Celtic Religion | Page 5

now known as the La Tene or Marnian type. This type derives
it name from the striking specimens of it that were discovered at La
Tene on the shore of Lake Neuchatel, and in the extensive cemeteries
of the Marne valley, the burials of which cover a period of from
350-200 B.C. It was during the third century B.C. that this
characteristic culture of Gaul reached its zenith, and gave definite shape
to the beautiful curved designs known as those of Late-Celtic Art. Iron
appears to have been introduced into Britain about 300 B.C., and the
designs of Late-Celtic Art are here represented best of all. Excellent
specimens of Late-Celtic culture have been found in Yorkshire and
elsewhere, and important links with continental developments have
been discovered at Aylesford, Aesica, Limavady, and other places. Into
the development of this typical Gaulish culture elements are believed to
have entered by way of the important commercial avenue of the Rhone
valley from Massilia (Marseilles), from Greece (via Venetia), and
possibly from Etruria. Prehistoric archaeology affords abundant proofs
that, in countries of Celtic speech, metal-working in bronze, iron, and
gold reached a remarkably high pitch of perfection, and this is a clear
indication that Celtic countries and districts which were on the line of
trade routes, like the Rhone valley, had attained to a material
civilisation of no mean character before the Roman conquest. In Britain,

too, the districts that were in touch with continental commerce had, as
Caesar tells us, also developed in the same direction. The religious
counterpart of this development in civilisation is the growth in many
parts of Gaul, as attested by Caesar and by many inscriptions and
place-names, of the worship of gods identified with Mercury and
Minerva, the deities of civilisation and commerce. It is no accident that
one of the districts most conspicuous for this worship was the territory
of the Allobrogic confederation, where the commerce of the Rhone
valley found its most remarkable development. From this sketch of
Celtic civilisation it will readily be seen how here as elsewhere the
religious development of the Celts stood closely related to the
development of their civilisation generally. It must be borne in mind,
however, that all parts of the Celtic world were not equally affected by
the material development in question. Part of the complexity of the
history of Celtic religion arises from the fact that we cannot be always
certain of the degree of progress in civilisation which any given district
had made, of the ideas which pervaded it, or of the absorbing interests
of its life. Another difficulty, too, is that the accounts of Celtic religion
given by ancient authorities do not always harmonise with the
indisputable evidence of inscriptions. The probability is that the
religious practices of the Celtic world were no more homogeneous than
its general civilisation, and that the ancient authorities are substantially
true in their statements about certain districts, certain periods, or certain
sections of society, while the inscriptions, springing as they do from the
influence of the Gallo-Roman civilisation, especially of Eastern Gaul
and military Britain, give us most valuable supplementary evidence for
districts and environments of a different kind. The inscriptions,
especially by the names of deities which they reveal, have afforded
most valuable clues to the history of Celtic religion, even in stages of
civilisation earlier than those to which they themselves belong. In the
next chapter the correlation of Celtic religious ideas to the stages of
Celtic civilisation will be further developed.

CHAPTER III
--THE CORRELATION OF CELTIC RELIGION WITH THE
GROWTH OF CELTIC CIVILISATION
In dealing with the long vista of prehistoric time, it is very difficult for
us, in our effort after perspective, not to shorten unduly in our thoughts
the vast epochs of its duration. We tend, too, to forget, that in these
unnumbered millennia there was ample time for it to be possible over
certain areas of Europe to evolve what were practically new races,
through the prepotency of particular stocks and the annihilation of
others. During these epochs, again, after speech had arisen, there was
time enough to recast completely many a language, for before the dawn
of history language was no more free from change than it is now, and in
these immense epochs whatever ideas as to the world of their
surroundings were vaguely felt by prehistoric men and formulated for
them by their kinsmen of genius, had abundant time in which to die or
to win supremacy. There must have been aeons before the dawn even
of conscious animism, and the experiment of trying sympathetic magic
was, when first attempted, probably regarded as a master-stroke of
genius. The Stone Age itself was a long era of great if slow progress in
civilisation, and the evolution of the practices and ideas which