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The Ancient Celts were Awesome.


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#1 Diabolical_Jazz

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Posted 03 February 2013 - 07:52 PM

So, I have sortof always wanted to hear more about the ancient Celts, not only in Ireland, but in Gaul and wherever else they lived.
Finally I realized that there would be documentaries on Youtube. Derp.

So I looked some up, and I found this:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Interesting stuff.

Apparently the ancient Celts had more advanced calendars than the Romans, they had more advanced roads than the Romans, they had highly advanced metalworking and mining technologies, they were incredibly wealthy, and they had more progressive laws. Some of which allowed Women to be rules, they *mandated* the protection of children (including the mentally handicapped), and they allowed women to divorce their husbands for reasons including: Impotence, infertility, or domestic abuse.
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#2 DaRatmastah

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Posted 03 February 2013 - 10:24 PM

Yeah, my ancestors pretty much rocked. Between the irish being awesome, and the scottish inventing fucking everything, I'm set.

#3 Affray

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Posted 04 February 2013 - 12:31 AM

Stupid BBC not letting me watch those videos.

On top of all those things, they were also balls crazy.
I mean over the top, murderlust, crazy-eyed insane.
No one fucked with them without feeling the wrath of an army of pissed off, naked warriors.

It is perfectly acceptable to fear and admire a being you could not possibly understand.


#4 Diabolical_Jazz

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Posted 04 February 2013 - 02:43 AM

After watching this documentary, I have to wonder if they didn't have somewhat different reasons for fighting so ferociously than I might have thought previously.

"Listen men, if we are conquered by those Romans, they are going to take all of our mad lootz, and change all our laws to their laws, which don't make any goddamn sense! And worst of all, THEIR CALENDAR IS STUPID! FOR GAAAAUUUL!"
I don't think he needs to be immortal. I think all he needs to do is to write the right story. Because some stories do live forever.

#5 Calvary

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Posted 04 February 2013 - 12:04 PM

I'd take some of that with a pinch of salt though. The celts, at lest the Brythonic celts were much more backward than the Romans in all but society, and even then - the Romans didn't sacrifice hundreds of men, women and children to the gods, they just got rid of goats. xD

Obviously the British celts were repressed to extinction as well...so they weren't that great. :D

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#6 Diabolical_Jazz

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Posted 04 February 2013 - 01:16 PM

I dunno. Part four calls into question the idea that the Celts did much human sacrificing at all.

Basically all existing accounts of the Celts from that time were written by the Romans and the Greeks.
Both groups had plenty of reason to paint the Celts in a poor light, and have been shown to have been lying or wrong in several of their accounts.
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#7 Affray

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Posted 04 February 2013 - 03:39 PM

I read a handful of articles that suggested there was hardly any human sacrifice going on, ever.
There were instances yes, but so many different cultures are depicted as inhumane monsters that kill their own to appease the gods, how can they all be true without huge amounts of evidence?

It is perfectly acceptable to fear and admire a being you could not possibly understand.


#8 Kaytiii

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Posted 07 February 2013 - 03:07 PM

Fascinating documentary.

On the topic of human sacrifice, you have to consider the fact that a lot of the documentation about Celtic human sacrifice was written by people who probably saw the Celts as threatening. There are plenty of instances of aggressive activity and the like being largely exaggerated by the enemies of particular civilizations. Propaganda, man.

#9 Diabolical_Jazz

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Posted 07 February 2013 - 09:01 PM

I also don't see human sacrifice as a good survival thing.
Most cultural quirks can be viewed as tangibly beneficial to the culture that created them in some way. Even religious stuff.

Ancient Hebrews didn't eat certain foods because of their religious law. It also just so happened that they lived in a desert and a lot of those same foods tended to be dangerous to eat in those conditions.
Hindus don't eat cows because they consider them sacred, but as a culture with a strong caste system (and the pronounced poverty inherent therein) it has always been somewhat more beneficial to keep a cow and continue to benefit from the things it produces (milk for drinking, feces for burning, etc) than to kill the cow and suddenly have nothing.

I, at least, cannot think of a single tangible benefit to human sacrifice.
Controlling overpopulation does not count, either. Otherwise more cultures would have adopted it more freely. Humans are rampantly overpopulated.
Plus, the Celts were constantly at war with each other, so that controlled their populations just fine.
I don't think he needs to be immortal. I think all he needs to do is to write the right story. Because some stories do live forever.

#10 Fox The Cat

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Posted 10 February 2013 - 11:18 PM

My real name originated I believe from a celtic clan.

you innocent... fucking... fox... 


#11 No-Danico

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Posted 11 February 2013 - 12:25 AM

I, at least, cannot think of a single tangible benefit to human sacrifice.
Controlling overpopulation does not count, either. Otherwise more cultures would have adopted it more freely. Humans are rampantly overpopulated.
Plus, the Celts were constantly at war with each other, so that controlled their populations just fine.


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#12 Diabolical_Jazz

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Posted 11 February 2013 - 09:34 AM

So the dark gods of the ancient savages were all real?

Huh.

Maybe they're mad at us for quitting with the human sacrifices, and that's why global warming is happening.
I don't think he needs to be immortal. I think all he needs to do is to write the right story. Because some stories do live forever.

#13 No-Danico

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Posted 11 February 2013 - 09:11 PM

Ironically, global warming was caused by a doomsday machine built by Al Gore when he was still in college. His entire adult life has been devoted to stopping it.

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