How early Celts IMPORTED their wine: Settlers in France 2,700 years ago quaffed Greek alcohol and olives out of Mediterranean pottery
- Hundreds of fragments from 99 ceramic containers have been excavated
- They were found at the hillfort site of Vix-Mont Lassois in Burgundy, France
- Experts used gas chromatography mass spectrometry to study organic residues
- This included 16 vessels from the Mediterranean and some locally produced
Early Celts in eastern France imported Mediterranean pottery, as well as olive oil and wine, 2,700 years ago, experts say.
Hundreds of fragments from 99 of the ceramic containers have been excavated from the hillfort site of Vix-Mont Lassois in Burgundy.
Researchers believe the find suggests that Celtic people in the region may have appropriated Mediterranean feasting practices.
Academics made the discovery by studying fats and other organic materials on the vessels, which date back as far as the Eighth Century BC.
Early Celts in eastern France imported Mediterranean pottery, as well as olive oil and wine, 2,700 years ago, experts say. Hundreds of fragments from 99 of the ceramic containers (pictured) have been excavated from the hillfort site of Vix-Mont Lassois in Burgundy
WHAT IS GCMS?
Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS) is a by which complex mixtures of chemicals may be separated, identified and quantified.
This makes it ideal for the analysis of the hundreds of relatively low molecular weight compounds found in environmental materials.
Samples are usually analysed as organic solutions made up of soils, sediments, tissues and other materials of interest.
Scientists from the Ludwig-Maximilians Unicersity in Munich and the University of Tübingen are behind the discovery.
The study is the first to investigate the impact of these Mediterranean imports and of Mediterranean feasting and consumption practices on Early Celtic culture using molecular organic residue analysis techniques.
Writing about the study, its authors said: ‘The Celts in the Early Iron Age did not just drink imported Greek wine from their imported Greek pottery.
‘They also used the foreign vessels in their own way for drinking different kinds of local beer, as organic residue analysis of 100 Early Iron Age local and Mediterranean drinking vessels from Mont Lassois, France, shows.’
Experts used gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS) to study organic residues extracted from 99 ceramic fragments found at Vix-Mont Lassois.
This included 16 vessels imported from the Mediterranean and some from locally produced vessels.
These would have been used in a number of different settings, including elite, artisan, ritual, and military.
The results showed that the imported vessels were not only used for wine drinking as an appropriation of Mediterranean feasting practices, but also to drink local beers spiced with pine resins.
Additional home-grown beverages were also found in local pottery, including what may have been millet-based beer. This was probably consumed only by poorer people, researchers suggest.
Barley-based beer and birch-derived beverages, to be consumed by high-status individuals, were also found. Local pine resins and plant oils were also identified.
Beeswax was present in around half of the local pottery vessels, possibly indicating that mead was a popular fermented beverage or that the Early Celts liked to sweeten their beverages with honey.
The authors note that common foods such as wheat, barley and rye might have been present in the vessels but could not be detected by their analysis centuries later.
Despite this limitation, this study sheds new light on the role of imported Mediterranean food and drink in helping shape Early Celtic feasting practices and demonstrates the potential of this type of molecular analysis also for other archaeological sites.
The full findings of the study were published in the journal PLOS ONE.
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE CELTS?
The Celts were a European cultural group first evident in the 7th or 8th century BC.
However, exactly who they were and where they came from is still a source of some debate.
The term ‘Celtic’ is a relatively modern one, used in the 19th century as a catch all term for peoples who share the same language, culture and ethnic identity.
One theory suggests that the people we now call ‘Celts’ came from Austria or Central Europe, but that’s just one theory.
DNA studies on Celtic populations in Britain suggest that they are not a unique genetic group.
Those of Celtic ancestry in Scotland and Cornwall more similar to the English than they are to other Celtic groups elsewhere in the world.
The Romans called the Celts the Galli and the Greeks called them Keltoi- both meaning barbarians.
Their maximum expansion was in the Third to Fifth Centuries BC, when they occupied much of Europe north of the Alps.
The Celts were a European cultural group first evident in the 7th or 8th century BC. However, exactly who they were and where they came from is still a source of some debate
The Celts arrived in Britain by the Fourth or Fifth Centuries BC. They had reached Ireland by the Second or Third Centuries BC and possibly even earlier, displacing earlier people who were already on both islands.
The Gaels, Gauls, Britons, Irish, and Gallations were all Celtic people.
Celtic culture survived longer in these areas than in continental Europe. In many ways it still survives today.
On the continent, the expanding Romans defeated various Celtic groups and subsumed their culture.
Julius Ceaser conducted a successful campaign against the Gauls in 52 to 58 BC, and as part of that campaign invaded Britain in 54 BC, but was unsuccessful in conquering the island.
Ninety-seven years later, in 43 AD, the Romans invaded Britain again, pushing the Britons to the west – into Wales and Cornwall – and north into Scotland.
Hadrian’s Wall was built beginning in 120 AD to protect the Romans from the northern Celtic tribes.
The Romans never occupied Ireland, nor did the Anglo-Saxons who invaded Britain after the Romans withdrew in the Fifth Century.
Celtic culture survived more strongly in Ireland than elsewhere – partly because of hill forts.
Christianity came to Ireland in the Fourth Century, with St Patrick arriving later in 432 AD and facilitating its spread.
Many of the Celtic cultural elements integrated with Christianity.
The most “religious” aspect of Celtic culture, Druidic practice, diminished, and many say that the Druids were systematically suppressed and killed.
However, many cultural elements lasted, including ancient oral stories which were recorded by Irish monks in both Irish and Latin – without much editorial interference.
Viking invasions in the Seventh to Ninth Centuries AD interrupted the Irish culture and destroyed many cultural elements, including many manuscripts lost in plundered monasteries.
The Vikings founded several Irish cities, such as Belfast and Dublin. However, they never really took over the island.
Ireland was not truly occupied by another nation until 1160, when the Normans invaded from England.
British occupation of Ireland lasted until 1922 – five northern counties – known as Northern Ireland – are still part of Britain.
Even under English occupation many elements of Celtic culture survived, so in many ways Celtic culture has been continuous in Ireland for 2,400 years or more.
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