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History and culture of English-speaking countries
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Lecture notes of 82 pages for the course Historia Y Cultura De Los Países De Habla Inglesa at USC (Full syllabus)
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UNIT 1. CELTS AND ROMANSWeek 2. Unit 1. Session 1. Before the Celts
Before the Celts = Before the Iron Age. Mainly Neolithic and a little about the Bronze Age.
The Neolithic and its megalithic monuments
Plants and animals began to be domesticated and cereals began to be grown.
Moreover, important Megalithic (big stones – mega + lito) monuments were
constructed:
Tombs (cairns, stones piled up)
- Earthern barrows. For instance, West Kennet Long Barrow, a 3-meter-high mound of earth
that has 5 chambers, inside which the remains of around 50 people were found. Apart from
these human remains, there were also objects.
-Passage graves, like New Grange, a mound of earth with a rounded shape and megalithic
decorations, that built around the year 3.200 BC. It is surrounded by tombs, some of which
have been virtually degraded, and inside the mound of earth there is a passage that leads to
a central chamber that has the form of a cross (cruciform chamber). The New Grange is
related to the winter solstice (the longest night and shortest day of the year), because during
it, at sunrise, the passage and the chamber are iluminated. This happens just some days
during the mid-winter solstice, at dawn. The massive stones in the interior of New Grange
were perhaps pulled from the river.
Other megalithic monuments are henges, big stones put in a circle (or in a line, but that is not
as typical, at least int he British isles).
- The most famous one is Stonehenge. Many of these henges could've been built for
astronomical purposes or they could've been sacred buildings... there are many hypothesis.
But how could neolithic people carry these stones? This is a mystery, given that these stones
were taken from Wales to Salisbury.
- Another example of a henge is Avebury in ireland.
These megalithic monuments were still in use during the Bronze age. The Bronze age is
characterized because bronze (a new alloy made of tin and copper) began to be used.
Furthermore, it was also the period of time when warfare began to be important, which is why
the first hill-forts were built.
Week 2. Unit 1. Session 2. Celts in the British Isles Origins
The origin of celtic people is not really clear, it sems to have been somewhere in the East,
around the river Danube, Rhine... but the truth is that celtic culture spread through a very
important area in Europe. The celtic period coincides with the Iron age.
Main features
We cannot talk about the existance of a unified celtic nation yet, there were different people
who probably shared culture and lifestyles but they were not a nation. They had a
hierarchical society, they spoke different languages, they celebrated religious rituals, they
had artistic manifestations and they had a very rich literary tradition (oral tradition, not
written).
, There were two periods of expansion of the celtic culture around europe:
- Hallstatt (750-400 BC) Specially famous for the making of swords, but axes were
also made.
- La Téne (400-50 BC). Mainly circles were used as decorations.
Warriors
There is a general or popular belief that celtic people were warrior people. There are
archeological remains that suggest that war and fight did represent an important activity for
celtic people (weapons like armours, swords, spears, helmets, shields...).
Nonetheless, the idea that Celtic people were warrior people is also connected to the fact
that all the descripcions that we have of them were written by people that were not celtic
(celtic people couldnt write). These descriptions were mainly written by greek (keltoi) and
roman historians (celtae), who described the attacks they were suffering by celts, and hence
the descriptions are based on the war-like face of celts, who are described as fierce people.
The Carnyx was a made-of-bronze long trumpet with the head of an animal on top that was
used in war. Celtic clothes, which caught the attention of their “enemies”, were colorful and
bright; and they used natural ingredients to dye their hair and clothes.
Celts in the British Isles
The names of Celtic britain
Pythias, a greek geographer that travelled around the british isles (probably because of
interest on materials like tin) noted the following names –given to the British Isles– after this
voyage to north-western Europe (320 BC):
- Ierne (Latin Hibernia) for Ireland (modern Eire or Erin).
- Albionon (Latin Albionum) for Great Britain (from the Celtic Word alp meaning peak
or heigh).
When the romans invaded Britain, the thought the origin of Albionon was the latin word
album (which is white), but they were mistaken. They thought so bc, one of the first things
that they saw was the white cliffs of Dover.
Celtic languages in the british isles
According to some historians, there is no clear evidence of Celtic migrants in the British Isles,
but it is true that Celtic languages were spoken in Britain and in Ireland by the 6th century
BC, and there are still some celtic languages that are spoken in the British Isles.
Celtic expansion took place in two different ways: either invasions and migration, or
exportation of Celtic culture and languages. So, considering this, there are different theories
that explain Celtic presence in the British Isles, specifically there are mainly two theories:
- Invasions and Migration: Whereas some historians state that there were
actually celtic people from the continent that invaded the british isles and settled
there;
,- Exportation of Celtic culture and language: others consider that there was contact
between the people living in the british isles and the people living in the continent (mostly bc
of trade and commercial reasons), and as a consequence the Celtic culture, language and
way of life began to spread over the Isles. In other words, this theory defends that it was the
people from the British Isles who adopted the Celtic way of life.
It seems that there were two Celtic languages (both coming from the same indoeuropean
language; this is, both of Celtic origin) that were spoken in the British Isles in the iron age.
- According to some historians there was a first wave of celtic migration to the
British Isles, the celts of this first wave were called q-celts and spoke Goidelic.
Goidelic was the origin to the gaelic languages that are spoken in ireland, the island
of man and scotland.
- Another wave was with P-celts and they spoke Brythonic, the origin of welsh, cornish
and breton (breton is not spoken nowadays).
Life in Celtic Britain:
- Society. They were organized in tribes or clans, each with its laws, kings, princes or chiefs.
In these tribes women had a very active role (unlike in Rome): they could be chiefs and
warriors, or even priestesses. In these clans the role of the storytellers (bards) was also
important, as thanks to them and the stories they transmited from generation to generation,
there was a very rich oral literature. Craftworkers were highly regarded, especially if they
made weapons. There were also slaves.
-Hillforts. Many celts lived in hillforts, which are settlements built on top of hills for defensive
reasons.Hillforts also had workshops, animals, grain stores.. and they were used as trading
places. An example of a hillfort is Maiden Castle (Dorset, Kent).
- Other defensive buildings. For instance, a Crannog, kind of a hillfort built on water (Loch
Tay, Scotland); or a Broch, a tower made of stones built for defensive reasons.
- Farms and villages: there were people who lived an worked in individual farms and small
villages. In them, they used two-oxen ploughs, they grew wheat (for bread) and barley (For
beer), but also small beans, vetch and flax. There were also animals, such as cows, horses,
goats, pigs, sheep, chickens, dogs (dogs were used to haunt).
- Religious rituals: religious people thought gods and spirits had to be honored and
worshipped, and that offerings had to be made to them. These gods and spirits were mainly
associated to nature, and so there were sacred natural objects, such aswater, oak or
mistletoe. The Druids were an educated class of society, they were priests.
-Trade became an important activity. There was a very important commercial relation
established between the british isles and the continent. Britain, Ireland and the continent
traded tin, objects of clay and metal. There were also ports that became international trading
centers or areas, such as Dorset, where there were exchanges of tin, silver, copper and
potteryn from the west country, lead and pottery from inland, coins and pottery from france.
Week 3. Unit 1. Session 3a. Roman Britain: The Roman Invasion The Beginnings
, Multiple celtic tribes settled in Britain in the 50AD, time around which the Romans came to
the island. However, the first time Romans arrived to Britain was in 55BC, with troops led by
Julius Caesar: some fighting occurred and then they left. They returned in 54BC, but once
again they did not establish a permanent settlement in the Isles, as there were British Kings
(e.g. King Cunobelinus) who agreed on paying tribute to Rome (especially in the south of
England, where they were very friendly to the Romans) and they made alliances between
them and agreed to leave pro-Roman tribes alone. Julius Caesar had only fought Britons
because they were helping the Belgae during the Gallic Wars against Rome.The true Roman
Invasion took place when Emperor Clautius sent Aulus Pautius and an army of 4000 men in
43AD. As a matter of fact, the emperor himself visited Britannia three months after the
beginning of the invasion. It only took them around 40 years to control Britannia –how the
Romans called Britain– and they remained there for nearly 400 years.
The Highlands and Moorlands
There were some areas in Britain that were never completely romanized: the Highlands in the
North, and the Moorlands in the West (Highlands, moreless nowadays Scotland; and
Moorlands in Wales). The Romans werent as interested in these areas because they were
very harsh landscapes and agriculturally poor, so they always remained as frontier areas with
military garrisons.
In the case of Wales, there was a truly strong resistance from celtic tribes toward romans,
which was the reason why the romans had to build defensive works, for example at Chester
and Caerwent.
In the case of Scotland, there was an important battle that took place in the 84AD: the Battle
of Mons Grapius, which represented an important victory for the romans, led by Agricola
against Calgacus (a celtic chief known as the swordsman). This allowed the romans to move
further North than they had ever been, as Agricola led an army through the Lowlands –which
became a Roman province– and on into the Highlands.
The Romans called the people that were living in the northern part of Britain Caledonians
(from Caledonia), and these did not come and surrender.
In these areas there were major defensive constructions that were built in order to resist the
heroic struggle of the Caledonians (the Pictish and the Celtic tribes in the north), two
examples of these defensive constructions are Hadrian’s Wall (North, 122 AD) and
Antonine’s Wall (Further North, 142 AD).
Hadrian’s wall is a 72 mile long wall between the river Tyne and the river Solway. It was
probably used as a frontier to divide Rome from the Barbarians (those living in the North),
however, it is important to note that it has never marked the boundary between England and
Scotland. This wall was constantly built and rebuilt, garrisoned and regarrisoned several
times, and it was also strengthened by forts at one mile intervals.
Antonine’s wall was a 39 mile long wall between the Firths of Forth and Clyde –this is, it went
across Scotland–, and it served as a temporary northern frontier protecting peaceful southern
tribes from the wild Caledonians. Antonine’s wall was used for a very brief period of time
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