THE NATURE OF CELTIC SOCIETY Beliefs, religion and ritual

Aim: To understand what Celtic religion was like.

Many people in our modern society are not especially religious, superstitious or even concerned with spirituality. However, historians such as Ian Armit believe that in the LPRIA things were very different. He states:

religion, ritual and superstition would have permeated all aspects of life, from building a house or ploughing a field to making a journey or exchanging gifts.

We need to investigate religion and ritual in the LPRIA. This involves looking at the patchy literacy evidence, burials, finds, hoards and settlement evidence.

In general terms, it is believed that the Iron Age inhabitants of Northern Britain were polytheistic and believed in a number of gods, or spirits, who affected their everyday lives in various different ways - from calming storms to working metals and ensuring plentiful crops.

It is likely that the Celts had VARIOUS GODS, specialist priests called DRUIDS, special places of WORSHIP, rites of SACRIFICE, special CULTS and distinct FUNERARY practices.

1. EVIDENCE FOR CELTIC GODSIn terms of evidence most of our knowledge comes from a fairly incoherent body of archaeological evidence, a few general texts on Celtic religion from Ireland, and from classical writers.

The evidence suggests that the Celts worshipped a pantheon of gods. To say there were many Celtic gods is an understatement, a recent count of inscriptions throughout the “Celtic” world attested to some 400 different Gods! Some would have been local deities linked to particular rivers, lakes and mountains whilst others were worshipped more widely and were associated with activities such as war, farming and metalworking. However, there is little direct evidence from Scotland/Northern Britain – only a few likely representations of Celtic gods have been found. These include the

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Ballachulish Figure and a three-headed stone figure from Sutherland, in north-west Scotland.

The Ballachulish Figure – this is a crudely carved female oak figurine with inset eyes of quartz. It had been placed in a wicker structure around 700-500BC. Some people believe that this was a hurdle placed across the figure when it was “drowned” as a symbolic sacrifice. Others think that it was the remains of some type of shelter. It is thought that the figure was deliberately laid down or buried in peat or a stagnant pool. The Iron Age Celts believed that their gods were nearest in places by water, or between water and land, or between cultivated and wild ground.

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THREE-HEADED GRANITE FIGURE, from SutherlandAnother deity from Scotland is a tricephalos – a three-headed carved figure, the size of a small football with a Celtic-style drooping moustache, which dates from between 200BC–100AD. The granite is not from Scotland and so it is probable that the figure was brought to Scotland, possibly from Gaul. The figure may have represented a Celtic god and is similar to examples found in Ireland, which may suggest some links with Ireland. It also serves a reminder that the Celts venerated human heads, as we will see later.

2. CELTIC DRUIDSClassical writers record that the Celts had a class of religious specialists known as druids. The fullest account of the druids and their religion is that given by Julius Caesar in his history of his wars in Gaul in 59-51 BC. Caesar is insistent that druidism originated in Britain. Interpreting druidism is difficult, for the druids did not commit anything about their beliefs and rituals to writing, and modern academics are therefore forced to rely on the accounts of the classical authors who have a tendency to concentrate upon the ghoulish and the bizarre.

The essence of druidism seems to have been a kind of pantheism (worship of many gods). The correct performance of ritual was central to the religion, and the prescribed pattern of ceremonies presumably constituted the greater part of the 20-year training undertaken by an apprentice druid! Druids seem to have had great influence within

Celtic societies. According to Caesar they met at fixed times during the year, presiding over festivals at sacred centres. They also doubled as teachers, judges and

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doctors and held esteemed places in society. They gave legitimacy to Celtic leaders by establishing a divine right to rule.

The druids appear to have practised human sacrifice. According to Tacitus, when Anglesey (the stronghold of the druids in Wales) was attacked by the Romans in AD 61, their altars “were drenched with the blood of prisoners”.

However, in terms of Scotland there is little physical evidence of druids, or of human sacrifice. Some would even question whether or not druids operated here. All we can say is that most historians believe there would have been druids in Northern Britain or the Romans would have mentioned this in their written accounts.

3. PLACES OF WORSHIPAgain, relying on classical sources it is suggested that Celtic religion was practiced in natural places such as groves, forest clearings, pools, lakes, islands and rivers. To the Roman writer it would be bizarre to choose natural places as a focal point for ritual and religion since the Romans used ostentatious, monumental buildings. The lack of formal buildings such as temples means that it has proved difficult to identify places of worship in Scotland. However, it is believed that such places had ritual significance for Celtic peoples as they were entrances into the world of the gods.

Watery places: Bogs, rivers and lakes were used as sites of ritual deposition. There are hints that animal and human offerings were placed amid swords and pottery in pools but as of yet no distinct sites have been located in Scotland. Many hillforts, such as Barry Hill in Perthshire and Finavon in Angus, enclose large wells or cisterns that may have served as ritual focal points as well as simple utilitarian sources of water. Many northern brochs, including Midhowe in Orkney and Crosskirk in Caithness, also contained elaborate wells which were reached by steps carved from the rock. Indeed, the great coastal fort at Burghead in Moray contained a substantial well which appears to have continued to act as a place of ritual and sacrifice into the historical Pictish period.

Temples and Sanctuaries: In Scotland, unlike other Celtic countries, there is little evidence of distinct formal temples. However, some older Neolithic or Bronze Age sites may have continued to be used in the LPRIA, such as Cairnpapple Hill in West Lothian.

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Caves: It seems that caves were used as ritual sites and for special burials. The Sculptor’s Cave near Covesea on the Moray Firth was first used as an ossuary for storing human bones during the later Bronze Age but appears to have continued in use until as late as the Pictish period, in the 6th or 7th century AD. Over 2000 human bones were found there, including the bones of many children, and many of the dead had been beheaded. At Seacliff Cave in East Lothian the bones of two newborn babies were found in a cave along with fragments of Iron Age pottery. These may have been ritual, sacrificial burials.

4. SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGSClassical writers talk at length about the Celtic acts of sacrifice. They talk of offering material wealth to Gods in return for favours to ensure good luck or as simple bribes. Mounds of valuable possessions were heaped in sacred places and offered to Gods.

Votive offerings: During the Bronze Age, hoards of bronze weapons and other tools were deposited as offerings to the gods at places such as Duddingston Loch, Edinburgh. It is possible that such votive offerings/ritual deposits continued into the early Iron Age, but that the iron objects have not survived as they have rusted away. Certainly a number of hoards have been found which date from the later Iron Age. North of the Forth there are a few small Iron Age hoards containing a handful of personal ornaments such as bronze armlets, but in the south hoards were often larger, containing horse fittings, jewellery and even bronze cauldrons. A particularly notable example is the hoard from Carlingwark Loch in Kirkcudbrightshire. This north-south division in the type of hoards may reflect the suggested cultural difference between southern tribes and the “Caledonian” tribes to the north of the Forth and Tay.

Human and Animal Sacrifice: It is likely that it was not just objects that were offered to Gods, several classical writers describe human sacrifice, for example Tacitus describes burnt prisoners in wicker cages being offered to the Celtic gods. Though there will be a degree of Roman propaganda in these accounts, there is a some archaeological evidence to back them up and human remains were buried below the ramparts of some hillforts in southern England, perhaps indicating that human sacrifices were made during foundation ceremonies. Although no equivalent discovery of human remains has yet been made in the foundation layers of Scottish hillforts, at Eildon Hill North near Melrose the remains of a horse were discovered under one

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rampart, and the remains of a ewe were discovered in a pit under another rampart at Broxmouth hillfort.

5. THE CULT OF THE HEADAccording to the classical sources there was a Celtic predilection for the collection of the severed heads of enemies as trophies of war. Posidonius records that the southern Gauls would cut off the heads of vanquished enemies and hang them from the necks of their horses. The severed heads would subsequently be nailed to the outside of their houses, whilst heads which were particularly valued were embalmed in cedar oil for permanent display. Historians such as Anne Ross believe that Celts venerated human heads and practised a “cult of the head” as the head was believed to be the seat of the soul.

Accordingly a human head was found among a huge collection of votive offerings, including thousands of coins, in Coventina’s Well near the Roman fort of Carrawburgh on Hadrian’s Wall. At Sculptor’s Cave on the Moray Firth there was evidence of the beheading of children and adults, and at Lochend in East Lothian archaeologists found a ritual burial in which the heads were missing. Seven skulls were missing and a further six were found placed at the entrance to the burial mound. A study of the vertebrae (neck bones) showed that the heads had been subject to a deep sword cut to the neck. Also, further north heads again appear have been used as votive offerings; for example, the top of a human skull was found at Hillhead broch in Caithness. This had been perforated with holes so that it could be hung on display.

The removal of heads may symbolise the completeness of an enemy’s defeat or the collection of battle trophies. In some cases, it may even represent evidence of religious cannibalism. Fragments of skulls from Broxmouth hillfort show signs of butchery, which are consistent with the idea of scalping or the removal of brains for consumption.

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6. BURIALS AND FUNERARY RITESThough there is evidence of ritual and religion there is hardly any burial evidence from the LPRIA. One possibility that bodies were buried at sea or in rivers, which would accord well with the Celtic veneration of watery places. It is also possible that bodies were cremated and their ashes scattered, or that excarnation was practised - where the dead are exposed until the flesh has rotted from the bodies. However, a few simple burials and small cemeteries have been found. For example, outside Broxmouth fort there were nine oval grave pits lined with stones, where the dead were placed on their sides, in a crouched position. These burials may represent a small community cemetery. This would fit in well with the idea of small fragmented Iron Age communities, when communities kept themselves to themselves and labour was spent not on burials but on communal projects such as fort building.

A final way of dealing with the dead in Iron Age society was to bury people in cists – stone-lined coffins. Such burials become far more common in the 1st and 2nd

centuries AD. These include one of the most important discoveries of the last few years: the warrior grave from Alloa. Here, the remains of an adult male were found in a stone cist. The man had been wrapped in a white woollen tunic and was buried wearing a sword and spear and well other objects including bronze toe rings. The man's possessions and the care given to his burial, suggest that he was a native warrior in the upper echelon of his social group.

The Warrior’s grave, Alloa

Another unusual burial is at Lochend in East Lothian where a large stone cist was found containing the bones of at least 20 adults and a child. It is surprising that there was only one child skeleton and this may suggest that at times in the LPRIA people were selecting only certain types of adult to bury. Also it seems as though the bodies

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had been added one by one over the years – it was like a burial vault. This multiple cist burial is rare for the LPRIA in Scotland as most are simpler single cist burials.

In eastern Scotland, north of the Forth, the dead were buried in barrow cemeteries, where there was a covering mound of earth of the burial. Both square and round barrows have been found containing stone or wooden coffins with the skeletons laid out flat.7. RITUAL IN THE HOMEIan Armit suggests that to a great degree Celtic religion would have centred on the home. Indeed, most roundhouses throughout Britain have their entrance facing the east to face the rising sun. This may have been ritualistic in purpose, perhaps because the rising sun is associated with birth and renewal while the setting sun is linked with death.

Some wheelhouses which have been excavated in the Western Isles contain ritual deposits. At Sollas on North Uist, around 150 separate pits were dug into the floor; many of these contained animal remains, and indeed three pits contained the remains of entire sheep which had been dismembered to fit. Meanwhile a similar structure at Hornish Point on South Uist contained the quartered remains of a young boy of a 12 years old in four separate pits, as well as the remains of young sheep and cattle. Whilst archaeologists believe the boy had been dismembered some time after his death, it is impossible to tell whether his death was simply coincidental or whether he was deliberately sacrificed - perhaps as an offering at the time of the building’s construction.

SUMMARYIt seems clear that there was never one unified “Celtic religion”, no timeless set of Celtic beliefs; and in many respects direct evidence for religion and ritual is lacking for LPRIA Scotland. Furthermore, religious practices would have varied over time, and between the different tribes. Nonetheless, by comparing Celtic Scotland with similar societies we can draw some broad conclusions about the importance and nature of religion and ritual in Northern Britain during the LPRIA. It is clear that there were certain common themes like the veneration of the human head, the use of sacrifices and offerings to appease the gods, and the relative lack of formal burials.

TASK

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Create a detailed spider diagram on A3 paper summarising Celtic religion in Northern Britain during the Late Pre-Roman Iron Age.

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