trade in salt, crucial when there were few other means to preserve food. Control of these two crucial trade goods - iron and salt - provided the basis for the accumulation of wealth and influence. From 800 BC, some burials of rich people can be identified, in central Europe, with grave goods such as wheeled wagons and iron swords.

Hallstatt C saw the construction of fortified hilltop settlements to the North of the Alps. These had burial mounds holding very high quality goods, such as vehicles and expensive imported treasures. By the time of the Hallstatt D period, these increasingly extravagant burial mounds were clustered around a few major hill forts to the southwest of the region. This suggests a development and a concentration of wealth and social power, possibly based on the development of Massilia (present-day Marseilles) as a Greek trading port. The expansion of luxury trade brought greater opportunities for profit and helped to create an increasingly stratified society, with the development of a wealthy nobility. Over the period from 1846 to 1863, a thousand graves were found at Hallstatt, with an astonishing range of artefacts, including clothing and salt mining equipment as well as weapons, jewellery, pottery and imported bronze vessels in the "chieftains'" graves.

The La Tène era was the time of Celtic expansion and migration and the time of formation of the myths. The La Tène culture is named after the site in Switzerland where it was first discovered. The La Tène people were those known to the Romans as Gauls. Originally found in an area from Eastern France to Bohemia, the La Tène culture spread rapidly from about 400 BC. The La Tène Celts settled in Spain in 450 BC, in Northern Italy in 400 BC, invaded Rome in 390 BC, invaded Greece in 279 BC, invaded Galatia (in modern Turkey) in 270 BC. By 200 BC, they occupied the lands that are now Britain, the Netherlands, Brittany, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland.

There is much debate over how much of the expansion into Britain was achieved through invasion and settlement and how much was the expression of cultural transfer that accompanied trade and reflected the commonality of kinship and language of many tribes. There is little evidence for actual migration of La Tène people into Britain. Nevertheless, it does appear that the La Tène culture was more militarily-focused than the Hallstatt one. The La Tène graves across Europe hold iron weapons - swords and spearheads - and wooden shields, as well as everyday items such as razors, yokes, cauldrons and jewellery.