The term "Indo-European" is primarily a linguistic category, and only in its broadest sense can it be used for the names of peoples who speak Indo-European languages as their own. All languages belonging to the Indo-European family come from a common primo-European, which was used in Europe more than 5000 years ago. Since then, this language community has spread to a vast territory from Spain to the island of Ceylon, and thanks to modern civilization - to all continents.
Celtic languages are a group of related languages of the Indo-European language family. Once upon a time in Celtic languages spoken throughout Western and Central Europe, but now they are preserved only in the far west: in Ireland, Wales, Brittany, Scotland.
Without a doubt, language is one of the most valuable acquisitions in the process of evolution, and representatives of the Indo-European language community occupy a key place in the history of mankind. Consequently, the question is what unites the Indo-Europeans, apart from the linguistic inheritance. The ancient idea that language is necessarily associated with the race has already been discredited. Language can freely move from one racial group to another. Consequently, over time, the correlation between the "native language" of the people and their racial origin need not necessarily remain.
This statement can be easily proved by the example of the English-speaking community (the world), where English was learned by millions of African-Americans and Afro-Caribs. When it comes to Eurasia, it can not be understood at all whether the dark-skinned Indo-element passed its tongue to a pale-faced "European" neighbor, or vice versa, or maybe they both borrowed it from someone else. In Afghanistan there is a popular belief that all Indo-Europeans are from this country. In addition, the range of settlement of the so-called "European" or "Aryan" race, even if it exists, does not coincide with the distribution area of the Indo-European languages. For example, most of the Turkic peoples, according to formal signs, seem to belong to the European race, but judging by their language, they are clearly not European.
The idea of racial purity is not very applicable to European peoples since ancient times. The population of the Roman Empire had a large admixture of North African Negroids and West Asian Semites. The barbarian tribes constantly supplemented its demographic fund - through captive women and prisoners. Although any visit to Ireland or Scandinavia will easily demonstrate that racial types are not a figment of imagination, language, culture, religion and politics are more powerful determinants of ethnic identity than race. Unconditionally, only one thing: each tribal or social group, living a single community for a long time, maintains a common language. To maintain a sense of identity, it often builds formal and informal barriers that prevent mixed marriages. In some cases, when membership in a community is determined by a relationship based on religious taboos, mixed marriages are punished by expulsion. Thus, language and affinity are closely intertwined.
Archaeological culture is a collection of material monuments that belong to the same territory and epoch, and have common features.
Celts, as the vanguard of the Indo-Europeans, moved westward in the Roman era. They founded several developed archaeological cultures. Celtic tribes are closely associated with the proliferation of metal products, and the availability of their iron weapons easily explains their rapid expansion. Celts broke into Rome in 390 BC, and in Greece - 270 BC, terrorizing their victims with a mighty physique, red hair, ferocious temperament and an eerie custom to hunt for scalps. At the end of the 2nd century BC, over twenty years in the form of Cimbri, who went on trips from Jutland in the company of the Teutons, the Celts raised a terrible commotion in Gaul and in Spain until the Consul of Guy Marius tied them up. Defeating the Teutons at Campi putridi, in the territory of modern Provence, Marius then defeated the Cimbriens near Verona (101 BC). But several local failures could not hold the invasion. Celtic tribes of bohemians, founded B
Division of Gaul into the provinces
Celts crossed the Pyrenees, forming, in particular, Galicia, and occupied the Rhineland. As early as the 8th century BC, the Celts reached the British Isles and successfully colonized them, settled all over the territory. Consequently, when at the end of the Republican era, the Roman legions conquered much of Western Europe, it was the Celts who were most active in resisting their advancement. During the imperial era of Rome, the Celts comprised the main demographic fund of the Celtiberians (Iberian Celts) in Spain, Gallo-Romans in Gaul, Britons in Britain.
Britta, Eng. Britons, bret. Brezhoned, Wall. Brythoniaid - Celtic tribes, constituting the main population of Britain from the VIII century BC. e. to the V century AD. e. Before the Roman conquest lived communal-tribal system.
Many Celtic tribal names have been preserved in the toponyms of modern localities, despite the fact that they have completely lost their Celtic roots and connections: Boi (Bohemia), Belgi (Belgium), Helveti (Switzerland), Trever (Trier), Paris (Paris) , redons (Rennes), dumnons (Devon), brigants (Yorkshire). Over time, defeated in many regions by a new influx of German tribes, the Celts retained their permanent foci in the far northwest - in the Celtic belt of Britain: in Ireland, West Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. In the IV century AD. under the pressure of the Anglo-Saxons, Celtic migrants from Cornwall moved to Finistère, creating Brittany.
Settlement of Celtic tribes in Europe
Of the six Celtic languages that have survived to our time, three belong to the Q-Celtic (Gaelic) group, and three belong to the R-Celtic (Brythonic) group. One small group went to Asia Minor. "Oh, you foolish gallates!" - the written sources of the unflattering exclamation of the apostle Paul, who visited the "Eastern Gauls" in AD 52, are brought before us. Three hundred years later, St. Jerome, returning to Trier, was surprised to write that Asian gallates speak, in fact, in the same language as the Gauls in his native Rhineland.