Human Sacrifice & Cannibalism in Celtic Britain: A Little Too Close to Home?
A brief article about the unsavoury ritual antics of the ancient British Celts!
Most of us attribute the practice of human sacrifice to barbaric tribes living in far flung corners of the earth, but this wasn’t always the case: it almost certainly happened right here, in our own back yard!
Iron age Britain was populated by an ancient, indigenous people called the Celts. Spreading from Ireland, across mainland Britain and right into Europe, the Celts were a superstitious people with a rich mythology and ritualistic religious practice. Their religious leaders, or priests, were the Druids and it is almost certainly they who would have ordained the sacrificial rituals, in times of war or other great need.
The Celts, despite their artistic skills, were unfortunately illiterate and, owing to this, we must draw our historical conclusions only from the politically motivated accounts of Celtic life provided by the Romans, and the few archaeological artifacts found in the UK – all of which happily lead us to the same conclusion: the Celts/Druids were involved in sacrificing fellow human beings in order to appease their Gods or gain their favour.
Roman sources suggest the Celts were completely uncivilised but we know this to be far from true; the Celts were living in organised communities; producing diverse works of art – from jewellery and statues to more practical items – and were largely peaceful, too, until the arrival of the Romans.
There is archaeological evidence to suggest there were many (and, perhaps, even some mass) sacrifices carried out during the Roman invasion – including those of fit, healthy and even fairly important (upper-class) people – but it’s difficult to guess how regularly sacrifices might have been made prior to that time. It would seem fairly odd, though, for any group of people to suddenly begin sacrificing fellow humans, even when invaded by an awesome enemy such as the Romans, should they have never done so before – which leads one to believe they must have had a not-to-distant history of committing such acts.
Here’s an article about the archaeological evidence to support this claim: http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Lindow:man.htm
Recently, particularly in the US, there has been a surge of neo-pagans claiming to live by the beliefs of the Celts or the Druids; to worship their pantheon in a similar ritualistic fashion (I say similar because no-one knows how the Celts or Druids worshipped or exactly what a ritual would have entailed because there is no evidence); to live their lives in harmony with nature and according to ancient principles, etc – but how many of them would participate in human sacrifice?
And – just for good measure – it has also been suggested by historians and archaeologists that the remains of healthy Celts who’d died were often consumed by their younger, living relatives, in the belief they would their absorb power/knowledge/wisdom by doing so! Yummy!
The way in which we, in modern times, have chosen to romanticise ancient peoples – denying their less positive attributes and behaviours, while simultaneously condemning similar behaviour practised by today’s “uncivilised” tribes – is quite peculiar. I imagine there will be some modern Pagans and Druids for whom the history of Celtic/Druid human sacrifice and/or cannibalism will come as a complete shock.
In any case, whether we like it or not, it would seem that man, from one end of the earth to the other, at some point in time, engaged in human sacrifice for religious reasons. Were it not for the Roman invasion who knows when the practice might have died out here?
My conclusion: these sacrificial acts weren’t barbaric and neither were the people who committed them; it was (and is) all just part of the process of human nature on it’s evolutionary road to wholeness. What do you think?
If you enjoyed this article you might be interested in the following:
Ancient Civilisations – Introduction: The Neolithic Revolution
An Introduction to Sexuality in Ancient Greek & Roman Culture
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User Comments
Aimee Larsen Stoddard
On August 23, 2009 at 1:14 pm
This article was so well written. Very well done. The whole issue of human sacrifice is very interesting. I think in your conclusion you bring up an intriguing point about how the people who committed these acts weren’t barbaric. I think that all societal values are relative to the culture in which they appear. I wonder sometimes if we’re really that much more evolved. We still engage in warfare when we can’t agree. We aren’t sacrificing members of our own tribe but we are “sacrificing” members of other tribes. It seems that evolved societies would have found a way around killing one another. In any case, very thought provoking article.
Cassiopeia Antares
On August 23, 2009 at 9:09 pm
thanks for this piece, excellent work, I love ancient history,
CaSundara
On August 25, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Thank-you both for your comments – I’m glad you enjoyed it.
JEDraft
On August 31, 2009 at 5:40 pm
“Were it not for the Roman invasion who knows when the practice might have died out here?”
My take is, were it not for the Roman invasion, who knows if the practice had ever begun? The archeological evidence of the Lindow man and other human sacrifices is an instance of extreme behavior of a culture under stress and danger of cultural extinction. At this point all we have are sites which coincide very neatly to the time of the invasion. Is there other evidence of ritual sacrifice of human beings and cannibalism besides what you’ve presented, for instance, that is datable to the pre-Roman times? Also, I take issue with the glib “archeologists and historians suggest” which make it seem as though there is a consensus among archeologists that cannibalism was the norm. “often?” How do you derive “often” from the few extant sites and a fragmentary archeological record? Your picture of Celtic life might very well be as inaccurate as the Victorians’ was. That human sacrifice was practiced by the Celtic tribes in response to the Roman invasion is established, and that cannibalism happened in one spectacular place is also pretty well established. To make sweeping judgments about the norms in Celtic society and its daily practices based on that is the same as digging up the remains at Ground Zero in New York and saying that Muslim society regularly sacrificed young people in order to blow up large buildings and kill thousands of people. There’s some truth to it, but the average Muslim citizen or imam not only doesn’t practice suicide bombing, he and she are horrified by it and condemn it. It is as likely that the average Celtic tribesman or woman or even druid would feel the same about extreme behavior like human sacrifice and cannibalism.
The real truth of the matter is that, even with these clues that archeology gives us, we have nothing like the certainty that you try to present. What we have are still mysteries shrouded in the mists of intervening millennia. Neither the romanticized version of the Celts nor a vision designed specifically to shock or shame modern pagans is likely to be true.
Might I also note the obvious chauvinistic bent of the last paragraph, “all just part of the process of human nature on it’s evolutionary road to wholeness.” Evolution is not a process on its way to a goal. Evolving human nature is not on its way to being “whole,” whatever that might be taken to mean. It’s a lovely and arrogant attitude to take that what is in the past is primitive and therefore less good and desirable and what is in the present must therefore be better and more advanced. In many ways, this is as absurd as to do the opposite, imagining a “golden age” of the ancients where all was perfect and from which we’ve fallen. Evolution, strictly speaking, is a mechanical process that favors whatever behavior or structure will survive, and that is all. In that context, we can see that human sacrifice is, at best, a survival neutral behavior, since it certainly didn’t help the Celts beat back the Romans. For that and other reasons I’m therefore inclined to believe that it was a practice that was, even in Celtic society, outside the mainstream.
Art
On September 6, 2009 at 10:07 am
I can see direct parallels with the Mayan culture. Human sacrifice to their gods, particularly during periods of strife or societal hardship, seems to be a part of human development. The Celts were not unique in this.
Scatach
On October 6, 2009 at 1:51 am
I am a proud Druid, and I must say if you read more on your history of “The Druids” there is little to no evidence what so ever that sacrificed humans. All the manuscripts that the “Druids” had was from Caesar from Rome and he was at war with the Celts of Gaul so, his writings is not come from a proper sort and I suggest you read more about how the “Romans” sacrificed before you set off a full history of the “Druids” and know nothing about them… Thanks have a good day.
CaSundara
On October 16, 2009 at 11:07 am
I’m well aware that the Romans participated in sacrifice – I believe most peoples, wherever they lived, did – at one time or another. I’ve read books (modern and more ancient) and watched documentaries produced by the BBC, all of which offer evidence to suggest the Celts/Druids were sacrificing in the period during the invasion. Oh, and I prefer the term neo-Druid, unless you were actually around with the originals? Have a good day yourself…
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