3. When did the Celts arrive in Britain? What Celtic tribes do you know? Where did they settle?

The Celtic Invasion is dated by 700- 300 BC. They came from Central Europe or further east, from southern Russia. The Celtic tribes drove many of older inhabitants westwards into Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Celts began to control all the lowland areas of Britain. They settled mainly in the north of the island.

More than 1 Celtic tribe invaded Britain.

Celtic tribes called the Picts have penetrated in the north. Some Picts settled in Ireland. Later the Scotts settled in the north beside beside the Picts. The Britons held the most of the Ireland.

Caledones (Caledonii) This is the name of peoples who lived in the Scottish Highlands and Islands.

Iceni This was another tribe that issued coins before the Roman Conquest. Their coins and other archaeological evidence shows that the tribe's territory was in the modern counties of Norfolk and parts of Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. They appear to have been a wealthy and powerful group of tribes between 200 and 50 BC.

4. What were the Celts like? How did they organize their family life? What gods did they worship? Who were the Druids? What functions were performed by them?

The Celts were tall, blue-eyed, red-bearded. Men wore long mustache but no beards. They painted themselves with blue paint called woad. Both sexes were strict with their clothing. Knee-long tunikas of linen were used by both sexes, as were the colourful woollen cloaks, worn over the shoulders. Celtic leather goods were also very popular, especially the Gallic boots. Richly decorated textile fragments and metal works shows an advanced level of craftmanship. The Celts were of high stature and fair-haired, with loud voices and intense piercing eyes. The women are just as big and strong as the men, and just as quick-tempered

Ancient Celtic society gave much more freedom and power to women than the Greeks and Romans did. Celtic women could sometimes become powerful tribe leaders, and were also known to go to war. The basic unit of Celtic life was the clan, a sort of extended family. The term "family" is a bit misleading, for by all accounts the Celts practiced a peculiar form of child rearing; they didn't rear them, they farmed them out. Children were actually raised by foster parents. The foster father was often the brother of the birth-mother.

The Celts worshiped Gods of nature (The Sun, the Moon, The Sky, the Earth and the Sea) and of skills. They were pagan and believed in many Gods and spirits. The Celts practised ritual human sacrifice to the gods, typically near water (lake, river, spring) and/or in forest groves. Victims were most often war prisoners or criminals. The Celts didn't believe in heaven or hell, but believed in automatic reincarnation on Earth, regardless of one's deeds in life. Celtic warriors decapitated the defeated after a battle, took the heads back home as trophies, and exposed the headless bodies hanging on wooden frames. Sometimes, they replaced humans by huge amphoras of wine, and simulated the decapitation by cutting off the top of the amphora with a sword. The spilling wine would represent the blood.Oaks were of primordial importance in Celtic religion. Druids ritually cut mistletoe off oak trees. The word "Druid" is related to the Celtic term for oak, and the gathering place for Galatian druids was called Drunemeton, literally "oak sanctuary".

The word ‘Druid’ is connected with the Celtic term for oak, and trees and sacred groves undoubtedly loomed large in Celtic religious life. Druids were guardians of the tribe’s traditions and administered tribal law. As privileged members of a learned class, the Druids were exempt from military service and taxation. They were involved in politics and diplomacy and even though the chieftain or king ruled the tribe, the Druids had the final say in these matters. In some accounts there are different tasks associated with each Druid. One might be the Sacrificer, one might be a healer and one might be

musically skilled (Bard). The Druids passed on their teachings to novices for initiation into the Druidical order. Novices were expected to memorize a great number of verses, laws, histories, magic formulae and other traditions. It could take as long as twenty years for a Druid to complete his or her studies.

Druids usually wore white hooded robes and carried an oak staff. Some accounts say they shaved their forehead from ear to ear. There was an air of mystery surrounding the Druids and they were well respected and possibly even feared by other members of the tribe.

The Celts lived tribes and were ruled by chiefs who were military leaders. The Celts were a group of peoples loosely tied by similar language, religion, and cultural expression. They were not centrally governed, and quite as happy to fight each other as any non-Celt. They were warriors, living for the glories of battle and plunder. They were also the people who brought iron working to the British Isles. The Celts were warring tribes who certainly wouldn’t have seen themselves as one people at the time. They used copper, tin, iron, kept kettle, cultivated crops and made clothes.