even today (Pennick, 1997).The Celts were indeed a remarkable people, whose culture and influence upon the world has left anindisputable mark. With their exceptional wisdom in the inner workings of the world, and their outwardexpressions of their beautiful beliefs and spiritual system in the form of art, literature, myth, folklore, innovations,and unique social systems, their legacy was one of extreme adaptation and endurance, even amidst the most tryingconditions. Until the time of the Roman and Christian invasions in Europe, the Celts remained united as a peopleand culture. Today the traditions and pride of the Celts still live on in countries of the British Isles, and theenticing and mystical nature of the Celtic culture has drawn attention from all over the globe in recognition ofthese amazing people.An Analysis of Problems Encountered With Examining the Celtic CultureDue to the extreme complexity of the history and finer details of the ancient Celtic culture, studying it inits entirety is by no means a simple task. Much of what we know of the Celtic people is fragmentary, comingmostly from the written accounts of the Roman generals and officials who encountered and attempted tounderstand these mysterious people. Thus, our depiction of the Celts is fairly biased, riddled with greatmisconceptions that we are only now beginning to re-evaluate. For example, Roman widely regarded the Celts assavage barbarians with little sense of organized society and social structure. The social traditions of the Celts, asexplained earlier, are of obvious complexity, and is rich in structure. But because the Celts did not have a writtenlanguage to record their traditions, first hand accounts from the Romans seem to contain most of the cluesarcheologists seek when studying the Celts, and therefore must rely on them with whatever other littlearcheological evidence there remains to piece together the history of these peoples (Blundell, 1999). An...
