Page 66 - All About History - Issue 38-16

ELTS

Cult of Death

From human sacrifice to headhunting, the Celts had

a ferocious reputation in the ancient world and a
vivid vision of the afterlife

Written by Jack Griffiths

rior to the coming of the the spirits of these great heroes lived on after
Romans, the Hallstatt death, with the cult of death based on the idea of a
and La Tène cultures supernatural realm known as the Otherworld. The
flourished in a continental belief was that once a Celt’s mortal body had died,
Celtic civilisation that had the soul would live on. Elaborate burial sites have
its heartland in central been found across Europe with food, weapons
P Europe but branched out and supplies buried along with the dead. These
as far east as Asia Minor and as far west as Ireland. decorated burial grounds are some of the best
Although it was a fragmented society made up of records of Celtic culture.
clans with no centralised government, one thing The cult of death claimed that the Otherworld
the Celts were unified on was the cult of death. was rooted in the physical world, sometimes
Across Europe, this major part of Celtic culture being described as underground or a far away
centred on a reverence for human heads and island. Once in the Otherworld, Celts believed that
elaborate burial sites. In Britain, Ireland and Gaul life after death was happy; a paradise filled with
(France) especially, a class of people known as feasting and happiness. This is one of the reasons
druids became the link between the natural and for their renowned ferocity on the battlefield
the supernatural. The Celts believed that for a clan – they weren’t afraid of death, and meeting
to survive and truly prosper, the dead must be their end by the blade of an enemy sword was
properly respected. something to aspire to. Bravery and recklessness
The Celtic warrior tradition was very similar in war was glorified and would be boasted about
to the hero culture that existed in Ancient at every opportunity. To the Romans, the cult of
Greece and Rome, with elite fighters admired as death was wild barbarism at its worst, but to the
champions and inspirations. It was believed that Celts, it was a way of life.

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