THE CELTS IN IRELAND

FIST INHABITANTS:

Arrival:

• First wave: hunters
  - 6000 B.C. (End of Ice Age > warmer climate)
  - immigration from Scotland to Antrim coast
• Second wave: farmers (tools = stone implements)
• Third wave: metal workers
  - 2000 B.C.
  - Evidences: Dublin, National Museum (prehistoric gold objects)

                     The National Museum in Dublin

                 The National Museum is home to the largest collection of Celtic antiquities in the world. This
                 includes such treasures as the Ardagh Chalice and the Tara Brooch. There is also a collection of
                 items from the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence, such as weapons and uniforms. There is
                 also a permanent Viking exhibition upstairs in the Museum.

THE CELTS (iron weapons):

Arrival:

• First wave: from the Continent to West Ireland
• Second wave: through Britain to North-East Ireland

Territorial organization:

• five major kingdoms
  - large number of petty kingdoms (tuatha)

Hundred kingdoms with a few thousand people each > Frequent local wars

Cultural, social and legal unity (not political)

Social organization:

• rural society (no cities, no towns)
• monasteries as centres with a large population

Inhabitation:

• ràth (homestead of the farming classes)