500 BC - 400 BC
500 BC
The
Middle Bronze Age population who had adopted
Late Bronze Age metals were only
basically effected by the Hallstatt wanderers and Iron Age A,
and they were later to move into
Alba into the Lowlands of Scotland, at the beginning of
the Christian era, as a result of
Belgic and Roman troubles farther south, and possibly also due to the
Pretani Celts in the
Highlands.
The Celts / Keltoi wrest
Spain in Gaul from Carthage
in alliance with the Greeks who were saved from obliteration as no Celts would
enlist as mercenaries with Carthage.
500 BC - 500 AD
Saw the actual Iron Age and the beginning of the Celtic La Tene Culture, which
began around the River Rhine in Germany spreading east into Hungary and
Switzerland then west into France, Spain,
Albion
/
Briton until it would finally reach
Ireland.
The Celts from this time on until 250 BC had the
most powerful mobile
armed forces north of the Alps,
and were situated throughout Europe, in
Spain
in the west, to Russia
in the east, to the Baltic Sea in the north, and
to the Adriatic Sea in the south, where they were
to settle down in Asia Minor before actually
travelling across Europe. The Greeks described them as the Keltoi
/ Celts and said that they were
tall,
fair, well built in appearance, boastful, noisy and fond of quarrelling
especially during their feasts, which was an important part of their lifestyle.
The Celtic warriors soaked their hair in water that was mixed with a
crushed
chalk to make it thicken and pale in colour, and wore it like a horse's mane,
while
some also wore beards, but the majority only had moustaches, which they allowed to grow very
long and straggly. The Celtic women were
tall and well built with
long hair and
took great pride in their appearance.
An Iron sword was now also carried in a
Bronze scabbard, a sheathed dagger, and
spears,
and there was also a finer 3 - linked bit for the horses.
Although individual challenge (one on one) was
by now generally outmoded, it was still in fashion with the
Celts and
would remain so.
450 BC
the Celts were in Gaul at Massilia
/ Marseilles a
Greek colony and Nyrax /
Noricum / Noreia in the Austrian region with the source of the Danube near
Pyrene, which was a Greek trading post on the north - east of the
Spanish coast, and the Greeks there were to record the
Celts as the Keltoi, as this is what it sounded like to them
orally. As the Celts spread throughout the Iberian
Peninsula to Massilia and the region of Noricum the term Celtici
survived as their
generic name, as they were from the south - western Spanish region up until Roman times,
and their Upper Danube Celti homeland spread to
Spain,
and then later on also into Italy
and the Balkans. (The Celts were by then the major
people living west and north of
the Western Mediterranean and beyond the Alps.) Near the end they were also
to be using
light thrusting Iron swords as well as a
dagger for close in - fighting with
casting spears, and the Celtic warriors were conveyed by a charioteer in a
two -
wheeled war chariot drawn by a pair of small horses.
The Celtic Teutonic Fir Bolg
Septs from the main part of Gaul, in
France, crossed
the Channel and began to settle in the
Brythonic Isles.
Meanwhile the culture of the
Celtic people of Ireland
was basically composed of rural groups who were in
Tuaths /
Family territories, and unlike the Teutonics they did not operate as
individuals, and
they did not live in towns, they had no parliaments and were only subject to the
Brehon Laws, which were
settled by agreement, and were passed down through the Tuaths from generation to
generation. The Brehon Laws
would be finally written down in the 6th Century AD and would also
include divorce for both the male and the female members of the Families as 12 -
month trial marriages were also involved.
The Wearing of the
Green was an ancient Celtic right where the green leaves and boughs
were burnt and spread on the soil of Ireland
to increase its fertility.
The Celts were
tall with fair hair, fair skin and they had
blue eyes and
were great talkers, storytellers,
and were
boastful and had deep sounding harsh
voices and they spoke in riddles, while
hinting at things, leaving a great deal to
be understood, they were given to frequent exaggeration and
dramatisation, but
were quick in mind. They had a natural ability for
learning and were totally
committed to their Families formed into Tuaths or True Families
/ Deirbh Fine,
which were Kin - groups in which they all held their property rights in
common.
They all had mutual responsibility to their
Fine / Family group as either a
Flaith / Lord or a Cele
/ Client / Companion and were under the supervision of
their Kings / Aur - Rig. The
Deirbh Fine / True Family bore the
responsibility for all its members, and their loyalty in total was within
4
generations of their Sept. In the Celtic
order, first came the King, then the aristocratic
Nobles, followed by the Aos Dana
/ poets / Shanachie, scholars, historians, druids,
genealogists, jurists and
musicians, and then came the tenants, craftsmen, horsemen, including the
Saor
Aicme / Free warriors who held land and cattle in their own right, and then the
Daor Aicme / unfree Warriors who were landless, the
outlaws, the strangers, and their slaves / helots. While the
Scythian Celtic
Gaelic
Picts
in the Scottish Highlands chose their Kings from
their Female line, as agreed to initially with
37.Heremon when he gave them their Gaelic
wives, the Scythian Celtic
Gaels chose theirs from the
Male line, along with the Tánaiste who was actually the
heir apparent or
leader in waiting, in case of disaster befalling
their King or Chief. The Tanaiste was chosen from within
4 generations of
the Deirbh / Fine / True Family and their Septs /
Family branches were servile
to him in carrying out his Tanistry. The Kings of each Tuath
/ Family region had to
divide
the territory of the nearby Tuaths when
marriages occurred between them, and as everything belonged to
everyone, the Irish Celtic Kings left nothing behind when they died.
Despite their warlike nature the Celts believed in
fair play, and had unwritten
laws about combat, including one that one warrior could only attack
one warrior at a
time, and they were bound by their honour at all times, and their loyalty was always
to the King or Chief of each of the Families
/ Septs. They believed in
life after death,
and that after their demise they would go to the Otherworld, which was the
Centre of their long life, not the end, and as they were not afraid to die, they
wanted to be remembered as great fighters and fearless heroes.
Neutral Zones were set aside between the Tuaths
/ Family Regions by mutual
agreement, and under the Brehon
Law there were no actual charges laid for offences, but only
compensation to be worked out to the satisfaction of both the parties
involved in the dispute. The Horsemen / Marci rode bareback, without stirrups, and with a
javelin carried overhead mostly in both hands. (Later on in the terrible
Tudor times the Irish warriors who where then on
foot became known as Kerns.)
The Druids
/ Draoi
ate acorns in preparation for their prophesies, they advised the King
/ Ri, and controlled the beliefs / religion
and education of the Tuaths, and the
Brehon Law was also in their
hands, and after Christianity was to be established
in Ireland, the Catholic
Irish monks from each
of the individual Family Septs were to continue
to carry on their traditions. The Druids and the file, Filidh
/ poets, lawyers, scholars, men of art / Aes
Dana travelled always with the King, and they would first try to settle any
disputes by talking it over and if this failed, in the first instance there
would be single combat on foot, and if this did not settle the problem it
then became a total battle between the Tuaths. After the Romans were to conquer
Gaul, including France, and
Albion
/
Briton, the Druids were hunted down for their part in creating
resistance there, and they were then put to death, but despite this, some even became
priests in the Roman Temples. Finally their ancient knowledge that had been
passed down over the Centuries, which they had to learn orally over a period of
7 - 20
years, was totally lost, as nothing was to be written down.
The Shanachies, who were known by the Celts as
Bards in
Ireland, Wales and
Gaul, would distribute all the Celtic history, traditions, and the
Brehon Laws, with their
stories (scealta) and songs, while roaming from one Tuath
/ Family
territory to
another and this was especially so during the Winter
months around the hearths.
There were 10 grades of poets /
file and their words were recited by the
Bards to the people, with the highest grade able to recite
350 stories, and the
Ollamh with 24, and the lowest
7 , and they all had their own attendants, and as
learned men were
held in great respect. Later on in the 1st
Millennium AD the
Irish
Catholic monks from each Family Sept, was to inherit the power of their words, and during
the festivals of Samhain to
Beltaine, being the
Winter period, this was their
greatest story time also, to endeavour to continue on the knowledge of their history and
genealogies throughout the general population in Ireland.
An early Gaelic
Milesian King of Tara / Erinn had up to 1200 poets and their Celtic
genealogy and history was of the utmost importance to them,
which was not only faithfully
recorded, but also repeated. The King always had an officer to keep the
genealogical
records, who was an Ollamh of the highest degree of historical learning, as he had
to be able to trace all the Celtic Clanns of Erinn
back to 12.Magog.
He also had to visit all of the Tuaths / Family regions and place the
information gained from there in the Kings Book (Saltair of
Tara,) while each of the Chiefs in the individual Septs
in Ireland retained
their own Shanachie
/ historian. The storytellers were known as the
Feinigh,
and the Aos Dana poets had 7 classes, which included the
Ollamh, Anrad, Cli,
Cana, Dos, Mac Fiurmid and the Foclog who were all part of the
Shanachie (historians.) All provincial records and those from the various
Clanns were brought in every
third year to the
Feis / Assembly at Tara where they where entered or
corrected after comparison with the
Book of Saltair (Book of Tara.)
The Oenachs
/ Fairs / Assemblies they conducted were actually held to
celebrate a military truce, while their religion was the exclusive right of the
Druids / priests who taught the people that as their souls were
immortal, and they do
not die, they passed from one body to another, which gave the Celts
great outstanding courage and no real fear of death. (The
Druids of Ireland
were set up at Uisnech and
Tara in the
Midlands / Mide / Meath
/
Northern Leinster. The Celtic
Irish
were basically a pastoral people, and they
did not settle any towns, but they still held their
National Assemblies at Telltown / Taillten
near Tara in
Co. Meath, which was
initially to be the main Royal Fortress of
Ireland.
It was situated 4 miles south - east of the present town, where these annual
gatherings were still to be held up until the death of
102.Rory O Connor in
1198 AD
who was to be
the last
Heremonian
Ui Cobhthaigh Ui Felim
Dal Cuinn
Ui
Briuin Ai
Siol Muiredaig
Ui Conchobair
175th King of
Ireland after the Anglo -
Norman / English Invasion.
44.Eochy
/ Eochaidh
/ "Ollamh Fodhla" the
Irian 27th King of Tara
/ Erinn in 1317 BC
had begun the first Feis at
Tara,
which was an Assembly of all the
Clanns
of Ireland
and it was then to be continued on by
the future Kings of Erinn every
third year, which was to preserve the
Brehon Laws and
purify Irish History, which was then to be written down finally
in the Saltair
(Psalter of Tara)
(The Book of the Righ /
King of Erinn.)
The first and oldest ancient surviving
historical book in Ireland
was the
The Book of the Dun Cow (Leabhar na hUidre)
written on 138 pages that are still available on
vellum, which is only a fragment of what is was composed of originally.
Early history was also to be written down in 206 AD in the
Cin
(The
Book of Dromsneacht) by Ernin
who was a son of Duach
/ Daui “Galach“ the
King of
Connacht, who was also an
Ollamh, a Prophet and a Professor.
The Book of
Leinster
was the second oldest existing historical book up until
1130 AD,
compiled by Finn Mac Gorman
the Bishop of Kildare in Central Southern Leinster
who was to die in 1160 AD. The Book of Invasions
(Lebor Gabhala) was then written
down until the 12th Century AD. In 1390 AD the Book of Ballymote was compiled, which followed on from
the Book of Leinster.
The Book of Lecain carried on from there and included all the
genealogies of all
the Irish Celtic Families and also includes
the genealogies of the Tuatha de
Danann on 502 pages of vellum. Among those who were to keep the
history right up until the time of
105.Brian
"Boru" the Heberian Dal gCais 170th High King of Ireland
in the early 11th
Century AD were Fercertne who was a poet,
Seancha who was a son of Ailill,
Neidne a son of Adhna, who himself was a son of Uither,
Morann who was a son of
Maon, and Athairne who was also a poet. In later times it was kept by
82.Cormac
Ua Cuinn the
grandson of 80.Conn of
the Hundred Battles the Heremonian 110th King of Tara / Ireland
(Dal Cuinn),
102.Cormac mac Cuilennain the
Heberian
Eoghanacht Chaisil 31st
King of Munster who was also a historian and the
Bishop of Cashel. Others
were Flann "Mainistreach,"
Eochy / Eochaidh O Flynn, and Gilla na Naomh O Duinn.
After this time certain of the Celtic
Gaelic Families either chose
to do so themselves, or were ordered to keep their history, such as the
O Mulcronys
who were with the
Heremonian
Ui Cobhthaigh
Ui Felim
Dal Cuinn
Ui Briuin
Ai
Siol Murray
Ui Conchobair
Sept, as chroniclers to the
Kings of Connacht around Cruachan in the Connacht
Province, and also in
Thomond / Tuaisceart Mhumhain / Northern Munster,
the Leinster
Province,
and in the O Farrell / O Ferrell Irian kingdom of
Annaly in Co.
Longford in the north - west
of
Northern Leinster. The
Mac Firbish from the
Clann Firbisigh in
Connacht,
who were from the "Northern"
Ui Fiachrach
Muaide
/ Moy
Sept, who were also Kings of
Connacht, the
Auley / Awley /
Ui Amhalghaidh and Cearra in Co. Sligo,
the "Southern"
Ui Fiachrach Aidni Sept and
Eachtga Sept, and with the
Heremonian
Ui Cobhthaigh
Ui Felim
Dal Cuinn Colla Uais Mac Donnells
of Co. Antrim
in the north - east
of the Ulster
Province.
The O Duigenans kept
it for the Ui Briuin Clann Maol Ruanaid
/
Mac Dermots
and Mac
Donaghs,
and were with the Irian Conmaicne
Maigh Rein Sept in Connacht. The
O Curnins for the
O Rourke
/ Ui Ruairc Ui Briuin
Kings of Breifne, the
O Dugans for the
O Kelly
Heremonian Ui Cobhthaigh Ui
Felim Dal Cuinn
Ui Maine Kings, the
O Clerys
and the
O Cananns
for the "Northern" Ui
Niaill
Cenel Conaill
Kings
in Co. Donegal
in the north - west of
Ulster. The
O Luinins
in
Co. Fermanagh
in the south - west of
Ulster, the O Clercins
who
were with the "Northern"
Ui Niaill
Cenel nEogain Kings
in
Co.
Tyrone in Central Ulster.
The O Duinins in the Munster
Province
for the Heberian Eoghanachta Kings, the
Smiths /
Mheic an
Ghobhans for the
Dal gCais O Kennedys
of Ormond / Aur Mhumhain
in Co. Tipperary, the
O Riordans for the
Cianachta O Carroll Kings
of Ely.
The Mac Curtins
and
Mac
Brodies in Thomond / Northern Munster, the
Mac Gilli - Kellys in
the west of
Connacht for
the Ui Briuin Seola
O Flaherty Kings.
Originally the Judges of
Banbha also were among those who were to also continue to preserve
Irish History.
443 BC
the Euerni / Erainn
/ Iouernia / Ierin, which was later changed into Latin to
Hibernia, began to arrive into
Ireland who are now known generically as the
Belgae Fir Bolg, who were a Celtic Teutonic
people originating at this time from Gaul who claimed descent from Labraidh “Lamh Dhearg“ - of
the Red Hand who was a son of Bolg / Nuadu who
they revered as their Sun deity and who they considered was the original ancestor
of all the Celts. The Fir Bolg
known also as the
Bholgi
Celts were “P“ speaking Celts, which in
Latin came out as Belgae and they spread out all
over Erinn, although they were originally to settle
mostly into the south and called their new home land,
Eueriio.
The Ogham Alphabet originally produced by
Ogma from the Tuatha De
Danann Sept was to be popular with the
Erainn in the west of Munster Province
and it also contained a Q and a
Z, which is not in modern Irish.
During this period Pytheus
a Greek wrote of the Pretanic Isles
(British Isles,)
named for the Scythian Celtic
Gaelic Priteni / Pritani,
Latin - Brittani,
while
Strabo also a Greek recorded
Ireland's name as
as Ierne.
All territories before this period in time
were that are now known as Germanic, the Greeks had assigned to the
Celts / Keltoi as the actual Germanic peoples were
still not dominant. The Celts / Keltoi who had
previously gone into Asia Minor and founded
Galatia were still
speaking a Celtic dialect until this time, but
would be assimilated into Turkey.
+On to
400 BC - 300 BC