5/6
Today's main readings are somewhat experimental: in the course of our correspondence, John Collis kindly sent me two very recent, in fact yet unpublished articles.  One deals with the development and popularity of the concept of the "Celts" during the 18th c. CE; the other tackles current trends in Celtoskepticism head-on.  I've posted these to eReserves, along with a few associated texts:
A short but impassioned selection from Simon James's The Atlantic Celts; Anthony Smith's very brief but excellent "Authenticity, antiquity and archaeology"
Ray Karl's short review chapter on "Celtoscepticism"
Read in Cunliffe:  Ch. 14
Read in Collis: Ch. 9-11 (very short)
Those who have acquired Morse will find yourselves in your element now and having a high old time, as Morse spares no painful detail!!
Be prepared to slug it out over Collis's title: "To be, or not to be, a Celt.  Does it really matter?"
Hint: to keep everyone's arguments straight, it would be a VERY good idea to write a brief precis, outline or summary of each article or chapter! This can get VERY confusing ...

4/29
Today's guest lecturers will take us into the Roman period, and into the early Christian era, not in that order -- expect culture shock!  Please be sure to do the readings!!
Primary texts: St Patrick's "Confession" -- available on eReserves, on-line  in translation (and for those who'd like to have a go at the Latin ;-).)
The short ethnographic section of Caesar starting at Book 6.11 -- available on eReserves, on our Ancient Sources page or at Wikisource
Read in Cunliffe:  Ch. 12-13; Read in Kruta: "The Romanization of Gaul," "The Island Celts."
Read the short articles on eRes: Woolf on "Beyond Romans and Natives" and Webster on "'Interpretatio': Roman Word Power and the Celtic Gods"

4/22
Small Map Quiz today - locate on map and say why we study the following:

We will be looking at some of the ancient "Celtic" languages and language groups -- primarily the Continental ones.  We will not get hung up on modern linguistic controversies ... too much ...
If you have purchased Morse, How the Celts Came to Britain: Ancient Skulls and the Birth of Archaeology, this is a good time to curl up and give him a good read -- he is absolutely fascinating and it's a rip-roaring story!

Read in Koch & Carey, Chapter 1 (just 4 pages, very speculative! - on reserves)
This week's red-light duelling critical readings (on eReserves): "The Longue Durée of Genetic Ancestry: Multiple Genetic Marker Systems and Celtic Origins on the Atlantic Facade of Europe" of 2004, one of hundreds of similar articles appearing within the past decade -- you do not need to get a degree in genetics, just get the gist of the argument and the nature of the evidence. Compare Sims-Williams, "Genetics, linguistics, and prehistory: thinking big and thinking straight."
Read in Cunliffe: Ch. 11.
Read in Kruta: "The Language and Writing of the Early Celts," "The Oppida of the Second and First Centuries BC," "Celtic Society in the First Century BC"
Read in The Celtic World: "The Early Celts" and "The First Towns," on eRes.

4/15
Keep those rewrites and works in progress coming! Use c.m.witt@gmail.com if I don't respond to your mail.
Today we will take a wild journey around the peripheral "Celtic" areas.
We will have a guest speaker - Dr. Mariah Wade - who excavates in western Iberia!

Go to eKeltoi: Volume 6 and read in whatever form you prefer: "The Celts in Iberia: An Overview" by Alberto J. Lorrio and Gonzalo Ruiz Zapatero
On eReserves: Sanchez-Moreno on Iberian Hospitality; Rose on Text & Image in Celtiberia.
Read in Kruta: "The Celts in Italy," "The Transpadane Celts," "The Carpathian Basin," "The Celts of the Iberian Peninsula," "Armorica" -- most of these are short & sweet.  You do NOT have to memorize any unpronounceable  or unspellable names, unless they are mentioned multiple times.
Read in Cunliffe:  Ch. 7, 8, 9
Read in Collis: Ch.  6, "Locating the Celts" and Ch. 8, "Archaeology of the Celts"

Movies: written assignment for each film (group or individual):

1) Your readings for today have led you to expect certain manifestations of belief regarding the family and ancestors.  How does/does not the film deal with this issue?

2) Your readings for today have led you to expect certain manifestations of belief regarding the military and the war dead.  How does/does not the film deal with this issue?

3)  Discuss how the film elects to portray the relations between the "Celts" and the Romans.  Which does the filmmaker consider the "higher" culture? What specific stylistic and thematic choices were made to convey this preference?

4) Discuss the choices the filmmaker made in portraying the female characters. Did these choices accord with what you have read so far in this course, or did they depart from your readings, or both?  What is the effect of those choices?

4/8
Keep those rewrites coming!  And please be working on Paper 3! Brainstorm together, use the writing center, whatever it takes ...Email me at c.m.witt@gmail.com if I don't respond to your @mail.

Since we keep mentioning "ritual" and "sacred," let's find out what we're really talking about ...
Read in Kruta: "Celtic Religion" and "Celtic Religion and Mythology" (on PCL Reserves)
Read in Cunliffe: Ch. 10.
Read in The Celtic World: "The Gods and the Supernatural,"  "Ritual and the Druids," "Burial and the Otherworld" and "Sanctuaries and Sacred Places" (on PCL Reserves).
Read in Freeman, chapter on Religion (on eReserves).
Read in Rankin Ch. 14 with a large grain of salt, and be ready to formulate your thoughts about "Druids"
Study the oppidum, esp. the sanctuaries and sculptures, at Entremont: http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/entremont/en/index2.html (in English!!)

On those fascinating "Belgic" bone sanctuaries -- [example of a topic requiring mastery of French!]
Read from Archaeology 2001 vol 54/2: Jean-Louis Brunaux on Gallic Blood (oooh ...) re: the sanctuaries at Gournay-sur-Aronde and Ribemont-sur-Ancre. There are additional articles with illustrations on eRes; the articles are in French, but the illustrations are very helpful anyway. The web sites are: Gournay-sur-Aronde and Ribemont-sur-Ancre (see 2002 and 2003 (pdf) excavation reports).

4/1
Read in The Celtic World:  "Seafaring," "Coinage," and "Trade and Exchange" (on eReserves)
Read selections from Celtic Chiefdom, Celtic State, B. Arnold and D.B. Gibson, eds, 1995 (on eReserves)
Read in Kruta:  "Coinage," "Celtic Writing" (on PCL Reserves)
Read in Megaws: Chapter 5.
Please hand in rewrites of Paper 1 and start thinking about topics for your Final Research Paper,  see assignment.

3/24
Creative Papers due.  Also, I'm expecting rewrites of Paper 1 -- let's not get backlogged.
Catch up on ALL readings!  Be prepared to discuss intelligently, and synthsize material.
We will concentrate on issues raised by Wells in Beyond Celts, Germans and Scythians.

BTW, Peter Wells will be in San Antonio speaking on the Arminius Battle on April 1; see the Google calendar (feel free to subscribe & attend any event:

3/10
No, not all of this week's work will be hands-on ... it is not yet Spring Break, so let's be scholarly about "Celtic" drinking!
Read Shefton: "Massalia and Colonization" on eReserves. Brian Shefton's thinking on the "colonization"/Hellenization of Europe has evolved since this article; it remains one of the best summations of the known material.
Read Bettina Arnold's excellent short article on "'Honorary Males' or Women of Substance? Gender, Status and Power in Iron-Age Europe" (on eReserves in Cultural).
Read Bettina Arnold's short article on "Power Drinking in Iron Age Europe" and John Collis's response in British Archaeology, 2001. (This is a reputable journal).
Read my short essay on drinking -- sorry to subject you to it, but most of the sources are in German.
As a special treat, read "MacDatho's Pig" at Vassar (early Irish, Ulster Cycle -- it takes place in Leinster but features the rival groups of Ulster/Ulaid and Connaught) -- includes the original emended text, if you want to give it a whirl (also in Koch & Carey). You will encounter old friends like Leary (Leogaire), Conall Cernach, Conchobar, and others at  "Bricriu's Feast" (in Koch and Carey; also on eRes in very old translation). Think about the social and political aspects and roles of the feast, as well as any insight these literary works might give into the meaning of feasting during the Iron Age.  (Completely voluntary: also in Cultural, a recent article by Doris Edel on "'Bodily matters' in early Irish narrative literature," for those of a scatological bent, or those a bit worried about all the sex &, er, stuff in this lit).  Have fun! 

3/4
Please get a good running start on Paper 2.  This is your "Creative" paper; your chance to take on a persona entirely different from your own -- or exactly similar to yourself ...  As restrictive as the instructions for Paper 1 are, those for Paper 2 give your imagination free rein -- except that you can't make up the facts about Iron Age Europe.  So go to town, but keep it real, and of course watch your writing.
Readings: Megaws Ch. 4, review Kruta "The Celts and their Movements in the Third Century B.C.,"  "Weaponry," and "Mercenary Activity." (on PCL Reserves). Review Wells.
This is your week to catch up on what you have not been able to finish in the previous weeks, or review what you only skimmed, paying particular attention to the ways in which the ancient sources are used by your secondary authors to explicate (or not) the archaeological evidence. Be prepared to discuss the following issues intelligently in class:  The Celtic Sack of Rome; the attack on Delphi;  "Celtic" military developments and activities in the 4th - 3rd centuries BCE; movements of "Cetic" peoples during this period and their possible motivations; Greek and Latin ethnographies and historiographies of the Celts/Gauls; the effects of the actions of the northern barbarians on the Mediterranean peoples.

2/25
Quiz 1
Ah, those Classical sources.  We are now in the era of ever-increasing interaction between Iron Age Europeans and Mediterranean peoples who write stuff down ...
Please read the short excerpts from Polybius, Diodorus, Caesar, Strabo, Livy, and Cassius Dio on your Literary Sources page as well as excerpts of Athenaeus (Poseidonios) . Note: Much of this is conveniently translated in Freeman (eReserves) and Koch & Carey (optional book).
Read Pausanias' accounts of the Gauls at Delphi (excerpts from Books 1 and 10); read "The Soteria at Delphi" and "Myth & History II: the Sack of Rome" on eRes.
Read "Reconstructing Poseidonios' Celtic Ethnography," (on eReserves) -- these last three are examples of very different approaches to the material, while at the same time exhibiting some of the very best in historiography.  These are writers to learn from and emulate (esp. Williams)!
Read in Megaws Chapters 2 and 3.
Read "The Celts in France" from Green, The Celtic World (also on eRes and 2-day Reserves in PCL).
Read P. Wells, Beyond Celts, Germans and Scythians (it's short) and really think about how we use the sources we have been given and issues of identity in the kinds of societies we are looking at. (also on PCL Reserves)

2/18
Description due
Happy Val's! bonus points: what's the ancient origin of Valentine's Day?
In discussing funerary finds, we have concentrated mainly on human remains and a limited class of objects; today we will look at a broader spectrum of craft production. In addition, we will discuss various aspects of interpretation of works of "Celtic" art.
The fourth century is known as the time of the "migrations," and thus a period of militarization. We will delve into the classical sources, most of which are devoted to warfare. Note as you are reading that we have only the words of the enemies of the Celts. We will also engage with the archaeological finds pertaining to arms, armor and warfare.
Chapters 4 and 5 in Cunliffe.
Read in Rankin chs 4, 6 and 5 (it makes more sense in that order, I find.)
In Kruta, "The Celts and their Gold," "Agriculture,""Handicrafts," "Mercenary Activity."
Read in The Celtic World: "Appearance, Life and Leisure,""Power, Politics and Status," "Rural Life and Farming,"  and "Resources and Industry."
Read critically Otto-Herman Frey, "A New Approach" (on eReserves)

2/11
In Rankin read Ch 13 (this is also available on-line via UT Library).
Read the handy summary "The Celts in Classical Eyes," from Green, The Celtic World (also on eRes).
Read Arnold's short article on "'Honorary Males' or Women of Substance? Gender, Status and Power in Iron-Age Europe" (on eRes).
Read Knüsel's short  article from a very different point of view: " "More Circe than Cassandra" (on eRes).
In Kruta, "The Princely Tombs of Burgundy," "The Celtic Princes of Hohenasperg," "The Princely Tombs of the Celts in the Middle Rhineland," "The Vix Settlement and the Tomb of the Princess," "Kleinaspergle near Asperg," "The Waldalgesheim Tomb," "The First Historical Expansion: Fourth Century BCE."
Some more recent archaeology: the very brief report "New archaeological discoveries through magnetic gradiometry: The early Celtic settlement on Mont Lassois, France" (on eRes).
In Kruta, "Weaponry."
In Cunliffe, Ch. 5.
Read "The Army, Weapons and Fighting" and "Fortifications and defenses," both from Green, on eRes.

2/4
This week we are talking in depth (sorry) about burials. We always talk about burials, you say. This is true, but let us be sure that we define our terms and think about the interpretation of ancient burial in a differentiated manner. To that end, let us read the brilliant Mike Parker Pearson on The Archaeology of Death and Burial (on eReserves in the Archaeology folder) -- 2 very short chapters. MPP writes exceedingly clearly and well, an excellent model.  As a special treat, if you like, you might want to read a commented translation of Ibn Fadlan's description of the Rus ship burial rite (short excerpt).
In Freeman, read the short selections on Women (copy on eReserves).
In Cunliffe, read 27 "Archaeology"-67.
In Kruta, 80-102 (also on eRes as "Celtic Princes") Note that this volume is not translated well and is full of typos. Very old-school. But it has nice pictures ... Practice seeing! Please be thinking about an object that you would like to describe for your first written assignment.
In Megaws, read through p. 49 -- thoroughly ....

Hint: If you have a terrible visual memory, you might want to start making database records or index cards for specific objects seen in class. Include all information gleaned from your reading. If you start now, you won't be overwhelmed.

1/21-28 
On eReserves for this class: "Gods and Heroes of the European Bronze Age" (short selections); "Our Ancestors the Gauls,"  "The Contested Past."
in Kruta (the blue Celts book), pp. 39-49: Poppi on "The Archaeological Sources" (on eRes in the Archaeology folder).
In Megaw and Megaw Celtic Art : Introduction.

If your grasp of modern European geography is not what it should be, make use of the maps provided on eReserves in the "Introductory" folder -- or any recent atlas -- and make sure you know where the major rivers, seas, mountain ranges, and modern countries are located.