Celtic Continuity: Culture

Abstract

The people whom scholars call ‘Celts’ emerge in archaeological and literary record in the first millennium bc, and are associated with a series of retrospectively defined archaeological culture-types even before their incorporation in the Roman Empire — Urnfield, Hallstatt and La Tène. This last is often seen as the culmination of Celtic cultural achievement, and modern ‘Celtic’ artists and craftsmen often imitate its styles. The curvaceous asymmetries of La Tène decorative work are justly admired, and an entire comparative morality is often poured into their interpretation, as we shall see.¹ Even within the archetypical Iron-Age Celts, however, there are styles rolling over the people whose ethnic integrity we assume.