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Hello around 400 BC a great sway the Western Europe from Ireland to southern Russia was people by one civilization

Perched on an northwestern fringe of this vast Iron Age culture with a British who shared many of the religious artistic and

Social customs of their European neighbors. These customs were Celtic and those who made up this civilization were the Celts

The Greek historians who studied and recorded the Celts' way of life

Considered them to be one of the four great barbarian peoples of the world

The Romans wrote vivid accounts of Celtic rituals including the practice of human sacrifice provided

Presided over by Druids and the tradition of decapitating their enemies and turning their heads into drinking vessels

But it seems that their apparent lust for violence was accompanied by a love of poetry and beautiful art

How far should we just trust written sources of the classical historians in their writings on the Celts and what can we learn from the

Archaeological remains that have been discovered in this country with me to discuss the Celts in Britain

Our Barry Connelly professor of European Archaeology at Oxford University and author of among others facing the ocean

Alistair Mothat writer and historian and author of the Sea Kingdoms the story of Celtic Britain and Ireland and Miranda Alters Green

Professor of Archaeology at the University of Wales Newport and author of of dying for the gods

Barry Connelly, let's start at the beginning. What do we mean by the term Celts and where did that term itself that name come from?

Well, I think what we've got to do is to realize that the term Celt means something different every time it's used really

And if we start from the beginning the first time we see the word Celt used it's being used by the Greeks

To describe barbarians in northwest Europe what Edward Edward would do about the fifth fourth century is BC

They're saying that those people up there are barbarians. They're different from the ones in Africa. They're different from the ones

In the course. Let's call them Celts. So it's a general term for Northern barbarians

So just like just Celt mean anything. Does the Greek word Celtoid does it mean anything? It can

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