Cernunnos. Left image a detail from the Gundestrup Cauldron. Right image a carving from Cluny Museum, Paris, France.• Known as the horned god• Associated with animals of the
forest• Attested in images from India,
Turkey, Greece, Gaul and in Irish character Conall Cernach
Aquae Sulis, now Bath, England.
• Sulis linked to Sequana, a Gaulish goddess associated with healing• The name of a tribe in
Gaul, the Sequani, and found in the name of the River Seine • Sulis equated by
Romans to Minerva
Brigindo, Brigantia, Brigit. Carving in National Museum of Scotland.
• A goddess associated with fertility• The name of a tribe in
northern Britain, the Brigantes• Possibly Christianized in
Irish St. Brigit• Imbolc, February 1st
Pre-modern European migrations:Celtic Migrations• Social organization• Professional classes• Druids—attested in Greek and Roman sources; early Christian sources in
Ireland; place name evidence from Scotland to Iberia to Asia Minor• Poets—attested primarily in Irish, Welsh, and Scottish written sources• Lawyers—attested primarily in Irish, Welsh, and Scottish sources
Pre-Modern European Migrations:Celtic Migrations• Social organization
• Higher status of women• Prominent female deities
• Sovereignty goddesses—Rosmerta in Gaul; Medb/Maeve in Ireland• Goddesses of war—the Morrigan and Badb in Ireland; Agrona and
Andraste in Britain/Wales; Cathabodua in Gaul• Ruling queens—Cartimandua (fl. 50-70 AD) and Boudica (d. 60 AD) in Britain• Warrior women—Scathach and Aoife from Irish mythology; Boudica in Britain• Women’s legal rights—medieval Irish, Welsh, and Scottish law (pre-English
conquest) allowed women to divorce their husbands and share property equally after seven years of marriage
Pre-Modern European Migrations:Celtic Migrations• What written Celtic sources tell us about their history.• Irish Lebor Gebála (The Book of Invasions), 7th-8th century AD• Describes a series of migrations dating back to the sons of Noah; the final
migration a group from Iberia known as the Milesians or Sons of Mil• Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae (The History of the Kings
of Britain), 12th century AD• Describes the reign of Britain’s early kings, beginning with Brutus of Troy
Celtic migrations in the post-Roman era. Map from Barry Cunliffe, Europe Between the Oceans, 9000 BC-AD 1000.
Map of European ancestry of modern British DNA types, from Leslie et al., “The fine-scale genetic structure of the British population” Nature 519 (19 March 2015), 309-314.