The Ancient Celts, Second Edition

By: Barry Cunliffe

Narrated by: Julian Elfer

Fierce warriors and skilled craftsmen, the Celts were famous throughout the Ancient Mediterranean World. They were the archetypal barbarians from the north and were feared by both Greeks and Romans. For 2,500 years, they have continued to fascinate those who have come into contact with them, yet their origins have remained a mystery and even today are the subject of heated debate among historians and archaeologists.

Barry Cunliffe's classic study of the ancient Celtic world was first published in 1997. Since then, huge advances have taken place in our knowledge: new finds, new ways of using DNA records to understand Celtic origins, new ideas about the proto-urban nature of early chieftains' strongholds. All these developments are part of this fully updated and completely redesigned edition.

Cunliffe explores the archaeological reality of these bold warriors and skilled craftsmen of barbarian Europe who inspired fear in both the Greeks and the Romans. From the picture that emerges, we are crucially able to distinguish between the original Celts and those tribes which were "Celtized", giving us an invaluable insight into the true identity of this ancient people.

©2018 Barry Cunliffe (P)2019 Tantor

Have a map nearby, and enjoy!

Comprehensive and very detailed. ALMOST too detailed for an audiobook, but I think it skirts that line pretty well for the most part. I started out listening on my drive to work, but I found I needed a map and a web browser to look up images of artifacts and get a picture in my head of where the different tribes stood in relation to each other and to their neighbors. So I had to switch to stationary listening, but the experience was absolutely rewarding.

Not for the casual reader

This volume will become a significant resource for experts studying the early history and archeology of Europe and the British Isles. For the casual somewhat educated reader however it fails to give a clear sense of who the Celts were. Professor Cunliffe mentions in an almost random way every tribe (except the Dothraki 😉), enclave and leader ever to be discovered in a dig or ancient text. Unless one already knew these references those names added little to an overall understanding of the history of the ancient Celts. With so many different populations mentioned it becomes unclear what made the Celts the Celts. With the exception of certain artistic elements of warfare and burial there is no pattern. Other groups had warlike customs, hierarchy and trade in slaves. Of particular concern for this reader was his lack of reference to DNA research. Do the Celts represent one people, a particular people, or are they simply similar tribal societies. Also of concern is his failure to go in detail of his understanding of the Celtic language, its source and development. His suggestion that the language may have spread eastward brings into question its relationship with Proto Indo-European sources.

Interesting but...

It seems there are 2 camps in the Celtic story, either they were everywhere or nowhere, this author is definitely in the everywhere camp, from Asia Minor thru Austria, Germany, France, Spain and England. That's a little hard to credit. His classification is so broad as to be virtually useless, but hey, listen to the book and see what you think.

Missing the foundation and migration from the steppe and the Tuatha Dé Dannan

I was hoping this book was going to touch on the mysterious Tuatha Dé Dannan and the earliest migration from the steppe. I also expected to hear something of the Sami people who occupied Europe before the arrival of the Celts. However the focus as always was on the time of the Roman Empire with an extra couple hundred-years bookending the Greco Roman Empires. It was interesting to hear of there return to the Scythian lands, but a missed opportunity to explain the Celtic graves found deep into China and even Japan. Otherwise a great book with lots of factual detail without the author inserting his opinions.

I really was hoping for more info from 6500BC-2000BC which is hard for a non academic like myself to wrangle from the misleading texts out there.

Repetitive

Author in 2nd Ed prefaces by saying DNA will change current knowledge. Fair enough. But over & over belabors this point. So basically this is a history of the earlier historians, not current (2017) archeological, linguistic nor genetic research.