Julian Cope presents Head Heritage | The Modern Antiquarian Forum

PeterH

1180 posts

Re: Communication problems

Mar 13, 2006, 08:21

Likewise.
As regards the term "Germanic", personally I am as unhappy with that as I am with "Celtic".

Tacitus lets the secret out:
"The name Germania, however, is said to have been only recently applied to the country. The first people to cross the Rhine and appropriate Gallic territory, though they are known nowadays as Tungri, were at that time called Germani; and what was at first the name of this one tribe, not of the entire race, gradually came into general use in the wider sense. It was first applied to the whole people by the conquerors of the Gauls, to frighten them; later, all the Germans adopted it and called themselves by the new name."

Time to deconstruct the old categories and examine evidence uncluttered by Roman and Victorian baggage. Take the bog bodies for example. The reality is that a similar practice of ritual sacrifice in peat bogs went on during the Iron Age from Ireland to Denmark and Germany. Yet are these considered as being of a single culture? No - the recent Irish ones are described as "well preserved Celts". - conveniently ignoring the fact that most of the others that have been found are in Denmark which is labelled "Germanic".

The labels make artificial watertight containers and hinder the comparison of like with like.

In reply to:
Communication problems (gorseddphungus)

Replies:
Re: Communication problems (PeterH)
kelt and kraut (gorseddphungus)

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