New Historical Civilizations!!!

[bodidley]

Eahmain Macha was the colloquial name of the city the fortress was constructed in. The formal name of the city was so long people felt it unnecessary to say it, and the fortress was so impressive it was easier to remember. It was the palace of the high king, and an impressive fortification. In its prime, it's estimated that it could probably stop a cannonball in its walls; pretty impressive considering it was mainly made of wood and packed dirt with a little stone. .

*ahem* "La Paz"

Considering that fortresses in the gunpowder age changed their focus to dirt it seems to make sense to me. Force=(change in velocity)/Time so anything that would increase the amount of time involved in the impact would decrease the force (the difference between falling down on a pillow or on a cement floor, for example).

I have a question Ranika. If the Picts were a non-Celtic culture then is it possible that they were some sort of vestige of the pre-Celtic culture of the British isles?

[Ranika]

I never said I knew much about fortress building, but it still impresses me. Anyway, on the Picts, yes, it's possible. There are a lot of theories about the Picts though, so saying 'yes, definitely' or 'no, definitely not' is not really possible. The southern Picts we'd surely consider Celts (since fleeing Britons integrated there, so even if the Caledonians hadn't been Celtic there before, the huge influx of Britons would surely shift their culture); the northern Picts it's hard to say. 'Pict' is a catchall term for tribes that had been in a confederacy to fight the Romans, and eventually formed a few kingdoms, then united and made a kingdom we often just call 'Pictland', since we don't know what they called it (odd, considering we know the names of the lesser kingdoms that formed it). It's important not to think Picts = Caledonians; the Picts formed out of necessity, and a mix of cultures. Gaelic-blooded settlers (not the Dal Riadan invasion, they'd come later) and British refugees helped form the Pict confederacy, and the Pict culture. Caledonians, I personally, do not think of as being Celts. At least not in the north. Again, the lowland Caledonians may have been, on account of constant interaction with Britons. The northern Caledonians I'm fairly sure weren't.

[Spongly]

The Gae Bolg, I believe is supposed to be a sort of magical weapon, given that it also never misses a target it's thrown at, and unless I'm mistaken can only be used when standing in water. It is certainly based on types of barbed Irish spears, but THE Gae Bolg is as uniquely CuChullain's weapon as Excalibur was Arthur's (a bad example, I guess, given that several other heroes carry weapons with staggeringly similar names, but you get the point...)

[Spongly]

Oh, as for the Picts and Celts question, the Picts, we can be pretty sure, spoke a Celtic language, and therefore are Celts in the only sense in which that term is at all meaningful. Their "racial" background is undetermined, and will probably remain so, and I really can't see that it matters much. "Celt" is more of a cultural and linguistic grouping anyway, and a pretty loose cultural one at that.

[Ranika]

Actually, language doesn't come into it, and the northernmost Caledonians (at least in the Pict period) don't seem to speak a Celtic language (or they spoke a very isolated one), as missionaries from Ireland and Britain both needed translators to understand them, even those who were versed in languages from all over Britain (like St. Columba). If language defined 'Celts', Celtiberians and other Iberians would be considered Celts, but they aren't. Celtiberians are simply Iberians who descended from Celts, and maintain some cultural traditions, and the language, but were not Celts themselves. Additionally, there are three whole Celtic language families (one being completely dead now), and those families don't sound remotely similar; basing anything Celtic on language is tenous at best. Language should probably be viewed as a tertiary sign of a culture being 'Celtic'; first and second would be the type of art/weapons, and the type of religion, before language.


And yes, the Gae Bolg in Cu Chullain is magical, but it is based on real weapons, and dark age/medieval Irish (likely as homage) called their barbed 'foot' spears also 'stomach' darts (Gae Bolge).