The Celts: 500 BC

Artifacts

Society

Ri

Derbhfine

Nobles

Warriors Aos Dana

Farmers/

Slaves

Tuath/Kingdom

Tanaiste

Warriors

• Fight for the clan

• Go into battle without armour (which they consider cowardly)

• They also lead the cattle raids

Aos Dana: Skilled People

• Craftsmen / smiths / stone masons and carpenters

• Bards / recite poems and sing songs

• Fili / Poets

• Druids / Priests

• Brehons / Judges

Whose job was it to recite poems about Celtic Legends?

Craftsmen

Carpenters• Houses• Fences• Boats• Wooden Ploughs• Chariots• Wooden plates and

bowls

Smiths• Axes• Sickles• Spades• Hammers• Swords• Spears• Arrow heads• Jewellery

Commoners / Peasants

• Farming

• Farmers rented land from nobles

• Barley, wheat, but most importantly cattle

• They ate porridge, bread, pork and drank milk and ale

Arts & Crafts

Smiths

Spirals, curved lines and florals.

Gold, Silver and Bronze and polished stones

What is this famous Celtic artifact called?

• The Greeks wrote that the Celts “love decoration. They wear ornaments, torcs around their necks and bracelets on their arms and wrists”.

• Natalie found out that the Celts also used beads. Both men and women wore jewelry

• Silver and gold jewelry was very desired and if you wore it, it showed you were very important

Primary Sources

Stone Masons

Ogham Stones

Ogham Alphabet

Carpenters

• Houses

• Fences

• Boats

• Wooden Ploughs

• Chariots

• Wooden plates and bowls

Buildings

• Dun

• Promontory forts

• Ring forts or raths

• Houses

Promontory fort

Ring Fort / Rath

Julius Caesar says

• “Of the two important classes .... one consists of Druids, the other of knights[warriors]. The Druids are concerned with divine worship, the performance of sacrifices, public and private, and the Interpretation of ritual questions: a great number of young men gather about them for the sake of instruction and hold them in great honour.”

Religion

• Many deities

• Dagda is the main god

• Lug is the god of War

• Brigid and Morrigan are goddesses

• Deities live in wells, rivers and woods

• The druid is the priest: sacrifices to the gods

Celtic Festivals

• Samhain – November 1 when dead spirits visit the world of the living

• Bealtaine – May 1 the festival to mark the beginning of summer

• Imbolc – February 1 the festival of the goddess Brigid

Do you know these words in Irish?What do they mean?