CELTS AND ROMANS
The Stone Age is made up of three different periods: Palaeolithic, Mesolithic
and Neolithic. In this period, the first monuments appeared. Many of them,
called megalithic monuments, were tombs. They were like earthen barrows or
cairns.
The type of monument depends on the colocation of the stones, if the stones are in circle, the
monument is a henge. If they are in line, then the monument is a cursus. Some of these
monuments were built in order to astronomical events.
West Kennet long barrow.
Mound of earth. 3m high. It has ditches and 5 different chambers. In the inside were found
pottery, instruments, beads, etc.
New grange.
Is a prehistorical monument located in County Meath, Ireland. It was made with 97 kerbstones,
some of them decorated. It has a corridor of 90m that leads to a cruciform chamber with a
window that lights up the hallway on the winter solstice on 8:54am.
In the Iron Age, Iron replaces bronze. This age is quite important because the Celts appeared.
They weren’t an unified nation. They had a different culture among the many towns that formed
the Celt culture.
They had an oral literature, so none of them knew how to write or read.
There were different ways the Celt culture culture was spread: through invasions, migration and
influence.
The Hallstatt was the first period of expansion of the Celts, where we can find longswords. The
second period was LaTéne, when we have to emphasise on the circles that decorated the most
part of the art in this period.
There are a lot of stories about the origin of Celts, but is mainly thought that they were from
middle Europe and they moved in Britain because of migratory movements.
Two Celt languages were spoken:
qCelt (First) pCelt
BritishGoidelic
Scotish
Irish
Manx
Cornish
