AMONG the speakers of Indo-European languages in antiquity the Celts
have a peculiar interest, for unlike the Aryans in India, the Hittite aristocracy in Anatolia, or the Greeks in the iEgean, their barbarian culture was not mixed, at an early date, with the urban traditions of the ancient Orient or of the Eastern Mediterranean. Originating in Central Europe in the second millennium ac, the Celtic peoples preserved up to, and beyond, the spread of Roman Imperial power, languages and traditions reflecting an ancient European way of life which had been elsewhere lost or modified out of recognition.
The sources for the Celts are various : the evidence of archeology, comparative philology, the classical historians and the native vernacular tradition partially committed to writing in early medieval times. Mr. Powell moves with familiarity and assurance within these disciplines, and in his book has presented a concise and con- vincing synthesis which places in the hands of the reader a statement on the Celts which is up to date, fully documented, and illustrated with much unfamiliar material as well as the inevitable better- known objects of Celtic workmanship.
We begin with a survey of European prehistory which explains the background and circumstances antecedent to the emergence of the people who were to be known as the Celts from the fifth century BC onwards, then examine the material culture of the various phases of Celtic develop- ment, their art and trade, and the manner of their living, before turning to a fascinating description of what can be deduced of the pagan Celtic religion, and a discussion of the survival of the Celtic world on and beyond the fringes of the Roman Empire in the west and north, until the beginning of the medieval world. An admirable performance, and one that should, incidentally, dispel a lot of nonsense about this ancient people.
STUART PIGG011
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