The word Celtic drums up images of Ireland and other parts of the British Isles. Some of us may even know of the Celtic connection with Brittany and northern Spain.

This article explains the Celtic connection to Czechia.

What does Celtic mean?

The Celts were a tribal people who lived around the Late Iron Age (i.e., between 460 and 30 BC)¹. They spread across Europe from the Iberian Peninsula to Asia Minor^{1 2}. This means they lived in almost every part of this continent.

We don’t have written records of the Celts and their customs, but we do have their artistry. All these tribes shared a common culture, which is why we group them together under one name. They may have been quite independent in other respects. The things they left us shows that they shared this much. That is enough for us to group them together.

I’ve written about the Funnel Beaker culture before. In that case too, we have grouped peoples together based on their artistry. In many ways this grouping is artificial and modern.

The geometric patterns which we associate with the Celtics started in the Early Iron Age. It is possible the patterns had been in use by ancient humans for many years. By engraving these patterns in iron, they managed to pass them down to us in the historical record.

The La Tène culture

If we’re being precise about things, the geometric and abstract Celtic patterns are part of the La Tène culture^{1 2}. This is because we first discovered items at La Tène on Lake Neuchatel, Switzerland¹. It’s interesting that this was where, and when, Celtic tribes mixed with Greek and Etruscan people³. The resulting patterns are a merging of these cultures and traditions.

We know that the La Tène culture spread from central and western Europe starting from the 4th century BC¹. They migrated to northern Italy, the Balkans and the Carpathian basin¹. Considering Rome’s growing influence, this migration makes perfect sense.

Rome fought with these Celtic tribes over many years. A lot of what we know about the Celts comes from Roman accounts of the enemies they encountered. The Romans gave these tribes different names, even if they were all Celtic.

The Romans called one tribe the Boii. These people split into several groups⁴:

• One group settled in the Italian peninsula as far south as Bologna. They became a Latin colony by 191 BC.
• Another group joined the Helvetii to invade Gaul. Julius Caesar defeated them in 58 BC.
• A third group lived south of the Danube but the Burebista tribe killed them.
• The last group settled further north in modern-day Czechia. The Germanic Marcomanni tribe expelled them from here. The Romans called the region, “The land of the Boii”, or Boii-hemia, which became Bohemia.

Influence in or around Czechia

There are many Celtic sites in present-day Czechia which tell us about their lives in this region. We have discovered 2nd century Celtic coins too which shows the Boii lasted at least that long¹.

The Boii started migrating to other parts of Europe in the 2nd century BC¹. The Boii forced out other tribes from the Jutland area in Denmark¹. This could have been a reaction to Germanic invasions south into Bohemia².

The Boii tribes started migrating south towards the Danube region around 60 BC. There may have been several migration waves, due to Marcomanni attacks from the north.

Records show that Celtic presence disappeared from present-day Czechia around 30 BC¹. We cannot be sure about this date because later Celts stopped burying items with their dead⁵. This means there is no trace of these people, even if they still occupied the region.

This is before Slavic tribes advanced westwards towards the area.

Archaeologists are still discovering items from the La Tène culture. The recent unique discovery of a 1st or 2nd century Celtic sword is the latest addition⁵. This is a double-bladed weapon with a blunt tip and a rib in the middle of the blade⁵. The handle hasn’t survived, which implies it was a wooden, or leather, handle⁵.

Whatever we have left to discover may refine our understanding of when the Celts left the region. Whether we ever get a precise date or not, their influence lives on in the name Bohemia.

References

1. The Celts; Exhibition at Prague’s National Museum (as witnessed by author); 2019-08[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
2. Celts; Encyclopedia Britannica; 2019-11-21[↩][↩][↩]
3. La Tène; Encyclopedia Britannica; 2013-05-24[↩]
4. Boii; Encyclopedia Britannica; 2016-06-16[↩]
5. Unique Celtic sword discovered by archaeologists in East Bohemia; Ruth Frañkova; Radio Prague International; 2020-04-09[↩][↩][↩][↩]

Remember: links were correct at time of publication.