<h>Traveller’s Log</h<p>The cold Atlantic splashes onto the deck as the Traveller shivers under his cloak, the harsh Gallic voices of the crew swallowed by the hiss and rush of the ocean. The captain, despite being a seasoned seaman, refuses to travel close to the coast, siting risks of shifting sandbanks, strong and unpredictable currents and tides. All that can be made out is the mouth of the Liger, surrounded by marshes and, on drier land, deciduous forests and farmland. This land is inhabited by the Piktonis and the Santonis, and his final destination, Lemonum, by the Lemovices. All are Celts, warlike and proud, who live and die by the sword.</p><h>Geography</h><p>Ikoranda Piktonis roughly corresponds to two of the administrative regions of modern France, Pays de la Loire and Poitou-Charentes, and is split equally between them. It covered the area between the Loire River (in the period of EB, the Liger), which formed its northern border, and the Gironde Estuary (the Garumna), which forms its southern border. Technically, the Gironde is only the mouth of two rivers, the most northern of being the Dordogne which forms the southern border. Its limit to the west is the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic, while its eastern border is somewhat unclear with the province petering out east of the capital, Lemonum. The Gironde and the Loire were (and are) marshy and unpredictable rivers with strong tidal flows and changeable sandbanks, requiring an experienced pilot to navigate safely. But with risk comes riches, the marshes are a haven for birds, fish and traders. The Atlantic was a major means of travel and exchange by the 3rd century BCE, influencing the archaeological signature of all coastal settlements in Celtic land, creating the so-called ‘Atlantic façade’.</p> <p>The climate of this period was much as it is today, a temperate oceanic climate, with significant rainfall in both summer and winter. The land is mostly flat and low lying, with no major mountain ranges or hills. As a result, the two dominant biomes are marsh and deciduous forest. The deciduous forest was made up of oak, beech, pine and birch with numerous mammals such as deer, boar, wolves, foxes, rabbits and–occasionally-bears. However, the large carnivores that once inhabited this forest such as bears and wolves were eradicated in the Middle Ages.</p><h>History</h><p>The history of this region is long, stretching as back to its first settlement by the genus Homo by Homo neanderthalisensis, almost 200 000 years ago. But the arrival of Indo-European languages and farming marks the beginning of the history of Ikoranda Piktonis.</p><p>Indo-Europeans are the source of the majority of modern European and Asian languages, with the exception of Basque and Finnish in Western Europe. They are reputed to have migrated from an area around Iran and Northern India to travel as far west as Ireland, leaving behind both language and belief systems that would evolve into ‘Celtic’ by 1000 BCE. These languages were driven into extinction by the Roman conquest of Western Europe, delivering the killing blow to Gaulish, Galatian, Celto-Iberian among others. Only in the far western strongholds did these languages survive, leaving Welsh, Gaelic and Irish to survive into the present.</p><p>The first truly ‘Celtic’ culture in Europe is the Hallstatt, which marks the beginning of widespread iron usage in this area, albeit tempered with a strong usage of bronze. It is worth noting however, the arrival of a specific archaeological culture cannot be equated with the arrival of the Celts or even a broad sense of ‘Celticness’. It was named for a huge cemetery is Austria where over 1000 burials were discovered. It was characterized by the appearance of fortified hilltop settlements (Oppida) and elaborate elite burials which would continue into the next archaeologically defined culture, the La Tène.</p><p>The La Tène begins around 5th century BCE and would continue until the Roman conquest in the 1st century BCE. Contact with the Greeks, Phoenicians and Romans resulted in a vibrant trade, exchanging the exotics of the north for those of the south, by riverine routes on the Danube and Rhine and through the Atlantic. In Ikoranda Piktonis Greek and Phoenician traders arrived from the Mediterranean to trade for tin from Britain and other goods from the interior of Gaul. This helped fuel the wealth based culture of the La Tène, where gifts and largess played a key part in determining status, reflected in the impressive burials and artifacts of the period. The development of hillforts in the Hallstatt is continued into the La Tène, growing in both number and size, presumably to protect the wealth this trade generated.</p> <p>Ikoranda Piktonis reflects wider trends towards fortification, industry, status and trade. Many sites in this area show signs of fortification, with ditches and timber walls built on hills in commanding locations, often to protect either villages or the important waterways which these villages grew up around. These villages show evidence of ironworking, glass manufacture and ceramic production, often on large scales. These industries, along with raw materials, provided the bulk of the trade goods that the people of the Mediterranean desired. Trash pits are often one of the richest sources of evidence for archaeologists, proving again the adage, ‘One man’s trash is another man’s treasure’. Such is case here with garbage piles containing local Gallic pottery mixed with foreign amphora jars, which are often used to store wine. Whether these jars held wine for consumption or the pottery itself was desired is unknown, but it reflects a wider Mediterranean influence on the Celtic world.</p><p>Such is the state of play by the beginning of the timeframe of Europa Barbarorum in early 3rd century BCE, with elite culture and status being fueled by Mediterranean trade, which was funneled into the ports of the Atlantic coast and up the rivers of Central Europe with many and more fortifications to protect that wealth.</p><p>The arrival of Julius Caesar in Gaul in 58 BCE gives us our first comprehensive written accounts of this region, which gives us the names of many of the tribes he encountered, including in Ikoranda Piktonis, the Pictones or Piktonis. These people were renowned for their shipbuilding and aided Caesar in his initial conquest of Gaul, supplying ships and men. They attempted to aid the rebellion of Vercingetorix but were repressed after his defeat at Alesia and after being absorbed by the Romans, ceased to exist as a separate entity.</p><h> People, Society and Government</h><p>The people of this region are Celts, drawn from ancient stock and with culture and language that can be traced back to the first Indo-European migrations into Europe.</p><p>There are two main varieties of Celtic that have been identified in Iron Age Europe, Insular and Continental Celtic, the former being spoken in Britain, Ireland and Brittany while the latter was spoken in the rest of Celtic Europe (including the similar but distinct Celto-Iberian). The language of the people of Ikoranda Piktonis was probably Gaulish, a language whose main source of evidence comes from inscriptions, due to the extinction of Continental Celtic during the Roman occupation to follow.</p><p>Celtic society and government is based around bondage, status and privilege. They were dominated by warrior elites, whose drive for status resulted in the beautiful and ornate art of the period. Bondage and fealty bound men and women to the King, in variety of statuses, from valued ‘shieldman’ to lowly serf. The sense of ‘nationhood’ was primarily formed from belonging to the tribe, resulting in frequent inter-tribal violence, which was often used to build a warrior’s prestige.</p><h>Strategy<h/><p>Rich trade and soils make this province a potential breadbasket for any empire, with wealth to expand and form a yet greater nation.</p>
Re: Regional Descriptions: Help the EBII Team
Originally Posted by The Gypsy
-Silentium... mandata captate; non vos turbatis; ordinem servate; bando sequute; memo demittat bandum et inimicos seque;
donated by ARCHIPPOS for being friendly to new people.
donated by Tellos Athenaios as a welcome to Campus Martius
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks