Week 15

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are somewhat experimental: in the course of our correspondence, John Collis kindly sent me two very recent, in fact yet unpublished articles.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 exemplary "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 ...

Week 14

This is your week to work hard on those papers!  Please feel free to use me, each other and/or the list to bounce ideas off of, to try out formulations or entire paragraphs or outlines, to get feedback of any kind, to request or recommend sources, etc.  I strongly encourage any kind of collaborative work!  Remember to use Tina Thurston's bibliography.

Read in Megaws: to end!
Read in Cunliffe:  Ch. 11-13
Read in Kruta: "The Romanization of Gaul," "The Oppida of the Second and First Centuries BC," "Celtic Society in the First Century BC" and "The Island Celts."
Read Dietler, "A Tale of Three Sites"
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!
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 J.D. Hill, "The Pre-Roman Iron Age in Britain and Ireland" (on eRes)
Read in Collis: Ch.  6, "Locating the Celts" and Ch. 8, "Archaeology of the Celts"

Week 13

Please hand in at least a draft first paragraph, outline and list of references for your research paper on 4/22.  Contact me, the writing center and/or each other if you need help.  When in doubt, narrow your focus!

Review Caesar's Gallic Wars Book 1.1 -- draw the parts on your map!
Review Caesar's Gallic Wars Book 6.11 ff. -- the ethnographies
To make up for the non-exemplary writing from last week, please read J.H.C. Williams, Beyond the Rubicon, the chapter on Characterizing the Gauls (available on-line through UT libraries).  Feel free to read more in this excellent book!
Read Fortson's chapter on the Celtic languages (on eRes) and try your hand at deciphering the Botorrita inscriptions!
Romanization: Read the short article on "Interpretatio" on eRes; read the pre-eminent scholar Woolf on "Beyond Romans and Natives" (on eRes).

Week 11

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 and eRes).
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).

Week 10

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.
Sadly, Prof. Ebbeler will not be able to be with us on April 1, but do read the Confessio of St Patrick if you get the chance ...

Week 9

Quiz 2 on Thursday; Paper 2 due April 1

No, this week's work is NOT to be hands-on ... although it is Spring Break, 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 short article on "Power Drinking in Iron Age Europe" and John Collis's response in British Archaeology, 2001. (This is a reputable journal).
Rean Martin Pitts's short article on "Pots and Pits: Drinking and Deposition in Late Iron Age South-East Britain" (on eRes)
Read my short essay on drinking -- sorry to subject you to it, but most of the sources are in German. 

Read Cunliffe Chs. 6. and 8.
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 a 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 on eRes, 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 literature).  Have fun! 

Week 7

More group discussion assignments (gender/women warriors).

Please email me/hand in rewrites of Paper 1.

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.

Review the sections in Freeman 53 ff. and Rankin Ch. 13 on women.
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.

Week 6

You have your group discussion assignments.

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, Caesar, and Cassius Dio on your Literary Sources page as well as excerpts from Athenaeus (Poseidonios) . Note: Much of this is conveniently translated in Freeman (eReserves) and Koch & Carey (optional book).
Read in Kruta: "The Celts and their Movements in the Third C BC" and make sure you have read/reviewed "The First Celtic Expansion: Prehistory to History"
Read "The Celts in France" from Green, The Celtic World (also on eRes and Reserves in PCL).

Week 5

Hmmm.  Quiz 1 made it very clear, one hopes, that it will not be possible to skate by in this course by a) not doing the readings and b) just parroting back what I say in class.  Those who tried that found themselves giving Bronze Age answers to Iron Age questions, just for starters, and guessing wildly otherwise.  Dudes and dudettes, ALL of the readings are available to you either on-line, on eReserves, or in the very few cases where you have to buy the book, at the Coop.  I don't want to have to give you the "you are adults" lecture again, but since you all started out with As, I'd really like to give them to you, and hate to see you working SO hard to lose them.  Fortunately, the readings this week are a) by your request and b) lots of fun!!
Make sure you have read "The Celts in Classical Eyes," from Green, The Celtic World (also on eRes).
In Rankin, use Ch. 6, 5 and 4 as a guide to the following --
Read the selections on "War" (Ch. 1) in Freeman (on eRes)
Read The Gallic Sack of Rome in Vol. I Book 5 of Livy, Ab Urbe Condita (From the Founding of the City), available excerpted here or in your favorite translation (or in the original, of course).
Read a somewhat different version in Plutarch's Life of Camillus 14.2.-30., at Lacus Curtius or in your favorite translation or the original.
Read a couple of rip-roarin' accounts of the Gauls at Delphi in 2 excerpts from Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 1.4 and Book 10.19 ff, here or elsewhere.
Read Polybius II.27. on the Battle of Telamon, at Lacus Curtius or elsewhere.
Read "The Soteria at Delphi," "Reconstructing Poseidonios' Celtic Ethnography," and "Myth & History II: the Sack of Rome" on eRes.  -- 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)!
In Megaws, Ch. 3 (very short) and 4.

Week 4

Light reading this week -- please catch up, read critically and be ready to discuss intelligently.
The fourth century is known as the time of  "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. This week you will need to be able to discuss: in Rankin Chs 4, 6 and 5 (it makes more sense in that order, I find.)  Many of those tiny, tantalizing snippets from the ancient sources can be found in their original contexts (in translation) under "Ancient Sources" -- Classicists will want to consult Perseus or the Classics Library collection for the originals.
In Cunliffe Chapters 4 and [review] 5 .
In Megaws, Ch 2.
In Kruta, "Mercenary Activity," "The Celts in Italy" and [review] "Weaponry."

Week 3

Warfare and women!

In Rankin read Ch 13 (this is also available on-line via UT Libraries).
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.

Week 2

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 Cunliffe, read 27 from "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.  Hint: the less figural the representation, the easier the assignment.
In Megaws, read through p. 49 -- thoroughly ....
As our intro to gender issues, let's have a look at the ancient sources on "Celtic" women:  In Freeman, read the short selections on Women (copy on eReserves).
I am also giving you now T. Thurston's "Unity and Diversity in the European Iron Age: Out of the Mists, Some Clarity" on eRes. I do NOT expect you to read it from front to back, as this may result in major brain trauma, but rather to treat it as the bibliographic review it is.  Please do not take it as a model for your own writing --  whenever you state that "many authors" claim something, I expect you to, in fact, cite many authors.  Give sources for your images and tables, and don't use jargon for jargon's sake. This review, despite its flaws, will be a useful resource throughout the semester.  At this point, you might find 370 f. and 392 ff. interesting.

Week 1

On eReserves "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" (also 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 -- mainly France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey -- are located.

If you have not had any exposure to archaeology, read an introduction such as Paul Bahn's Very Short Introduction to Archaeology.