DeDanaan

Filed by Aine MacDermot

800 The Cimmerians begin to move across the Trans-Caucasus into Asia Minor displacing the Phrygians as the Scythians move into the North Pontic area.

700 The Celtic Hallstatt Culture of the Iron Age is at its peak, some elements have been developing since 1100 and show influence by the Illyrians. The Halstatt Culture was for the aristocrats among the Celts, the rest of the tribe remained in the Urnfield Culture.

The Milesians of Melitus establish trading centers at Sinope (today’s Sinop) and Amisus (Sansun) on the south Pontic shores of the Black Sea. The Milesians of Sinope go on to found the trading centers of Cotyora (Ordu), Cesasus (Giresun) and Trapezes (Trabzon) all on the south shore of the Black Sea.

The Scythians pursue the Cimmerians and now control the north and south shores of the Black Sea. The Greek trading communities pay tribute to continue their status to the Scythians, thus the term “Greek Scythia” is now a fact. The Scythians push the Cimmerians all the way to Assyria.

650 Royal Scythia, home of the ruling families of the Scythians is in the North Pontic area even though their administrative capital is in Saqqez on the Tigris and the frontier of Scythia went as far east as the upper Yenisei River in Siberia.

612 The Scythians allied with Babylonians and Medes attack and defeat the Assyrians at Nineveh.

600 Goidelic speaking Celts from Spain arrive in Ireland. Celtic centers are in Ankara, Budapest, Belgrade, Verona, Milan, Geneva, Paris, Orleans, Tara, and in Spain, Britain, Scotland, Holland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, and Czechoslovakia.

Greeks trade with Celts at Marseilles. The latter is founded by traders from Asia Minor.

500 Brythonic speaking Celts arrive in Britain and Ireland. Among them are the Erainn Cets Laigin of Armorica (later Brittany). Celts are in Narbonne, France and in southwest Spain.

The Insubres capture Milan. The Cenomani settle Brecia and Verona.

As the Celtic early history is found in an oral tradition, we have to read what others wrote of the Celts to have some understanding of them.

“Physically the Celts are terrifying in appearance, with deep sounding and very harsh voices. In conversation they use few words and speak in riddles, for the most part hinting at things and leaving a great deal to be understood. They frequently exaggerate with the aim of extolling themselves and diminishing the status of others. They are boasters and threateners and given to bombastic self-dramatization, and yet are quick of mind and with good natural ability for learning.” - Diodorus Siculus, Greek writer

“The whole race … is madly fond of war, high-spirited and quick to battle, but otherwise straight forward and not of evil character. …at any time or place and on whatever pretext you stir them up, you will have them ready to face danger, even if they have nothing on their side but their own strength and courage.” - Strabo, Greek geographer

“We have no word for the man who is excessively fearless; perhaps one may call such a man bereft of feeling, who fears nothing, neither earthquake nor waves, as they say of the Celts.” - Aristotle, Greek philosopher

**Dr. Barry Fell of Harvard University has identified inscriptions found in New England that are in Ogham writing. Ogham was a method of inscribing writing on stone used by Gaels in Ireland, Scotland and Wales as early as 500 B.C. According to his studies, Dr. Fell believes a group of Celts first settled in New Hampshire at the mouth of the Merrimac River. Later the Celts went up the Merrimac River as far as Quechie, Vermont and westward into the Green Mountains. In his book, America B. C., Dr. Fell mentions sites found at South Woodstock and South Royalton, Vermont; in New Hampshire at Raymond, Bartlett and Mystery Hill; in Maine at Madison and off the coast at on Manana Island and Mohegan Island; in Massachusetts at Upton, Merrimackport, Westport, Burnt Mountain and the Boston area.

Dr. Fell reports that Cotton Mather wrote the Royal Academy in England in 1712 about Ogham writing he found at a site in Dighton, Massachusetts. Other sites were found at Danbury, Connecticut; North Salem, New York and the Susquehanna River Valley in Pennsylvania.
Gloria Farley, a colleague of Dr. Fell, has found evidence of Celts who left Ogham writing as they travelled up the Mississippi River, westward on the Arkansas River to the Cimmarron River that borders Arkansas and Oklahoma.

The New England sites have more evidence than just Ogham writing, there are dolmens, druid circles, burial tombs and oracle chambers - all reflecting Celtic culture.

**Note: Dr. Fell’s work is rebutted by W. Hunter Lesser in The West Virginia Archeologist Volume 41, Number 1, Spring 1989.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27