As an Indo-European people, the Celts used a solar symbol of well-being, which in Sanskrit was called the swastika, a symbol perverted by Nazi Germany in the 1930s. The motif is seen here in a 2nd century BC embossed silver horse harness found at the Villa Vecchia Manerbio.

Generally regarded as ‘The Father of the Gods’ in Celtic terms, Cernunnos, the horned god, is equivalent to the Irish ‘The Dagda’. This is a panel from the Gundestrup cauldron.

A Celtic inscription from Gaul, written in Greek letters, from Vaison-la-Romaine. A Celt named Segomaros states he has dedicated a shrine to Belisma, a Celtic goddess whose name means ‘the shining one’. 2nd/1st century BC.

In the Hallstatt period the Celts stylized heads. This bearded head from the 5th century BC is from a bronze ornament on a wooden jug and may well have been that of a king or warrior.

In the Le Tène period, Celtic heads began to be more realistic and this may be a portrait of a prominent leader or chieftain from the 3rd century BC found in Aix-en-Provence.

In trying to denigrate Celtic society, Caesar claimed that the Celts conducted human sacrifices and put victims into a large man-like object made of wicker and burnt them alive. This reconstruction of the idea comes from Aylett Sammes’ Britannia Antiqua Illustrata, 1676. There was no evidence of such practices.

The Druidic teaching on Celtic afterlife is depicted on the Gundestrup cauldron showing a god dipping the dead bodies in the cauldron of life and restoring them to the world of the living.

From the 17th century, and particularly into the 18th and 19th centuries, Druids were ‘reinvented’ and seized popular imagination. This illustration from Costumes of the British Isles (1821), Meyrick and Smith, shows how people fondly imagined Druids. The reality was quite different.

One of the most spectacular pieces of Celtic military art, the bronze shield found at Battersea, in the Thames, dating from the 1st century BC. Note the swastika designs in the enamelling.

Celtic war helmets were highly decorated. This one, bearing horns, was found in the Thames and is thought to have been placed there as a votive offering. It is dated to the 1st century BC.

A female figure of the early Celtic period in the Po valley, found in Caldevigo.

A bucket found at Aylesford, Kent, made of bronze and wood and dated to the 1st century BC. An essential item for farming and domestic use.

While Celtic farmhouses on the Continent were generally built in rectangular fashion, insular Celtic farm buildings were round. This is a reconstruction of a typical Celtic farm building of the 1st century BC at Castell Henllys, Newport, Dyfed.

In early Celtic society the wheel was an important cosmological symbol, often symbolizing the solar wheel. The ‘wheel of the sun’ was how the ancient Celts viewed the constellations of the stars. The Gundestrup cauldron depicts a horned helmeted figure holding a spoked wheel.

 

 

Because Celtic road builders constructed their roads with wood, Celtic roads have survived only by being preserved in bogland. The Corlea Road, a causeway across a bog in Co. Longford, is a magnificent example and has been radio carbon dated to 148 BC.

Celtic chariots were a popular motif on Celtic coins. This coin, which also shows human headed horses drawing the chariot, is attributed to the Namnetes, dated to the 1st century BC.

The Desborough Mirror, a British Celtic bronze mirror, one of several such decorated mirrors showing the curvilinear art style for which the Celts were famous.

The Snettisham Torc. Celtic nobility and elite warriors (males and females) from all parts of the Celtic world wore these gold neck pieces. This is one of the finest examples.

Celtic artists excelled in metalwork. This flagon, one of a pair from Basse-Yutz in the Moselle, dated to the 5th century, with its stylized animals and coral and red glass, depicts a pack of dogs chasing a duck which ‘swims’ into the pouring wine.

The remains of the broch of Carloway on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, which is one of the 500 brochs that have survived and are visually some of the most exciting remains of early Celtic architecture.

Graggaunowen, Co. Clare, is a reconstruction of a ‘crannog’. These are circular, timber framed thatched houses built on an island in a lake or estuary or marsh. The island was often man-made with a man-made causeway for security. They were occupied from 1000 BC and provide a fascinating glimpse of Celtic architectural ingenuity.

The ‘Father of the Gods’, Cernunnos, equivalent to the Irish ‘The Dagda’, from the Gundestrup cauldron.

This section of the Gundestrup cauldron is thought to depict Danu, the mother goddess, incorporating the solar wheel symbol and various cult animals.

One of the most fascinating cult pieces from the ancient Celtic world, a 7th century BC bronze wheeled cauldron which is supported by a goddess (Danu?) while around her appear to be hunters or warriors with two stags.

This gold model ship from the 1st century, found in Broighter, Co. Derry, is argued by some to be a votive offering to the sea god Manannán Mac Lir, or to be the ship in which Donn gathers the dead for the voyage west to the Otherworld.

The Cerne Abbas Giant, Dorset, standing 55 metres high and 51 metres wide, carved on a hillside, steps directly out of the Celtic myth. ‘The Dagda’ of Irish myth is depicted in like manner and he is equated with Cernunnos. The Cerne Abbas figure is almost a replica of a carving found at Costopitum (Corbridge, Northumberland). He is the famous Dis Pater, the Father of the Celtic Gods.

The Uffington White Horse, one of the most spectacular hill carvings, 365 feet from nose to tail, dated from the 1st century BC, is thought to be a product of Belgae craftsmanship. The exact same stylization appears on many Celtic coins, including a gold coin of the Aulerci (1st century BC).

One of the spectacular plates from the Gundestrup cauldron which is replete in Celtic mythological and religious symbolism.

One of the most intriguing finds in recent years was the preserved body of a young man found in a peat bog near Winslow, Cheshire, England. The man had been hit on the back of the head, strangled and had his throat cut. His manicured fingernails pointed to him being of a high social caste. Known as Lindow Man, some have argued he was the victim of a ritual threefold death sacrifice.