Mr Hamhead
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National Geographic and Celts
Mar 10, 2006, 09:17
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Someone told me that the NG were running a feature on the Celts this month so I had a look on the web and hey! what do you know...there all a lot of merry making pride filled Europeans who have a habit of taking thier clothes off and dancing around Edinburgh...
http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0603/sights_n_sounds/index.html
...there is more to read in the article if you know someone who you can borrow it off...or you could read it at the dentists in a couple of months time...
One thing that did catch my eye was the modern standing stones in Galicia. They appear as wallpaper and do not have much information..time to google i think...
http://seabed.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wallpaper2.tmpl?issue_id=20060301&week=3&priority=1
Mr H
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PeterH
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Re: National Geographic and Celts
Mar 10, 2006, 10:06
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National Geographic does have superb photographs, but this article is so twee and yucch!
Its all there to swell the chests and bring a manly tear to the eyes of all those exciled Irish/Welsh/Scottish Americans. Bagpipes, Scotts Porage oats and Braveheart in a fact-free "Masters of Europe" jamboree bag.
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fitzcoraldo
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Re: National Geographic and Celts
Mar 10, 2006, 10:50
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http://www.turgalicia.es/sit/ficha_datos.asp?ctre=1266&crec=31637&cidi=I
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Mr Hamhead
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Re: National Geographic and Celts
Mar 10, 2006, 13:24
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Thanks for that...I tried but could not find anything.
The stones were more impressive in the Nat Geog photo...
..must get to Galicia some time
Mr H
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Wild Wooder
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Re: National Geographic and Celts
Mar 10, 2006, 15:03
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Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought that the current trend in archaeology/anthropology/pre-historic studies/linguistics etc is to cast doubt on the existence of The Celts as an identifiable race. Rather to look upon pre-Roman Europe as being populated by many different tribes with migration, settlement and active trade as the way that implements and art were cross-pollinated. I did an evening class course about three years ago in archaeology and as far as my memory serves me our tutor only used the word Celts once.
Opinions anyone?
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PeterH
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Re: National Geographic and Celts
Mar 10, 2006, 16:18
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Quite correct.. we hammered this one to death a while back.
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Mr Hamhead
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Re: National Geographic and Celts
Mar 10, 2006, 18:23
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I agree...I believe there are more people claiming to be celts in Cornwall now than there ever has been....but you got to admit its a huge money spinner.
Mr H
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gorseddphungus
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Gallaecia
Mar 10, 2006, 19:18
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I know those standing stones at Coruna, in northern Galicia; it is some sort of modern sculptural place at the Costa da Morte (Death Coast). The ancient real standing stones in Galicia are more modest, and the stone circles have all but disappeared, although a few fringe researchers claim the ancient 'corrals' for cattle to have started as neolithic ritual places.
Galicia struggled for hundreds of years to have their Celtic roots recognised within Iberia (still part and parcel of Galician nationalism) and yet, like everywhere else including the British Isles, Celtic is a word now avoided in archaeological studies at all costs these days. However, it is still pretty common to find it in tourist brochures.
The fact that the thousands of hillforts in NW Iberia had round houses unlike the rest of mainland Europe does not prove anything so far. A better word than Celtic has not been found. The extremely damp acid soil of Galicia has destroyed all corpses. Indoeuropean terms like Brig- etc probably all come from the earliest Bronze Age migrations far before the Celts arrive, some sort of proto-Celtic ancestors must have settled all over the place then lost touch with Europe, I guess the same was true in the British Isles and other parts which quickly became isolated thereby retaining their own genetic stock.
XXX
GP
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Hob
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Re: Gallaecia
Mar 11, 2006, 00:18
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And they have the lovely cup and rings carvings too.
Or so I hear.
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gorseddphungus
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Comparative archaeology
Mar 11, 2006, 09:40
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Absolutely, exactly the same ones as in Northumbria and found nowhere else in Iberia where rock art is completely different (or most other parts of mainland Europe). Only difference is that there are extra motives in some of the Galaican designs, like zoomorphic stuff (in the earlier) and humans/weapons (in the later).
Richard Bradley's comparative book called (I seem to remember) Rock Art is an excellent study and sums up well previous Galician studies on rock art.
I have also seen rock art literally underneath round houses or walls built by the-people-they-call-celts on one of the main hillforts.
XXX
GP
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