Editing Celts (section)

==Warfare and weapons==
{{Main|Celtic warfare|Celtic sword}}
[[File:Celtic Warrior Naked in The Braganza Brooch.jpg|thumb|Celtic Warrior Represented in the [[Braganza Brooch]], [[Hellenistic art]], 250–200 BC]]
[[Prehistoric warfare|Tribal warfare]] appears to have been a regular feature of Celtic societies. While epic literature depicts this as more of a sport focused on raids and hunting rather than organised territorial conquest, the historical record is more of tribes using warfare to exert political control and harass rivals, for [[Comparative advantage|economic advantage]], and in some instances to conquer territory.{{Citation needed|date=February 2009}}

The Celts were described by classical writers such as [[Strabo]], [[Livy]], [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], and [[Florus]] as fighting like "wild beasts", and as hordes. [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus|Dionysius]] said that their:<ref>Dionysius of Halicarnassus,  ''Roman Antiquities'' p. 259 Excerpts from Book XIV</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Ellis |first=Peter Berresford |title=The Celts: A History |pages=60–63 |publisher=Caroll & Graf |date=1998 |isbn=978-0-7867-1211-3}}</ref>
{{blockquote|manner of fighting, being in large measure that of wild beasts and frenzied, was an erratic procedure, quite lacking in [[military science]]. Thus, at one moment they would raise their swords aloft and smite after the manner of [[wild boar]]s, throwing the whole weight of their bodies into the blow like hewers of wood or men digging with mattocks, and again they would deliver crosswise blows aimed at no target, as if they intended to cut to pieces the entire bodies of their adversaries, protective armour and all.}}

[[Polybius]] (2.33) indicates that the principal Celtic weapon was a [[Iron Age sword|long bladed sword]] which was used for hacking edgewise rather than stabbing. Celtic warriors are described by Polybius and Plutarch as frequently having to cease fighting in order to straighten their sword blades. This claim has been questioned by some archaeologists, who note that [[Noric steel]], steel produced in Celtic [[Noricum]], was famous in the [[Roman Empire]] period and was used to equip the [[Roman military]].<ref>"Noricus ensis", [[Horace]], Odes, i. 16.9</ref><ref>Vagn Fabritius Buchwald, Iron and steel in [[Ancient history|ancient times]], 2005, p. 127</ref> However, Radomir Pleiner, in ''The Celtic Sword'' (1993) argues that "the metallographic evidence shows that Polybius was right up to a point", as around one third of surviving swords from the period might well have behaved as he describes.<ref>Radomir Pleiner, in ''The Celtic Sword'', Oxford: Clarendon Press (1993), p. 159.</ref> In addition to these long bladed slashing swords, spears and specialized [[javelin]]s were also used.<ref>{{cite book |first=Kevin F. |last=Kiley |author-link=Kevin F. Kiley|date=2013 |title=Uniforms of the Roman world}}{{full citation needed|date=July 2022}}</ref>

Polybius also asserts that certain of the Celts fought naked: "The appearance of these naked warriors was a terrifying spectacle, for they were all men of splendid physique and in the prime of life."<ref>Polybius, ''Histories'' II.28</ref> According to Livy, this was also true of the Celts of Asia Minor.<ref>Livy, ''History'' XXII.46 and XXXVIII.21</ref>{{clear left}}

===Head hunting===
[[File:Stone sculpture of celtic hero.jpg|thumb|[[Mšecké Žehrovice Head|Stone head from Mšecké Žehrovice]], Czech Republic, wearing a [[torc]], late La Tène culture, 150-50 BC]]
Celts had a reputation as [[Headhunting|head hunters]].<ref name="Koch head cult">{{cite book |last=Koch |first=John T. |author-link=John T. Koch |title=Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia |date=2006 |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]] |pages=897–898}}</ref> [[Paul Jacobsthal]] says: "Amongst the Celts the [[human head]] was venerated above all else, since the head was to the Celt the soul, centre of the emotions as well as of life itself, a symbol of divinity and of the powers of the other-world."<ref>Jacobsthal, Paul; ''Early Celtic Art''.</ref> Writing in the first century BC, Greek historians [[Posidonius]] and [[Diodorus Siculus]] said Celtic warriors cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle, hung them from the necks of their horses, then nailed them up outside their homes.<ref name="Koch head cult" /> [[Strabo]] wrote in the same century that Celts [[Embalming|embalmed]] the heads of their most esteemed enemies in cedar oil and put them on display.<ref name="Koch head cult" /> Roman historian [[Livy]] wrote that the [[Boii]] beheaded a defeated Roman general after the [[Battle of Silva Litana]], covered his skull in gold, and used it as a ritual cup.<ref name="Koch head cult" /> Archaeologists have found evidence that heads were embalmed and displayed by the southern Gauls.<ref>Salma Ghezal, Elsa Ciesielski, Benjamin Girard, Aurélien Creuzieux, Peter Gosnell, Carole Mathe, Cathy Vieillescazes, Réjane Roure (2019), "[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440318303194 Embalmed heads of the Celtic Iron Age in the south of France] {{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190226211008/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440318303194 |date=26 February 2019 }}", ''[[Journal of Archaeological Science]]'', Volume 101, pp.181-188, {{doi|10.1016/j.jas.2018.09.011}}.</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The Gauls really did embalm the severed heads of enemies, research shows |url= https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/nov/07/the-gauls-really-did-embalm-the-severed-heads-of-enemies-research-shows |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=7 November 2018 |access-date=19 May 2022 |archive-date=19 May 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220519154329/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/nov/07/the-gauls-really-did-embalm-the-severed-heads-of-enemies-research-shows |url-status=live}}</ref>
In another example, at the southern Gaulish site of [[Entremont (oppidum)|Entremont]], there stood a pillar carved with skulls, within which were niches where human skulls were kept, nailed into position.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Barry Cunliffe |last=Cunliffe |first=Barry |date=1997 |title=The Ancient Celts |url= https://archive.org/details/ancientcelts00cunl_933 |url-access=limited |place=Oxford, UK; New York, NY |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/ancientcelts00cunl_933/page/n116 202] |isbn=978-0-19-815010-7}}</ref> [[Roquepertuse]] nearby has similar carved heads and skull niches. Many lone carved heads have been found in Celtic regions, some with two or three faces.<ref name="Davidson heads">{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Hilda Ellis |author-link=Hilda Ellis Davidson |title=Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions |date=1988 |publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]] |pages=72–75}}</ref> Examples include the [[Mšecké Žehrovice Head]] and the [[Corleck Head]].

Severed heads are a common motif in Insular Celtic myths, and there are many tales in which 'living heads' preside over feasts or speak prophecies.<ref name="Koch head cult" /><ref name="Davidson heads" /> The [[beheading game]] is a motif in Irish myth and Arthurian legend, most famously in the tale ''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]'', where the [[Green Knight]] picks up his own severed head after [[Gawain]] has struck it off. There are also many legends in Celtic regions of saints who [[Cephalophore|carry their own severed heads]]. In Irish myth, the severed heads of warriors are called the [[Mast (botany)|mast]] or nuts of the goddess [[Macha]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Egeler |first1=Matthias |title=Celtic Influences in Germanic Religion |date=2013 |publisher=Utz |page=112}}</ref>