All language subtitles for BBC.The.Celts.Blood.Iron.and.Sacrifice.1of3.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org

In early 2015 in Yorkshire, the remains
of a body were discovered in an unmarked

grave. They belonged to a man who had
died in his early 20s.

Beside him lay a large sword and the
heads of five spears.

It was an Iron Age ritual burial.

Graves like this have been discovered
throughout Europe and we now know that

this man once shared a common culture.

that stretched from Turkey to Portugal.

We know this because he was one of our
prehistoric ancestors.

A Celt.

In Britain, we're never far from our
Celtic past.

The Celts seem to belong to a shadowy,
wilder, more primal time than anything

more recent history.

But much about their origins, beliefs
and ultimate fate remains a mystery.

But a story etched in vivid colour is
how these powerful tribal people

battled for survival against their
archenemy, the Roman Empire.

From the first Celtic raiding parties
that rampaged through ancient Italy, to

Julius Caesar's campaign in Gaul, and
the Celts' last stand under the warrior

queen, Boudicca.

One of the greatest cultural conflicts
that still defines our world today and

reveals Europe's most enigmatic ancient
people.

Once the heart of Europe's greatest
empire.

For hundreds of years, this city ruled
over lands stretching from Syria to

Britain.

Rome's power was forged on its military
strength, enshrined in its laws, economy

and monuments.

But even before this empire spread
across Europe, it would be challenged by

powerful barbarian forces from land.

north of the Alps.

Warrior tribes that would fire the
imagination of Romans for centuries to

The Celts.

This is the Roman image of the Celt.
It's called the Dying Gaul.

He's completely naked. He has tousled
and unkempt hair, a moustache, and

his neck, he's wearing a torque, which
is the ultimate status symbol of the

elite Celtic warrior.

In Roman eyes, this is the
quintessential naked savage.

And more importantly, It's a naked
savage who has been subdued and

Here on his side, he's bleeding from a
mortal wound.

And in his agony, he's dropped his sword
to the ground and then slumped

alongside it, awaiting death.

It's a beautiful and very powerful and
moving work of art. But it's also

propaganda. This is how Rome wanted its
citizens to see, to perceive the Celtic

opponent.

A noble, yes, but essentially a savage.

A powerful, potent image to set against
the idea of Rome as

a disciplined, ordered, civilising
presence.

The Romans and Celts would struggle for
supremacy in Europe.

A conflict that, in the end, would
define them both.

But while Rome would celebrate its
victories in monumental architecture,

Celts would gradually fade from history.

One big difference between the Celts and
the Romans is that the Celts left us no

written records of their own. Theirs was
an oral tradition, not a written one.

Unlike the Romans, who documented almost
every detail of their lives in their

writings, in their sculptures and in
their monuments.

But the Celts aren't entirely invisible
to us. The world that they left behind

is there to be discovered beneath our
feet.

Throughout Europe, archaeologists are
unearthing the world of the ancient

I'm in central France in Champagne
country and here on the outskirts of

in April 2013, a team of archaeologists
found something very exciting

indeed. They were investigating this
area simply because this is going to be

site of a large new warehouse.

And what they stumbled across was a
burial site.

They discovered the graves of 27 men and
women and they'd been buried here in

the 4th century BC.

This was an Iron Age cemetery.

The people buried here were Celts.

Finds like Boucher give us direct
insight into who the Celts really were.

This is one of the skeletons from those
graves at Boucher, and in fact this is

one of the most complete skeletons that
were found, because some of the bones

are in a very bad state of repair
indeed.

Now I've looked really carefully at
these bones, and I can't see any signs

injury or disease on them, but in fact
there are some marks, or perhaps I

say stains.

just here on the left forearm bone.

Now, this isn't a disease. This is where
something made of copper or copper

alloy has lain very close to these bones
in the grave.

And in fact, with all these skeletons,
with all these graves at Boucher, it's

not the human remains themselves that
are the most interesting.

It's what was buried with them.

The bodies were accompanied into the
afterlife by their possessions.

and they reveal a surprisingly
sophisticated culture.

We've got some fibulae, some brooches
here, some bracelets, some little pins

up there, and a couple of necklaces as
well.

The fibulae are gorgeous.

This fibula is a pièce de résistance.

It has a repeating pattern running along
the body of interwoven spirals, and

then this...

This strange white button just here is
actually made of coral, so that would

have come from the Mediterranean.

This is a fairly classic Celtic talk.

The thing which characterises them is
this opening at the bottom with these

terminals, and the whole neck ring would
have been twisted open in order to

place it around somebody's neck.

And it's got this nice decoration
stamped onto the shaft.

A few of the graves contained weaponry.

And these swords are absolutely
beautiful.

They are still in their scabbards and
the degradation of the iron has meant

it's sprung apart.

So you can actually probably see the
sword sitting inside there.

Now the length of these swords is
interesting.

They're not quite as long as the
slashing swords that would have been

the cavalrymen amongst the Celts.

So these are designed to be carried by
warriors on foot.

And here this iron band is decorated.

We've got these strange circles just
here, but if you look at them really

carefully, you realise what they are.

These circles, which are made of coral,
are the eyes of two dragons.

Now we've got this lovely symmetrical
pattern on this scabbard, which is

actually very different from this one.

Both these styles are typical of the
period, but they're very individual at

same time. And you can imagine that
these swords would have been very prized

personal items.

The picture emerging is that the Celts
were a people with individual style and

technical skill.

who took pride in their appearance and
weaponry.

It's a far cry from the naked savage
depicted by Rome.

Over two and a half thousand years ago
the Celts and Romans were destined to

meet. as Celtic influence spread south
of the Alps into northern Italy.

And we know that some Celts must have
come through here, the alpine pass of

Valcamonica.

Carved, etched into the rocks hereabouts
are markings that some archaeologists

believe could be the very earliest
depictions of Celts.

As they came through these high alpine
passes, they encountered a mountain

people called the Kamuni.

And it may well be the case that it was
those Kamuni who made these marks on the

rocks and so created the very first
indelible record of what the Celts

like and what they had.

And what you've got on here is something
really quite remarkable.

Most obvious, perhaps,

is a depiction of a four -wheeled
vehicle, a chariot.

Elsewhere, there's a couple of warriors,
or at least figures who seem to be

armed with spears and shields.

But it's a fabulous, unforgettable
snapshot of what someone saw when a new

people arrived.

What is clear is that the Celts you've
entered say were ready to fight.

This whole area is just peppered,
littered with the rock carbons, so that

even got to look underneath the leaf
mould, in case you're missing something.

Clear it away.

And look there, right away.

That's fantastic.

See that figure there, Luke?

A man, his head, two legs, he's got
shoes on, and he's holding a spear, and

then, and he's left.

Well, that's either a small kind of
buckler -type field, Or it could be a

trophy. It could be a man's severed
head. Who knows?

And so it goes on.

Just got to keep revealing the canvas.
There's more.

There's a crowd of them there.

Armed with spears and shields and
swords.

More of them.

They're fantastic.

Everything about it seems to be either
warlike and aggressive or jubilant. You

know, the figures are either threatening
combat or they're celebrating victory.

But they're very much alive.

Whoever saw them and decided to commit
their image to the rock had been

impressed and wanted to make sure that
some aspect of their arrival was

remembered.

The Celtic tribes were migrating, taking
new lands and moving south towards

central Italy.

The ordered, structured world of Rome
had a storm coming.

To find out what happened when the
Romans first met the Celts, we have to

on this, Livy's history of Rome.

Now, bear in mind that Livy, Titus
Livius, was a Roman, so he's likely to

part of that, and he was writing 300
years after the event.

He tells us that that first meeting
between the Romans and the Celts took

in 387 BC.

Inclusium, a town in what's now Tuscany,
a hundred miles north of Rome.

It's hard to believe, strolling around
this peaceful Tuscan hill town today,

events that unfolded here would set in
train centuries of conflict and

bloodshed.

Libby writes that outlandish warriors in
their thousands, armed with strange

weapons, marched to Cluthium in search
of new lands to conquer and riches to

plunder. They were led by a Celtic
tribal leader and warlord called Brenna.

While the Celtic horde descended upon
Clusium, the town's officials sent word

Rome asking for armed protection.

But the request was denied.

Instead, Rome sent three of her
ambassadors to negotiate a peaceful

It would be the first time Rome would
come face to face with her greatest

adversary. And so begin centuries of
struggle for the heart and soul of

As negotiations started, the Celts
demanded land.

And with vastly superior numbers, they
were in no mood for compromise.

There was a fierce argument and in the
heat of the moment, a Roman ambassador

stabbed his spear through a Celtic
chieftain's heart, killing him

In

a

single stroke, the oath of neutrality,
one of Rome's own accepted customs, was

broken.

The Celts demanded that the Roman in
question be handed over to them for

suitable punishment.

The demand was ignored.

Big mistake.

Livy wrote, the Celts flamed into
uncontrollable anger and set forward

terrible speed, covering miles of
ground.

The cry went up.

To Rome.

The Romans came face to face with the
Celts in 387 BC, but from modern

archaeology we know that Celtic culture
goes back much further than that.

Some of the earliest evidence comes from
a tiny village southeast of Salzburg in

Austria called Hallstatt.

It's a place that has given its name to
an entire Celtic period.

and has become synonymous with early
Celtic culture.

This is Hallstatt, tucked away in a fold
of the Austrian Alps. It's a quiet town

with an even quieter population, and yet
it's one of the most famous names in

archaeology, and the ideal starting
point for any investigation of the

because it's here that we catch the very
first glimpses of Celtic material

culture. By which I mean identifiable
things left behind by kelp.

Hallstatt culture. I had it drummed into
my head when I was an archaeology

student. And now, 30 years after I first
heard the term, I'm finally here.

1 ,000 graves out of perhaps 5 ,000
scattered across the upper valley, an

city of the dead.

Within the graves were over 20 ,000
artifacts dating back as far as 800 BC.

Intricate brooches, gold bracelets,
vessels made of sheet bronze,

iron daggers, and axes.

This was the earliest evidence of a long
-forgotten prehistoric culture, a

culture we now recognise as Celtic.

Archaeologist Hans Restreiter has worked
here for over 25 years.

What was special about the graves that
were found here?

The number of the graves, we have more
than 5 ,000 of them, and also the grave

goods we found within the graves. We
have a lot of jewelry and other luxury

products in the graves. Here in
Hallstatt, more than 60 % of the graves

a lot of grave goods.

Ah, right, so the majority of people who
died and were buried in these graves

were rich enough to take stuff with
them.

Yes, that's it. How do you know this
wasn't a graveyard for the wealthy? How

you know the poor weren't buried
somewhere else?

No, the traces on the skeletons, the
muscle marks, show that also the people

the rich graves have worked their whole
life long.

And these muscle marks show traces of
heavy workload.

So what kind of activity creates that
kind of buildup of wear and

tear on the bone? For the women, for
example, we see that they have a heavy

workload on one shoulder. It seems they
have carried heavy loads on one

shoulder. And for the men?

We have no muscles on the legs.

Right. But we have a lot of muscles here
on the shoulders.

Right. So whatever it was they were
doing required upper body strength.

Yes. But not a lot of moving around.

Right.

What made Hallstatt unique can still be
found buried deep inside these

mountains.

A valuable commodity that made the
ancient people who lived here rich and

Hallstatt famous.

You could be right. We have the first
prehistoric site.

We are entering here. Take care,
Slippery.

Right.

Now this tunnel is a little bit
different than the one we walked up.

Oh, yeah, it is. Here we see the remains
of one of these huge prehistoric

tunnels. So you've re -excavated a space
that was originally made 3 ,000 years

ago. Wow.

And the shining's a crystalline sand.
That's the salt.

That's the salt, yes. The poor rock
salt, this is the salt the prehistoric

miners were looking for.

And this salt is heading in this
direction, so the prehistoric miners

the direction of the salt.

Salt was highly prized as a vital
preservative in the ancient world, and

Celts of Hallstatt mined it on a massive
scale.

This mountain is riddled with huge
excavated galleries, up to 200 metres

and 20 metres high.

Everything the miners left behind is
preserved perfectly.

Here you see thousands of burnt -down
tapers to illuminate the light.

Tapers from the end of flaming torches?

Yes.

And this is everything that the wealth
of Halstatt society, Halstatt culture,

was all built on. It's this.

So that explains the marks on the
skeletons in the graves. It's the labour

here. Oh, yes, it is.

The tool handles we find in here, these
are the handles of the bronze picks to

break this huge plate of sword.

And the work of those picks explains the
marks on the mail.

Skeletons, and we think that the marks
from the female skeletons are from the

carrying this huge plate of salt.

So they bear the marks of a lifetime of
labour on the skeleton? Oh yes, yes.

So for the household people it was, this
was their life, this was their

surrounding, it was quite normal.

They were subterranean?

Yes, oh yes.

Within this ancient mine are also very
personal reminders of the people that

worked here.

So am I right in thinking that that
there is proof of a life?

Oh yeah, this is a prehistoric
excrement.

I'll be honest with you Hans, I never
expected to catch this intimate a

of a Celtic salt miner.

I feel a strange sense of communion and
brotherhood.

Oh yeah, and in this excrement you also
find the eggs of parasites.

So we have the proof that nearly all the
miners had parasites on their stomachs.

So it was not a nice time, more than 2
,000 years ago.

And if it gets wet, it's food mills.

Oh, no, that is unbelievable.

The Iron Age is alive and well down
here.

It's preserved because of the salt in
here.

It's my first salted poo.

The salt from this mountain was of such
high quality it became a prized

commodity. traded throughout the region.

The people of Hallstatt grew rich from
this white gold at a time when another

commodity was starting to transform
prehistoric society.

Iron.

The secrets of iron production had
spread from Asia Minor through the

Mediterranean into Central Europe.

People had long been able to extract
copper and tin to make bronze.

Iron ore was more plentiful, but iron
was harder to extract and to work.

Repeated heating and hammering yielded a
metal hardened, durable and perfect for

weaponry. The Celts became masters at
it.

The extraordinary finds at Hallstatt
revealed the Celts as wealthy,

and technologically sophisticated.

It was the birth of a new and very
distinctive culture, one that would

influence and ultimately dominate
Europe.

Hallstatt would become famous as the
birthplace of a new culture that thrived

and spread across great swathes of
Europe.

By 500 BC, the Celts had arrived in
northern Italy.

And by 387 BC,

Having been wronged by Roman ambassadors
at Clusium, the Celtic chieftain

Brennus and his men were marching south
to Rome, hungry for revenge.

The Roman army, having received word of
the approaching Celtic horde, marched

north to meet them, led by General
Quintus Sulpicius.

Sulpicius had six legions under his
command.

approximately 24 ,000 soldiers.

Just 11 miles from Rome, he encountered
his enemy on a plain next to the river

Allia.

This is by no means the most atmospheric
play.

Right behind me there's a high -speed
rail track.

The whole area is crisscrossed with
overhead power lines.

But we believe that thousands of people
died here.

This is the battlefield of Allia.

where the Roman army came face to face
with the Celts for the very first time

pitched battle.

And it's worth remembering too that the
Roman commander, Sulpethius, had next to

no knowledge of his foe. He knew nothing
about their tactics or their weaponry.

And furthermore, he'd been caught on the
hop with hardly any time to prepare for

what he could now see was ahead of him
and coming his way.

Mike Lowe, an expert in ancient military
tactics.

has been piecing together what happened
on the battlefield nearly 2 ,500 years

ago.

Hey, Neil.

How are you? Good to see you. You too.

Doesn't really have the feel of a
battlefield.

No, well, it's not the prettiest, is it?
It's a reminder that history happens

under our feet, where we live our
everyday lives.

I kind of like the ordinal in this. What
about the topography would have

appealed to a commander?

Well, you've got to remember that this
is not... the Roman army of later years.

We're talking 387 BC. This is a
fledgling Rome.

It's a small force, and they're fighting
in a phalanx. That 10, 15 rows deep,

shoulder to shoulder, you've got that
rigid, static, entrenched Roman attitude

to fighting. You hold your ground. You
take your position.

What I think...

Sulpicius was trying to do was force a
pitched battle on this plain. That's

where he set his phalanx, expecting that
Brennus would bring his hordes on to

engage them.

And on that hill, which probably didn't
have all those trees on back then,

Sulpicius would have put his cavalry,
the equites, the elite Roman soldiers.

I think Sulpicius was planning to either
sweep down on a flanking manoeuvre or

come round behind the Celts. So what did
go wrong for Sulpicius and his Romans?

Well, the first thing is, Brennius
didn't do what Sulpicius thought he was

supposed to do. He didn't play the game.

He didn't let his undisciplined hordes
rush forward.

He had control of them.

And they went streaming up that hill and
they drove that elite Roman cavalry

off the battlefield.

The Celts were much more imaginative,
swirling and using the landscape.

And it was hit and run and fluid. It's
just a different way of commanding the

battlefield.

It sounds as if the analogy is that the
Celt is the flowing stream and the Roman

is the rock in the river.

With the elite cavalry dealt with, the
Celtic warriors turned their attention

the Roman phalanxes on the plain.

Overrun and outmanoeuvred, the Roman
legionaries fled in panic, terrified by

Celtic charge.

Many were cut down in the rout, others
drowned in the alia weighed down by

heavy bronze armour.

The Romans would later claim they lost
20 ,000 men that day. The city of Rome

was left to its fate.

The Romans may have thought their enemy
had come out of nowhere, but the Celts

had had connections with the
Mediterranean world for years.

Hillforts are iconic features of Celtic
Europe.

Iron Age castles that were the homes of
chiefs.

and great centres of power.

Heunerberg, built in the 6th century BC,
lies nearly 250 miles west of

Hallstatt, in southern Germany.

This is Heunerberg.

And in 600 BC, this whole place would
have been covered in Iron Age buildings.

And archaeologists are arguing that we
shouldn't just see this as a hill fort,

but that this was a city.

perhaps the first city north of the
Alps.

The Celtic city of Heuneberg is
estimated to have had a population of 5

its construction was on a grand scale.

A five metre high white wall surrounded
the entire citadel, punctuated by huge

defensive towers, which were further
protected by a large earthen ditch six

metres deep.

This was architecture designed to be
impregnable and to impress.

Dirk Krause is the head of archaeology
at Heuneberg.

These walls, these are pretty
magnificent, aren't they? They're much

magnificent than I expected, I think,
for an Iron Age fort.

Yeah, because they are unique and they
are very extraordinary.

Normally they're built with timber.

and stone and earth but here they used
limestone foundation and above they

with mud bricks and this painting is
necessary for the protection of the mud

bricks because we have bad weather here
north of the alps it's also for

demonstration of power because these
walls were seen from miles away so

who came here knew this is a mighty site

Oh, so this is what the walls are like
underneath all that white paint.

Yeah, these are the mud bricks.

They're not baked clay bricks, but they
are dried in the sun or at the air.

So just how unusual is this style of
building for the Iron Age?

It's extraordinary.

They didn't build with mud bricks north
of the Alps, never. Never before and

never afterwards.

Where has this idea come from?

For a long time it was a mystery where
this idea came from.

But the combination of mud brick and of
towers, which were built in the citadel

wall here, you find it only in the
Phoenician culture, for example, in the

Levante or in Sicily or in the Iberian
Peninsula.

So maybe an architect came here who
learned to build in a Phoenician

context.

It's an example of this Mediterranean
influence, I think, centuries before you

think Mediterranean influence really
takes off with the Roman Empire.

When you get up on the top of the
Heunerberg, you realise just

why it was such an important site.

It dominates the landscape, but it's
also extremely well connected within

landscape.

That down there is the Danube, which of
course carries on and flows east to the

Black Sea, and to the south of the
Hohenberg, the Rhine rises.

So these are really important river
routes, but there are also important

overland routes nearby as well. The
Autobahn of the Iron Age.

Silver from Iberia, amber from the
Baltic, wine and pottery from Italy and

Greece. crisscrossed the continent, east
to west, south to north.

Its links to the wider world made
Hoeneberg a vital hub for trade and

and helped to build the foundations of a
powerful civilisation.

The enormous wealth from this trade
transformed early Celtic leaders into

than chiefs. It created an elite class,
the oligarchs of the Iron Age.

Some can even be regarded as royalty.

This burial mound protected the grave of
a man who died around 530 BC.

He's become known as the Hochdorf Prince
because dispatched with him into the

afterlife were some of the most
remarkable finds of the early Celtic

housed in the depository of the
Stuttgart Museum.

This is fantastic. Just look at this.

This is the couch that the Hochdorff
prince was laid to rest on in his tomb.

And it's made entirely out of sheet
bronze, riveted together.

It's got this wonderful hammered
pattern, stylised warriors fighting in

combat. And then at each end we've got
the representation of a four -wheeled

chariot pulled by two stallions with a
warrior holding a...

shields and a spear

i

suppose you've got to remember that when
it was pushed in the grave it would

have been a beautiful shiny bronze
object and not this green verdigrid

appearance that we that we see now and
you can see that this bronze couch is at

the moment resting on these steel legs
which of course are not original

This is what it originally stood on.

So this is one of the eight legs of this
couch, and you can see that it's a

little bronze figurine. So this is a
woman bearing a pot on her head, and

drilled all over and would have been
inlaid with coral.

And she's standing astride a wheel, so
she's a miniature unicyclist. So this

couch would have been on casters.

Also discovered in the tomb were
drinking horns, bronze plates and a vast

cauldron decorated with three lions that
would have contained up to 500 litres

of honey mead.

This is the cauldron.

It is enormous.

The size of it is incredibly impressive.

And cauldrons really are emblematic of
something which was...

Pretty fundamental in Celtic society,
and that, of course, was feasting.

This was the way that chieftains showed
their power and their wealth and kept

their allies close to them.

Just based on the size of his cauldron,
the hocked -off prince must have been a

fairly important person.

But the greatest luxuries of all were
found on the prince himself.

Our Hochdorf prince was wrapped in
layers and layers of cloth.

Not only that, he was adorned with all
of this gold.

And it is stunning.

He was wearing this beautiful golden
neck ring. When you look at it really,

really closely, you realise that what
appears at first glance to be an

pattern is in fact a little repeating
stamp of a tiny rider on a horse.

And then there are these two...

golden fibulae, or brooches, and you can
see that the pins have been

deliberately bent.

So this is part of the strange ritual of
his funeral.

He was buried with these brooches, but
they're not to be used again by a living

person. And then other objects, like a
bronze dagger, which has been encased in

gold, again with a hammered pattern all
over it.

But I think... What is most
extraordinary about this entire

shoes. Now, of course, I say shoes, but
the shoes themselves have long since

rotted away.

But what we have left are these
wonderful gold plucks going around the

the shoe here and right up and over the
toe.

So having lived in luxury, he took
luxury to the grave with him.

And he also took everything he needed to
carry on feasting.

right into the afterlife.

From the tiny alpine village of
Hallstatt had grown one of Europe's

ancient cultures.

The Celts may not have fitted the
classical model, but they were a rich,

and structured society.

A telling contrast to the Roman image of
a naked warrior, the wild barbarian.

of the dying Gaul.

I learnt the accepted theory as an
archaeology student, but brand new

is suggesting that Celtic origins might
be far more complex and intriguing.

If we're trying to track down the Celts
and find out how and where it all

started, there are a number of lines of
evidence that we can follow. There's

archaeology, so we can look for their
material culture, their swords and seals

and jewellery, and look at how that
spreads across Europe.

But we can also look at language,
because we believe that these Iron Age

spoke very similar languages and that we
have surviving Celtic languages in the

west of Europe.

in Wales, in Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall
and Brittany.

But it's not to any of those places that
I've come in search of ancient Celtic

language. It is to the Algarve, to south
-west Portugal.

John Cook is a philologist, the study of
literary text, and he's behind a new

theory of Celtic origins that starts
with a very old source.

the ancient Greek historian Herodotus.

John, I must say that I didn't expect to
come to Portugal in search of the

Celts, but you think that they were
here.

Oh, I have no doubt that the Celts were
here.

As well as saying that the Celts lived
near the source of the Danube,

in our first good references to the
Celts, writing in the 5th century BC,

that they also lived...

beyond the pillar of Hercules at the
Straits of Trafalgar. And next to a

he calls the Cunetes. And the Cunetes
seems to be a Celtic name as well. So we

have Celts in name and Celts
linguistically.

So how do we square that, what Herodotus
is telling us, with this idea that the

Celts... come from Central Europe, that
is their homeland, and then they spread

out, and that Western Europe is very
much a kind of afterthought?

Well, I think we need to look at that
differently. We need to re -examine that

whole idea. It simply doesn't work.

For John, what doesn't work is the
absence of archaeological evidence

the Celts here to the Celts of Central
Europe.

But... There is evidence linking the
Iberian kelp to Britain, Ireland and the

Atlantic coastline.

The clues are etched into ancient stone
tablets that date to the 7th century BC,

the same period as the Halstatt kelps.

So, John, what have we got here? What is
this stone?

This is a gravestone.

Well, this is found in the far southwest
of the peninsula, a place called

Fonteveria, which was a necropolis, a
burial ground of the early Iron Age.

And can you read it, John?

This bit, Logobo, the first word, looks
very much like dedications that we have

in northwestern Spain of Lugubo. And
these are dedications to the Celtic god

Lug, Nirobo.

probably means something like to the
chief men.

So we have to the gods, Lug, and to the
chief men is the opening of this

inscription.

Logon, I think up here, I think this
might be the word for burial because

got a very similar word in northern
Italy in a Celtic inscription probably

500 years later.

So this looks like a Celtic word?

Written in stone.

It looks like a Celtic... I mean, it's a
Celtic name and it looks like it has a

Celtic inflected ending on it. So it's
grammatically Celtic and it's

etymologically Celtic. And it still has
links to extant Celtic languages, to

Celtic languages spoken by living
people.

Oh, yeah, that's how we know... I mean,
that's sort of, by definition, this is

how we decide something is Celtic.

John thinks that this is an ancient
language.

written down using the alphabet of the
Phoenicians, Mediterranean seafarers who

reached the Iberian Peninsula as long
ago as 900 BC.

But although this language has been
written using that alphabet, it's not

Phoenician.

It's Celtic.

The Early Celtic had clear links to
later Celtic languages spoken in Britain

Ireland, such as Gaelic, Welsh and
Cornish.

And John believes that Bronze Age
traders and seafarers used this Proto

as they traded silver, copper and tin up
and down the Atlantic coastline, from

Portugal to northern Spain, Brittany to
Ireland and the West Country.

And for me this is really exciting
because this is new. This idea is

what we think about the Celts totally on
its head. Instead of thinking about a

migration out of Central Europe, we've
got something really interesting

happening on this Atlantic fringe,
something that could actually be the

of the Celts.

This new theory suggests that rather
than being invaded by Iron Age Celts,

Celtic heritage arrived in Britain
during the Bronze Age.

using a very different mechanism.

So, my Celtic -ness might have much more
to do with the exchange of ores and

ingot than with the blood and gore of a
raiding party.

And if that's true, then Britain and the
far west of Europe may have had much

more influence on the spread of Celtic
culture in Central Europe than was

previously imagined.

And there's a fascinating piece of
evidence to support all of that.

This is a gundlingen sword, an early
Celtic sword.

It has this elegant leaf shape, and it
sweeps back into a big, broad pommel.

It's typically Celtic. Now, a generation
ago, swords like this were cited as

evidence of the spread of the Celts into
the West from Central Europe.

So you'd find them made of iron all over
Central Germany and France.

But recently, archaeologists have been
finding lots of swords like this in

Britain. made of bronze, just like this
one. They're from the early 8th century.

They're before Hallstatt.

It suggests that it may have been swords
made in Britain from bronze that

influenced the weapons technology of the
early Iron Age, spreading from west to

east, from Britain to Central Europe,
and not the other way round. So when it

comes to the case of a Celtic warlord
like Brenneth and his men, they may have

been carrying weapons that were shaped,
by a technology that had its foundations

in Britain.

time the Celtic and Roman worlds had
clashed at the Battle of Alia.

According to the Roman historian Livy,
20 ,000 legionaries had lost their lives

that day, leaving the city of Rome at
the mercy of the Celtic army, under the

command of Chief Brennus.

Livy wrote the following.

As there was no hope of defending the
city, the decision was taken to withdraw

all men capable of bearing arms together
with the women and children and able

-bodied senators into the fortress on
the capital.

From that stronghold, properly armed and
provisioned, it was their intention to

make a last stand for themselves, for
their gods and for the Roman name.

The fortress was up there on the
Capitoline Hill, one of the seven hills

which Rome was built.

The city.

which had never been defeated, was about
to face the fury of its greatest foe.

Livy wrote, Then news came that the
Gauls were at the gates, and all too

cries like the howling of wolves.

and barbaric songs could be heard.

That howling of wolves and barbaric din
might have come from a carnix, a Celtic

war trumpet.

The Celts carried hundreds of them into
battle.

Today, however, there is only one carnix
player in the world, musician John

Kenny.

The carnix clearly was used to strike
fear into enemies in battles.

The sound is made in the same way that
we activate a modern trumpet, trombone,

French horn, tuba. You vibrate your
lips.

But with this instrument, the sound is
entrapped in a bronze skull, and the

skull works exactly like our skull.

because our vocal cords are amplified by
all of the nasal passages and the

shape, form of our skull.

That's why we can make a sound without
opening our mouths.

It's exactly the same with this
instrument. So the sound isn't projected

forward, it's radial, and that's
extremely unusual in the world of

instruments.

The sound of these trumpets, accompanied
by howls and shouts, is thought to have

been a deliberate part of the Celtic
battle plan, designed to terrify the

The world at that time was a much
quieter place.

These instruments can out -shout human
beings and play as loud as thunder and

loudly as the sea.

Furthermore, when they're played
upright, they're 12 feet high and they

head. So if you see 12 or so of these
coming out of the mist in the morning,

screaming like mad, it's quite possible
to imagine you're being attacked by a

race of giants.

So there we are.

By the time the Celts entered the city
of Rome, its citizens had either

retreated to the Capitoline Hill or
fled.

The streets were empty.

Livy tells us that the Celts came across
a mansion belonging to Roman nobility

and found the doors open.

Suspecting a trap, they entered
cautiously.

But the only thing waiting for them was
a group of elderly Romans sitting

motionless. in an act of silent
defiance.

The Celtic warrior stood entranced by
the spectacle.

On an impulse, a Celtic warrior reached
out with his hand and touched the beard

of one of the seated figures.

The Roman lashed out and hit him over
the head with his ivory staff.

It was the moment that sealed the city's
fate.

Enraged, the Celtic warriors butchered
the old men where they sat and looted

burned the imperial city to the ground.

Eventually, faced with the prospect of
starvation or slaughter, the Romans,

trapped on the Capitoline Hill, had no
choice but to surrender, agreeing to pay

the Celts a ransom in gold.

The commander, Quintus Sulpicius, who
had led the army to defeat at the Battle

of Alia, agreed to negotiate a
settlement with the Celtic warlord,

They agreed the sum of £1 ,000 in weight
in gold. A colossal ransom for a city

already ravaged.

Just to add insult to injury, Brennus
used weights that were heavier than

to weigh the gold.

It was the second time he had outwitted
Sulpicius.

When the Roman commander objected,
Brennus flung his sword onto the scales,

shouting, Vi victus! Woe to the
vanquished!

It was a dramatic reminder that the
Romans were totally at the mercy of the

Celts. The Romans had learned the hard
way that the Celts were far from the

savages portrayed.

During the course of four centuries,
they had developed a complex and

tribal network.

Theirs was a warrior culture with a
shared language and extensive trading

They had expanded across Central Europe.

through the Alps and south into Italy,
where they had defeated the emergent

Roman Empire.

In the years that followed, Rome was
rebuilt and defended by a new

barrier, the Servian Wall.

It was a permanent reminder to its
citizens of their defeat at the hands of

Celts. They were resolved never to let
their city fall again.

For Rome, it was a new beginning.

And over the next few hundred years, the
Romans would collide again with the

Celts and battle for survival, for land,
for the very heart and soul of Europe.

Next time, 300 years later, we discover
the golden age of the Celts and their

expansion to the furthest reaches of
Europe and beyond.

In France, Rome's greatest military
general, Julius Caesar.

is challenged by a warrior king
commanding an army of a quarter of a

men.

At stake is the survival of the Celtic
heartland of Gaul.