Julian Cope presents Head Heritage | The Modern Antiquarian Forum | Were Ancient Britain & Ireland Civilised?

The Modern Antiquarian Forum » Were Ancient Britain & Ireland Civilised?	Log In to post a reply

84 messages	Topic View: Flat \| Threaded

Erich von Daniken

9 posts

Were Ancient Britain & Ireland Civilised?

Feb 04, 2004, 12:06

The following definitions are all from the Oxford English Dictionary.

"civilisation, ...Making or becoming civilised; stage, esp. advanced stage, in social development"

"civilise, ...Bring out of barbarism, enlighten, refine"

"barbarism, ...absence of culture, ignorance & rudeness"

"barbaric, ...Rude, rough..."

"barbarity, ...Savage cruelty"

"culture, ...improvement by (mental or physical) training; intellectual development"

What is civilisation? It would seem that a lack of violence is implicit in the term - you might want to kill your neighbour so that you can steel her pig but civilisation restrains you, either internally because of conscience (surely a hallmark of a civilised person?), or externally because of fear of the law. Were ancient Britain and Ireland more violent than they are today? Somehow I find this hard to believe. From where I'm standing it looks more like there's a violence in humanity that has remained a constant through all the ages to this day. The only factor that has changed levels of violence in the world, surely, is the extent to which our technology has evolved. A nuclear bomb kills considerably more people than a big stick.

Some would say that technology itself is what defines civilisation. If this is the case then it could be argued that ancient Britain and Ireland were less civilised than, say, ancient China, where two thousand years ago technology had progressed to such an extent that the Emperor's grave goods included chromium-tipped arrowheads. But this can at best be only part of the picture, as far as civilisation is concerned. What of culture, of art, of myth, of song and story? It is possible for a people to be very highly civilised in these terms without possessing a particularly advanced technology, as Australia's indigenous peoples demonstrate. All the signs are that ancient Britain and Ireland was very civilised in this respect, with not only the oldest monuments in the world (which also demonstrate, indeed, a degree of technological advancement that was not present anywhere else, at that time) but also the likelihood of VERY ancient oral traditions.

Some would say that cities and writing are the defining characteristic of civilisation. Yet when I walk through the hustle and bustle, the fussing and fighting, on the average city street, I find it hard to believe that this is civilised. And absence of writing need not mean absence of culture. The earliest written sources on prehistoric Britain all agree that the pre-Christian Druids considered writing unfit for the carrying of culture, preferring to trust to the amazing feats of memory that ensured traditions were handed down the generations (the letter killeth, as they say). But without writing how can we know these people at all, how can we judge whether or not they are civilised? From their many, many monuments (including the enigmatic petroglyphs that may be the origin of writing), which communicate at least something of the ancient mythscape without the use of letters.

When seen in a certain light, of course, civilisation is not a good thing at all. Some would say that it is civilisation that just made war on Iraq, for instance. In view of this there is a part of me that rejoices when people make the common mistake of supposing the people of ancient Britain & Ireland to be uncivilised. The poet Ted Hughes believes there to be a connection between violence and vitality, and in many ways I agree. There is something essentially ALIVE about the "barbarian" that the "civilised person" lacks.

Topic Outline:

Were Ancient Britain & Ireland Civilised? – Erich von Daniken, Feb 04, 2004, 12:06


The Modern Antiquarian Forum Index