September 10, 2006

Book 29: The Celts

The Celts
T.G. E Powell

I would like to welcome you to the first of my books required for the semester. Here we kick off the new year with a highly informative but rather dry textbook of sorts, an entry into the foreign and ancient world of the Celts. The writing isn't particularly illuminating, but for a textbook the prose is actually quite enlightening. The book focuses on the Celts from a mainly archaeological perspective. See, you may think of the Celts as the Irish and Scottish, but most of non-Scandanavian Europe north of Italy and west of Poland was once Celtic land; it's just that the culture has been preserved in Ireland because of the limits of Roman expansion.

The book starts off with a bang, keeping the reader totally engaged before slowly descending into a barely comprehensible section on archaeological specifics that, unfortunately, are jibberish to the plebian eye. Unfortunately, there are a few inside references to random cultures that aren't properly explained and the reader gets lost in the technical jargon. Overall, though, this section is informative at the times when the reader catches up and turns on the light bulb.

The other three sections of the book explore the actual lives of the Celts, mostly through their archaeological remnants, though the occasional passage shows up in the works of Julius Caesar or Herodotus. Though the writing is rather technical, describing most conclusions scientifically and as conjecture, the actual revelations are interesting. The trick is picking them out of the dense prose. The writing goes on to discuss Celtic supernatural beliefs and rituals and the Celtic legacy in Europe today.

All told, this book is an excellent comprehensive introduction to an ancient people. The writing, however dense, goes by pretty quickly as many pages are illustrated with examples of artifacts. If the reader can excavate meaning out of the thick jargon, much will be gleaned about the prehistoric people of Western Europe.

Grade: B

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