Quote Originally Posted by khelvan
This assumes that the "barbarians" did not have an urban lifestyle, or concepts such as state, administration, and so on. They did. Please read my post above. The Germanic tribes did not, but the Celts certainly did so, and were highly advanced in the areas of state, administration, and science. As advanced as the Romans? No, but advanced, certainly.
Yeah, I know what you mean. True, La Tène culture had reached a high degree of civilization. But note that you have solved the question yourself:

Quote Originally Posted by khelvan
As advanced as the Romans? No.
Besides, I referred to the cultural circumstances that make posible an urban class dedied entirely to research and science. The whole Celtic culture was so inclined to the exaltation of war as a mean to reach safety and prosperity, that 'thinking' was just reserved for an special kind of chaman (druids) whose knowledge was oriented to heal wounded warriors (medicine), stimulate their bravery (rites with drugs) and improve their weaponry (chemical metallurgy). Druids were undoubtly initiated in the secrets of early medicine and metallurgy, but they had so a high implication in religion, rites, war and tribal politics that I doubt they would have never reached other knowledge than that available from the surrounding nature.

But, what about engineering? It's not hard to see that Celtics and Germans had craftsmen instead of engineers, and masons instead of architects. Complex knowledge about construction or engineering requires more than craftmanship skills trasferred from father to son, or master to pupil. It requires long technical academic preparation, the kind of infrastructure that non-Mediterranean cultures lacked, because they used nearly all their material and human resources for their war, food and production needs.

That's why they should lack such complex items: a fact backed by archælogic findings -or their absence. Although, well, you never know what they're going to find tomorrow...