Celts in Transylvania

[1] Excavation of the great La Tène necropolis at Apahida, Cluj County, by S. Kovacs at the turn of the 20th century revealed the first evidence of Celtic culture in Romania.

[2] A historical timeline of the Celts of Transylvania can be derived from archaeological finds at La Tène, but there are almost no ancient records that allow reconstruction of political events in the area.

[3] Large areas of ancient Dacia, which were populated early in the First Iron Age by Thracian people, were affected by a massive migration of Iranian Scythians moving east to west during the first half of the first millennium BC.

[5] When Celtic warriors first penetrated these territories, the group seem to have merged with the domestic population of early Dacians and assimilated many Hallstatt cultural traditions.

[6] The second half of the 4th century BC saw the Middle La Tène Celtic culture emerge in north-western and central Dacia, a development reflected especially in burials of the period.

[1] Celtic vestiges are found concentrated in the Transylvanian plateau and plain, as well as the upper Someș basin, whereas the surrounding valleys of Hațeg, Hunedoara, Făgăraș, Bârsa, Sf.

Expansion of Celtic groups in the area may be related to their invasion of the Balkans around 335 BC, when a massive colonization of the Tisa plain and the Transylvanian Plateau occurred following the death of Lysimachus.

[17] Celts did not occupy all intra-Carpathian areas of Transylvania, stopping short of the Maramureș Depression for instance, where excavations have uncovered Dacian fortifications from the 4th and 3rd centuries BC.

[2] Archaeological sites of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC reveal a pattern of co-existence and fusion between the bearers of La Tène culture and the indigenous Dacians.

[8] During the first half of the 2nd century BC, Pompeius Trogus writes in his Historiae Philippicae of a Dacian king, Oroles, who fought against Celtic incursions.

[20] Oroles is recorded as resisting the intrusion of the Bastarnae, a people now generally considered to be of Germanic origin but who were in fact Celto-Germanic and, according to Livy, spoke a Celtic language.

[1][19] The boundary between the Celts and Dacians near the River Tisa is depicted in 2nd century BC pottery found at Pecica in Arad County, a prosperous trading center at the confluence of the two peoples.

[24] A classic period of Geto-Dacian La Tène culture began in the 1st century BC centered around the city of Sarmizegetusa Regia in south-western Transylvania.

These Celtic tribes, who were skilled in iron exploitation and processing, also introduced the potter's wheel to the area, thereby contributing to acceleration of the development of Dacia.

All these helmets are of the Waldalgesheim Style developed by the La Tène and date from the period when semi-victorious Celtic armies returned from the Balkan Peninsula and settled on the Pannonian Plain and in Transylvania.

[48] Helmets with reinforced crests are typically eastern Celtic and can be traced as they spread from the western margins of Taurisci territory at Mihovo, to be subsequently used by the Scordisci at Batina and throughout Transylvania (Apahida, Ciumeşti).

[45] A coin type from Ciumesti shows a warrior wearing a wild boar crest on his helmet [43] The Dacian war trumpet, as shown on the Roman Emperor Trajan's Column at Rome 116 AD, is a Celtic-style carnyx.

[50] This motif is one of the genuinely pan-European themes of early La Tène art and is found embellishing the upper end of scabbard front-plates from southeast Britain to Transylvania.

[52] Moreover, the Ciumeşti Helmet and numerous later artifacts made partly or wholly of silver (fibulae or belt plates), clearly demonstrate the interaction between Thracian and Dacian schools of ornamental metalwork with the Celtic La Tène tradition.

Although the design has features of Celtic belief and iconography, it appears to have been made by Thracian smiths in Dacia or Thrace, in the lower Danube region, according to their own traditions.

[59] Specific epithets in her honor as Augusta, Regina and Sancta are found on inscriptions from Alba Iulia, on the site of ancient settlement Apulon (Latin Apulum).

[61] References to Apollo Grannus and Sirona, divinities widespread in Gallia and on the Upper Danube as protectors of health are also recorded in Roman Dacia.

Overview of the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures.
Core Hallstatt territory (HaC, 800 BC).
Eventual area of Hallstatt influence (by 500 BC, HaD).
Core territory of the La Tène culture (450 BC).
Eventual area of La Tène influence (by 250 BC).
The territories of some major Celtic tribes of the late La Tène period are labeled.
Celtic socketed axes and tools from the Bronze Age in Transylvania, Romania
Movements of the Celts in Transylvania in 3rd century
Bronze Age and Iron Age artefacts from Romania.
Migratory movements of the Celtic Boii
Map of Dacia during Burebista's time (60-44 BC) including the campaigns against Celtic Boii and Teurisci
Dacian (orange) and Celtic tribes (green) in the Roman Republic and its neighbours in 58 BC
Celts in Illyria, Pannonia, including parts of Dacia (modern Transylvania)
The Celtic Helmet from Ciumeşti , near Satu Mare , Romania (northern Dacia ), an Iron Age raven totem helmet, dated around the 4th century BC. A similar helmet is depicted on the Gundestrup cauldron , being worn by one of the mounted warriors (detail tagged here: [ 42 ] ). See also an illustration of Brennos wearing a similar helmet .
Gundestrup cauldron inside panel. One of the scenes provides a good parallel to the Ciumesti bird helmet [ 47 ]
The wheeled cauldron or Kesselwagen Orăştie , Romania , used as a crematory urn, during the later Celtic Bronze Age. It is drawn by water-birds [ 45 ]
The Dacian war trumpet, as shown on the Roman Emperor Trajan's Column at Rome 116 AD, is a Celtic-style Carnyx . [ 49 ] (n.b. The Celtic carnyx appears on the Gundestrup cauldron ).
Celts' carnyx at Lure
Figures with horns / carnyx on the Gundestrup Cauldron
Epona (the horse-goddess) as seen at the Historical Museum of Bern , the most important Celtic cult attested to in Roman Dacia, 2nd century AD