The Home of the Celts

Even nowadays with the turning of the century, the Celts do not cease to amaze us, and we are still digging up the truth about these European peoples who shared a similar culture, beliefs and traditions. For the last century, historians believed that the homeland of the Celtic-speaking peoples lay in central Europe, thus, from there they spread across the European continent in several waves of migration. Spreading their language, culture, traditions and way of living to almost every corner of ancient European landmass. It is told that the Celts originated during the late bronze and early iron ages, in communities of southern Germany and northern Austria, and such knowledge became the default reading of early Celtic and indeed early European history.

However, we often encounter problems in these so called historical facts. Amongst the professional academic cerclis, this theory is suspected to be wrong, and many state that it is wrong indeed, and for decades they know about it.

The homelands of the Celtic-speaking peoples were never in central Europe it seems. They were in the one place where Celtic-speakers have always been known to exist and where some still do exist, the north-western and western Europe. The modern nations and territories of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Cornwall, England, Brittany, western France, Spain and Portugal form the historic heartland of the Celts and their ancient place of origin. It was thought that the Celts came from Nowadays Germany and Austria into the western lands, but in truth they originated in the Atlantic regions, went to central Europe and then their migrations in mass started from there and came back (some never left) to the Atlantic regions, to their ancestral lands.

The BBC has news on a new three-year project to trace the origins of the Celtic peoples, including an interview with Professor John Koch, who points out the failure of the old theories to explain the origin of the Celtic-speaking nations. Even myself, I have been studying about European cultures for the past 8 years, not only the Norse as you might think when reading my blog, but also the Celts. Amongst my colleagues of History and Archaeology, we too have found a lot of evidence that strongly supports this theory.

Viking Invasions in the Iberian Peninsula

Viking Invasions in the Iberian Peninsula

ATTENTION! Read the description below. This is NOT Fiction. This is my final work after 6 months of research, from historical books and documentation as my source of study.

As you can see in this map that I have made, the red area are the territories where the Vikings have been. Between the IX and XI centuries the Vikings invaded the Iberian Peninsula. They did not only raid territories, but also made settlements, colonies, winter camps and also made a living. More than 200 years of Viking presence in the land, documented in that time by the peoples that inhabited the Iberian Peninsula. Lots of raids, battles, colonisations, invasions, and so on, have been registered, but I'm certain that the Vikings went further inland, because they used the rivers as their routes to spread all over the land. Note that in these 200 years, the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula and their boundaries changed a lot. Territories have been conquered and lost, the christian kingdoms of the North against the Muslim kingdom of the South. The christian kingdoms of the North belonged to the Germanic descendants of the Iberian Peninsula who made the first Christian Kingdoms of the land, after the decline of the Roman Empire. The kingdoms were formed around the V century C.E. by the Swabians, Vandals, Goths and Visigoths, all germanic peoples from nowadays Germany, Norway and Lower Sweden respectively. In the beginning of the VIII century C.E. the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Muslims, who pushed the germanic territories to the north, thus ending the germanic nations of the Iberian lands. Between the IX and XI centuries, the Vikings invaded these lands, and fought against the descendants of their ancestors and also against the Muslims of the south. Many battles were recorded, on both land and sea. But the Vikings also colonised territories, such as modern Povoa de Varzim in northern Portugal, and left many decendents in other places. Archaeology helps digging up the truth, and we are still finding a lot of Norse evidence in the land. We also know that defeated Vikings couldn't return home, and they ended up living all over the landscape, such is the case of the city of Cordova in modern southern Spain. Most Vikings raided during Summer, and they didn't return home to pass the Winter, they just built winter camps along the coast and near the main rivers, waiting to raid again when the warmer seasons started.
The christian kingdoms of the north conquered many territories to the Muslims, and the christian faith was spreading all over Europe, and would soon came to Northern Europe. The crusades were formed, and after these 200 years of Viking raids in the Iberian Peninsula, the Vikings (now christianized) helped the Kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, to defeat and drive away the Muslims from the land. There are thousands of documents about this and also paintings that depict these events, Viking longboats side by side with the boats of the soon-to-be Portuguese, invading Nowadays Lisbon for example, and taking back the land, battling and making siege against the Muslims. The Kingdom of Portugal (and also the other Kingdoms of Spain) rewarded the Norse men for their help against the Muslims, and gave them lands to inhabit. Once in a while we find and dig their graves and watch the modern people of those lands and see their descendants, wearing the glimpse of their Norse ancestors. 
Not many historians talk about the Norse peoples of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain), so I have made this map to show that these countries, not only have a rich germanic history, but also a very rich Norse history, as well as Celtic and Roman. Once again I must point out, that this map is NOT the source of Fiction, it is the final work of 6 months of research. I hope you all like it.

Made with watercolor and gel pen.

Note: The artwork to illustrate this post is a drawing of the Viking Invasions in the Iberian Peninsula, made by me. If you have any questions for me or if you want to see my artistic works, check out my Facebook page and make a Like if you can by following this link --> http://www.facebook.com/ArithHarger

Note2: If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me at http://ask.fm/ArithHarger

The Lusitanian Language

The Lusitanians might be the most mysterious European people and culture of antiquity, but with time and the evolution of the social sciences working together, Archaeology, History, Anthropology, Genetics and so on, we are always a step closer to know the truth about these people.

Nowadays like most European countries, Portugal and the Portuguese people are a mixture of cultures and genes, it is the European country with the most invasions of different cultures through time, beginning at the end of the lower paleolithic and beginning of the middle paleolithic a 300.000 years ago with the homo sapiens till today with globalization increasing. The Portuguese people are a mixture of Middle eastern, North African, Iberian, Celtic, Germanic, Scandinavian, Hellenic, Latin genes and so on but to this day there are still people that have more genes of one single group than another, the Portuguese can go from the latin look, black haired, dark brown eyes and brunette skin to the blonde and redhead with pale skin and light eyes. However, Portugal started its history as a nation with the Lusitanians, a mysterious people that came into Portugal and settled, being one of the most powerful early nations of all Europe, starting from the North and Center of Portugal and quickly spreading even into modern Spain. What history, archaeology and genetics show us nowadays, is that these Lusitanians were in fact of Celtic origin and also Germanic, however, as they spread so much, some Lusitanian tribes had greek genes because of the central costal Hellenic colonies, also Iberian when they came into contact with the Eastern and Central natives of modern Spain and much later Northern African genes when they invaded Southern Portugal. The North of Portugal to this day remained very much Germanic and Celtic along with the people of Galicia from Northwestern modern Spain.
To this day when speaking of the first origins of the Portuguese, people will automatically speak of the Lusitanians, a great culture that started around 1500B.C. , people of Celtic and Germanic origins that created the first Nation of Portugal uniting as many tribes as they could. It is interesting to see that one of the latest genetic research shows that the Irish have more than 90% of DNA similarities with the Portuguese and northwestern Spanish people, and in some areas it goes to 100%, these similarities are also shown in France, Germany and the southern parts of Scandinavia.

When we hear about the Lusitanians, the name itself doesn't sound very much like a Celtic one or Germanic even, that's because that was the name given to them by the Romans when they invaded the Iberian Peninsula, and after they conquered the Lusitanians, after thousands of battles and very much trouble but at the end won by bribing, the Latin language replaced the Lusitanian one and all the other Celtic and Germanic languages spoken in the Iberian Peninsula. 
Language is the main theme of this post, the Lusitanian language, and by the end of this post you will see the differences between the Lusitanian language and the Latin one, and as much as I did, you will wonder how would Portugal look like today if the Romans never invaded it and Portugal remained a Celtic/Germanic country.

The Lusitanians are actually the Leukuire or Leukuir, the people of light and their language was the ancient Leukaeg to the modern Leukantu or Leukaeke and the form of writing was called Leukanturi. Their country Lusitânia, was called Leukitanea, the land of light.
Now let's see a few words in Lusitanian, such as "Trebopala" which means Protector of the Community, or the word "Uelgasaliant", which is a kind of greeting like "welcome" which today in Portuguese is "Bem-vindo" and in Spanish "Bienvenido".
For instance, "bänd aiwizas" which means "Forever", in Portuguese "Para Sempre" and Spanish "Para siempre".
The word "Tuouta" for "Homeland".

These are some examples of the language that doesn't sound anything like Latin.

There are also the names of the Lusitanian deities, more than 1000 gods and goddesses, which doesn't sound at all Latin, however with time some of them gained a Latin name because the Romans adopted some of the Lusitanian gods. For example we have Trebaruna, it comes from the celtic word "Trebo" meaning "home" and the word "runa" meaning mystery and/or secret, the goddess of magic, death, war and also a protectress of homes and families. Nantosuelta, Sucellos and Epona, exactly the same deities of the Celtic pantheon. Vabusoa or Borus, later Borvo a healing deity associated with bubbling spring water, which the Romans called Bormanicus, equated with Apollo. Durius, the god of the river with the same name which is today's river Douro. Laepo, Laho, Lucubo, Runesocesius (a name already romanized, there isn't any source yet of its name in Lusitanian but cleary comes from the celtic words runa and gaiso, the name of this deity means "The Mysterious One of the Spear".

Well the list goes on and honestly I would love to learn more about the Lusitanian language, or the Leukaeke/Leukantu. I wonder how would the language of the Portuguese people would be like today if the Romans had not brought their language, how would the country be if the Celtic and the Germanic peoples stood there, well some did to this day, there are still many living decendents of the Celts and the Germanic peoples and also Scandinavian ones, I am one of those, but there aren't enough to call this Nation a Celtic or Germanic one, of both.

Note: If you have any questions for me or if you want to see my artistic works, check out my Facebook page and make a Like if you can by following this link --> http://www.facebook.com/ArithHarger

Stud farm of Alter - Neolithic past and funeral rituals

The Neolithic period was the starting of a new era for humankind, the great revolution and evolution of the human condition and social behaviour. It was the time when us humans started to produce our own food, we moved from a society of hunter-gatherers to a society of farmers and started to domesticate animals. Agriculture was found and the necessity of storing food in containers to carry them in a safe manner and to let the food sufficiently protected from the various climate variations, also gave "birth" to the creation of ceramics. The human being began to settle in one place instead of being a constant nomad searching for food, creating their own food, which led to healthy food habits which in turn led to the growth of the population. As such, people started to create villages all over the world and taking with them this new way of life, teaching others about agriculture and having their own domesticated animals.

Portugal has always been one of the first places in Europe to accept these great evolutions, a place where thusands of cultures throughout history have settled and left behind their stories and their cultures. For many years people thought that the megalithic phenomenon in Portugal had a lo of influences from the other mediterranean countries, but in truth, it has more in common with the megalithic structures from the Atlantic countries ( in truth, Northern Portugal has Atlantic influences and the very climate is an atlantic climate ) such as Irland, Scotland, Wales and Britain, but also a lot of influences from Northern European countries and Central Europe Countries.

Giving this big introduction, I will tell you about the Archaeological excavations that took place in Alter which is on Alentejo in Portugal, inside a Stud farm from the VIII century and still working, and the Neolithic findings there, 15 years ago, were amazing and in that time, was something totally new in Archaeology.

People knew about the "death places" of the pré-historic peoples, their megalithic monuments and every thing involving the cult of the dead and the buildings where they placed them, so the question was, where did they live? In what did they live? Was it some kind of an house? an Hut? Well, indeed it was found a place where these people had lived for a period of time, since this was the time where agriculture and ceramics were something new, the findings were from the period where people were starting to settle in one place. It was found that these people already pave the ground of their dwellings, but the walls of these places were natural stone formations and the roof was made of natural elements such as wood. leafs etc. But as it is a place that when it rains... it rains a lot, they built channels around these shelters, for draining the water, the whole place was kept dry, in fact, during the excavations, it rained a lot, which made it difficult to work, and so that the archaeologists found and cleaned these drainage channels and after almost 6000 years these were still in perfect working order and helped a lot during the excavations in winter. What was also found, were the first ceramic works ever found which indicates that these people were not just evolved but wealthy and Ambar was also found, and from where does the Ambar comes? That is right, from the Baltic Sea, which means that these people from what would be later called Portugal, already had trading roots with the Norther peoples of Europe and vs versa, in a period of time before the Egyptians, whom also had Ambar almost 3000 years after the Neolithic peoples of Portugal.

Among the findings in this excavation, there was also one of the most ancient ovens of all time, with the base perfectly intact, this shows the mark of evolution and the first sedentarization process of the  peoples of the Neolithic.

Now people knew how these people lived, but not during the entire year, only for an amount of time, but in that area, there was a lot of megalithic structures, and the remains in there weren't all equal in the way of placing the deceased or preparing the body of the funeral rituals. Some remains were intact, meaning that the people died in the zone while they were living in there, other remains were inside a bag made ​​of animal skin, with bones vwith isible marks on how the meat has been removed, post-mortem, leaving only the bone, which means that the person died away from the site, most likely during the commercials routes or elsewhere where they would live the other part of the year, and therefore the body was thus prepared for easy transportation by the family members and when the time came to return to the same place, the body could then be placed among the ancestors. Others were cremated, again for the easy transportation, others show that they were previously buried in temporary sites and then transferred to the place and some bones showned that they were cut in half and opened, again after-death, deliberately cut, no fault in the preparation of the body, for in that they did sa good job without damaging the bones, these bones were so cut open so that the inside of those, the marrow, could be eaten, a cannibalistic ritual, a very common thing in many cultures, the person that ate that, was absorbing the essence of the dead, to have a bit of it, and as so prolonging life.

One of my teachers of PreHistory and Archaeology said about this kind of ritual cannibalism, now this my shock some very christian folks, is that this practice has been around for thousands of years worldwide and it is still practiced nowadays in some places, and even Christ turning to his disciples Said, referring to the bread: "Take, eat, this is My body." And, referring to the wine: "This is my blood" (Mt 26:26-28) and for three days no one heard of him anymore after his death, and after those three days he appeared, he was resurrected and ascended to heaven, this might be the symbolism of his soul that left the world and went to the afterlife, while in those three days, his disciples prepared his body, making the same cannibalistic rituals as Christ instructed them to do, by eating his body and his blood and having his own essence. Something to think about.

Note:  If you have any questions for me or if you want to see my artistic works, check out my Facebook page and make a Like if you can by following this link ----> http://www.facebook.com/ArithHarger

Bronze Age Medicine House

In the Irish countryside and in Northern Portugal, among so many buildings of the Bronze and Iron ages, it has been found some really interesting buildings with the same function as the Sweat tents so well known among the Lakota indians of Northern America, known as Medicine Lodges or Medicine Houses. These buildings like anyother similar ancient constructions in Finland, Sibéria, and other countries where Saunas existed, have the same function of ritual purification and to communicate with the spirits. These houses are all very similar in the way they work, a simple hole in the ground with tree trunks covered with earth and stones. In Northern Portugal and Galicia, both on Portuguese and Spanish soil, such buildings were found, dated from the Bronze and Iron Ages, when the Celts and the Celtic tribe of the Lusitanians lived there, it is known that these people took at least two steam baths per week, but this wasn't just to clean the body, in truth it was more for religious and spiritual practices, for the purification of the body and to interact with the spirits of the elements, of fire, water, air and earth, all combined in one place and making steam, this also helped enter in trance and actually communicate with other spirits. After this long bath, making the body sweat and all the impurities of the body cleansed in a way to protect oneself from evil beings, the person would dive in cold water of the near by well or river to wash away any negativity in the body.
Nowadays we know about the ancient practices and even the rituals that take place in such occasions, because shamanic tribes still exist and use the same method, but unfortunatelly we don't know what kind of sacred ritual was performed during these ceremonies in the Celtic culture, but it is interesting to see that worldwide people share the same habits, and that many European countries even share the same type of architectural style and the buildings have exactly the same function.
To know more about these ancient European practices we have to take a close look to the similar practices of the North American indians, or the Siberian peoples, to have a little idea about these steam baths with spiritual purposes, because unfortunatelly with the coming of Christianity, there practices were also banned, what seems to be a simple steam bath, was indeed a cause to pursuit those who did it.
It is possible that people might add hallucinogenic herbs in the process, so the steam might help to induce trance, some Indo-European tribes did it, and also the Eurasian tribe of the Scythians did it and there are accounts of it because their kingdoms spread all the way to Bulgaria.

Note: If you have any questions for me or if you want to see my artistic works, check out my Facebook page and make a Like if you can by following this link --> http://www.facebook.com/ArithHarger

Portugal and the Neolithic past

Portugal is the European country which has more megalithic and prehistoric monuments and sites than anyother country, it is a drean land for archaeologists.
There are a lot of monuments from other eras and from many other European cultures such as Celtic monuments in a very high quantity and concentrated to the north of Portugal all the way to the its center, Roman monuments from the south to the very capital of the country ( Lisbon ) and to the east near the border with Spain, Germanic archeological sites in the north and their architectural style is still very much visible in early christian churches when the Germanic tribe of the Vandals settled in Portugal with their origins in Sweden, migrating to the east of Europe and then into Portugal running away from the Huns. The Visigoths have also left a lot of culture, architecture and decendents and even from the Viking period we can find a lot of things in Portugal, and most curious of all, pottery with runes drawn and painted, dated from a period way before Europe has ever heard about the Norse peoples. Well the list goes on and on, but this is just the introduction of this post so you might see the rich culture that Portugal has, a country where most Europeans setteled since the Dawn of times, and even a few Asian, Arabic and African. But to where do i want to go with all ths talk? Well.. to explain that Portugal has always been the country faved by many since the Neolithic times, for quite plausible reasons, the weather, near the ocean for fishing, rich with flora and fauna, filled with wild Boars and Deer, very much hunted by the European peoples, Wolves, Foxes and Bears for fur ( these last ones unfortunately extinct ), great soils for agriculture, rich in diferente types of ore, which was one of the main reasons for Portugal having the best Celtic Blacksmiths of all Europe during the Bronze age and  Iron Age, also the main reason that led the Romans to plan their invasion against the Celts and the Lusitanian people. and for some spiritual reason that is yet to be discovered. The spiritual reason is what i want to talk about today, but more in a Archaeologist point of view, and than again, more in a normal observer of the landscape and its places of this fine country.
We all know that in Neolithic times, people used to raise great megalithic structures, Dolmens to place their dead and for spiritual/ritual purposes, Menhirs to mark the land or the borders of a tribe's land, to mark places where underground water flows, to extract it, places of cult and we know now that each of these Menhirs aren't placed randomly, their are all perfecly placed where the ley lines pass, the very energy of the earth, so Menhirs are like making acupuncture to earth itself, concentrating the energy of the earth into those places, which makes the soils fertil and attracts a lot of rain to the place because the electricity accumulated in the zone, works just like a magnetic force affecting the water particles in the clouds, pulling them, which makes them fall. There are also a lot of stone circles, Cromlechs and all the other Neolithic monuments  we know of. At this point you might ask, why is this so relevant? There are thousands of this all over Europe, why is Portugal so special about this? Well, there sure are thousands of Neolithic monuments all over Europe, but not as concentrated in one place as in Portugal, in other countries there might exist places with many of these monuments, but all over those countries these are too scattered, while in Portugal it's all over the place, there are even tiny villages filled with these structures in the surroundings with more than 90, you may find these monuments almost in every village and town, along the road, in the middle of forests, mountains or disguised as chapels. If you are a lover of the Neolithic period than you will love the town of Évora, one of the places of Portugal where Neolothic monuments are too much concentrated, in its surroundings there are more than 300 of these, including the famous Almendres Cromlech, a megalithic complex, the largest existing group of structured Menhirs of all Iberian Peninsula, and one of the largests in Europe, a primitive astronomical observatory, oriented to different directions associated with the Equinoxes.
Clearly Portugal was the country most faved by many people to settle not only for it's natural resources and riches but also for some spiritual purpose, the country is filled with Neolithic funeral monuments and burial mounds, not only from the inhabitants but also from other foreign people, and Évora might have been a very special place for these people, it is clearly the place for spiritual gathering, for religious purposes, to trade, to live, a place of knowledge and understanding and people wanted to be placed in the land after their death, there are thousands of Dolmens there. Watching the landscape and all these monuments when you are alone, you actually have the feeling that you are surrounded but thousands of people, and in a fraction of a second time freezes and all birds seize to sing, the wind stops and the leafs go quiet, and you can hear the whispers of those who once walked those lands.

Note: The artwork to illustrate this post is a drawing of a Menhir made by me. If you have any questions for me or if you want to see my artistic works, check out my Facebook page and make a Like if you can by following this link --> http://www.facebook.com/ArithHarger

About Culture

The thing that distinguishes and differentiates an ethnic group, it is not the colour of their skin, but their original culture. Culture encompasses a set of features that identify the humans beings from a specific region, those features are, religion, beliefs, spirituality, gastronomy, architecture, history, geographical factors, arts and language. Everything influences the humans, even the seasons of the year.A good example of a country rich in history and culture is, Portugal, where many diferent people and many diferent cultures had passed and left their permanent mark within each individual, just like the many tribes of the Lusitans. whose architecture differs greatly from north to south, for geographical and seasonal reasons.These tribes were strongly influenced, from the north to the center and into the coastline of Portugal, by the germanic people, such as the Celts, Vandals ( Wandalns ), Saxons, Vikings, Swabians and the Visigoths, that leaft their mark among the Lusitanian people, archaeological and  religious marks, and the Romans had a great influence on Portugal as well, particularly in the creation and expansion of the cities of Lisbon and OPorto, and the Romans in turn, have adopted the Lusitan Pagan Gods.
Portugal was also influenced by the Arabian people, that forever changed the concept of agriculture in Portugal, in the regions further south, and still today, their architecture is still visible in the regions of Algarve.

Every people, every tribe, has their own culture, that is evolving and changing and shapin over the course of history, but always influenced by others, with the help of trade, war and politics, but these influences are not natural, these influences occur due to forcing others to change. Many people have lost their cultures due to the implementation of values ​​and rules that were not theirs, and the biggest exemple of that in the human history is, the coming of Christianity, that forcibly opened the way to the regions of Europe, forcing everyone to adopt these religious beliefs, and this had strong effects on the loss of identity of every men and women in Europe, and this loss took place because freedom was plucked from each individual, was forgotten and was not respected.The essence of each individual, his own soul, his character and personality, are influenced by culture and what they have acquired from other cultures and coexistence and study of the same.
A culture only exists if freedom is maintained, for each people anywhere in the world, because taking away freedom of being what we have always been, is the biggest factor in the extinction of an ethnic group and the loss of cultures and customs.

Arith Härger