celtic

Boudicca massacred 80,000 people on her way to infamy, as she left Colchester, London and St Albans little more than smouldering husks in 60AD. And it's no surprise to learn that her appearance matched her bloodthirsty attitude. Boudicca was "a great big busty woman," says expert Mark Hassall, "with a blonde mass of hair falling down to her shoulders.

The warrior Queen, the avenging mother, the woman scorned. Ask any English person who led 'us' in the fight against Rome and they will tell you about a woman whose fame outweighs her achievements. Called Boadicea, Boudicca or Boudica, she has a legendary status, like Vercingetorix in Gaul, as one of the leaders of the old world who fought with courage against Rome. Hopelessly outmatched in so many ways, they represented tradition, their religions and some would say freedom against foreign oppressors.  The logistical capability and military precision of the Empire meant that resistance to Roman dominance was in the most part futile. Those who succeeded were few and far between. Boudicca led a rebellion which, literally and metaphorically, set Roman Britain ablaze, but in doing so guaranteed the destruction of her people and their way of life. I want to look at who she was and why she rebelled, and ask what her legacy really was.

The streets of London are the stage of a daily war. It is the worst it has ever been, newspapers frequently report.  The actors are young men with guns and knives. No two commentators seem in agreement as to the object; it might be about drugs, it may be about territory, or it may be about repute. One thing is for certain: it is part of the city now. Gang warfare has created an informal geography of the city. Hackney streets are known colloquially as Murder Mile.

What the newspapers fail to mention is that London has never been a safe place to live. The city has since its earliest history seen violent clashes between opposing groups.

The latest metal detector haul may be its most spectacular: a Scots amateur has stumbled upon a stash of Iron Age gold worth an estimated £1million. The four 'Torc' headbands, similar to those famously worn by Iceni Queen Boudicca 2,000 years ago, are said to be in 'perfect condition'. Though the exact field they were found in is unkown, it is thought to be near the historical city of Stirling.

Every now and then a news story comes to light about the so-called Celtic mummies of China. The story has been making rounds for most of this century, from scientific conferences to ABCNews. Without detracting from the wonder that is the Cherchen mummies, let’s set the record straight concerning the Celticness of these men and women" writes Emma Wohlfart on her blog PastPresenters. What arguments does she offer and err.. were we mistaken too?

Emma - who introduces herself as a twenty-something writer with an archaeology degree, a laptop and a maxed out library card - agrees that there were Bronze Age contacts between Europeans and the Chinese, but wants to get the message across, preferably once and for all, that they were not Celtic:

Cherchen Man, who died around 1000 BC, appears to be as Scottish as square sausage – tall, dark-haired, clad in a red tunic and tartan leggings and sporting a beard as ginger as a burning fox. His DNA attests to his Celtic origins. So why on earth, then, was his mummified corpse discovered buried in the barren sands of the Taklamakan Desert, in the far-flung Xinjiang region of western China?

It’s a question that still has experts scratching their heads, especially since Cherchen Man is just one of hundreds of ancient desiccated corpses of European origin found in the Tarim Basin in western China over the last 25 years. His remains, along with others, are now kept in a museum in the Xinjiang provincial capital of Urumqi, which also houses a reconstruction of how this intrepid traveller might have looked before he died.