The Celtic World (1992)

Second-Hand (Hardcover)

Excellent condition

The story of the Celts is a story of survival, defiance, and creativity in the face of oppression; it is a tale extending from desolate prehistoric Europe, through bitter conflicts with Rome, to political rallies and folksongs of present-day Ireland and Brittany

Hundreds of illustrations of art and artifact - many in full color, many rarely published - enliven noted Oxford archaeologist Barry Cunliffe's portrayal of this paradoxical civilization.

Who were the Celts? Where did they come from?

Professor Cunliffe probes these mysteries - made more perplexing by the absence of ancient Celtic written records - in a brilliant display of historical detective work. He takes us beyond ruins and artifacts to the people themselves, the way they lived, their violent tempera ent, gargantuan feasts, and savagery in battle.

Here at the dawn of Celtic civilization are the little-known settlements of the Central European hinterland whose inhabitants traded with distant Greek cities and expanded from the Hungarian plain to the Atlantic coast. Here are the Cimmerians, who introduced the horse to Europe and made the Celts a nation of cavalrymen that were the terror of Greece and Rome.

Here are the Celtic miners, artisans, traders, and sculptors who built the first cities in barbarian Europe and developed a prosperous urban culture.