Firstly, let’s talk about our traditional understanding of how the Celts looked in Physicality. The Classical writers both Roman and Greek describe the Gauls as tall, fair skinned with well-developed muscles. Their stories and saga’s describe both the ideal warrior and woman. Warriors strove to keep themselves in good physical condition and we are told by classical writers that the Celts preferred to have blonde hair, even dyeing their hair if it wasn’t already so. Women are described as being of equal stature to their men and the most beautiful had swan white skin and long elaborate hair with teeth as white as pearls.
But Archaeology gives us another picture. After studying skeletons from many Iron Age sites across Britain and Europe, archaeologists can get a better, more accurate picture of what the general population of Gauls and Britons were really like.
There is a general belief that people in the olden days were shorter than us, however that’s not true. New research suggests that since before the early Bronze Age, the average height for men has been about 5ft 7 inches (170cms) and for women, 5ft 3inches (160cms) they were no doubt a lot fitter and physically robust than us because of our ever more sedentary lifestyles in the 21st Century.
The evidence from Bog Bodies, with their neatly trimmed fingernails and well-kept beards and hair proves that the Iron Age people liked to look after their appearance just like their Bronze Age ancestors.
I think the two factors which differ the most between us in the 21st Century and the Iron Age people of 2000 years ago are firstly physical anomalies, growth defects due to disease and injury. These were probably more evident amongst the smaller populations and probably more accepted. Secondly, average life expectancy was generally shorter for both men and women but for different reasons.
Besides illness, famine and disease, women generally had a greater chance of death between the ages of 14-20 during childbirth. Men it seems had a significant chance of dying in Warfare.
However, it’s wrong to assume that all the people amongst the different tribes looked the same and had the same traditions. I think Professor Raymond Karl of University of Wales, Bangor makes an important point when he explains that different pieces of fruit look very different from one another, but collectively we recognise them as fruit. I agree. How would you know that someone you met in the forest or saw across a river was from a different tribe? Well, in my opinion, it would be easy because they would look very different from the people in your tribe. Perhaps if we accept the description of the Silures tribe as “tinted” they might literally have been stained woad blue. Perhaps the people of the Dobunni tribe wore their hair in anidentifiable fashion. Perhaps the people of the Cantaci wore the same woven coloured plaid on some part of their clothing?
You can read some first hand accounts of what the Britons & Gauls looked like in Chapter…