Indigenous women in Gaul, Britannia, Germania and Celtic Hispania, 400 BC - AD 235

• Main Author: Hammersen, Lauren A. M.
• Other Authors: Karl, Raimund
• Published: Bangor University 2017
• Subjects: 305.42
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.715234

The study of Celtic, Germanic, and Celtiberian women is an area of gender and historical focus that has only recently been addressed by academic scholars – and then only to a limited degree. The fractured understanding of this area of history is, in part, due to a shortage of relevant primary written sources and archaeological material. In part, it is also due to a language barrier, since research into this field has the potential to include more than a dozen modern and ancient European languages, as well as several regional dialects. This work probed primary historical sources (classical Greek and Roman), secondary sources (analysis by academics in various fields), archaeological, and epigraphic materials to extract pertinent information. An examination of individual women was presented. This was then combined with broader knowledge of peoples in and from these regions to create an understanding of women in Celtic, Germanic, and Celtiberian cultures during the eight centuries under consideration. Finally, this was compared and contrasted across the various regions. Research and critical analysis of this material dispelled some long-held generalizations (such as the view that Celtic women routinely participated actively in war) and revealed some little- discussed facts (such as that classical sources indicated that Celtiberian women held the most unusual roles of the women examined). Other aspects of women’s lives became clear, including ways in which they were part of trade and industry including, but not limited to, the manufacture of textiles, agriculture, mining, and medicine. This led to a discussion on the concept of identity. It became clear that Celtic, Germanic, and Celtiberian women during the period of 400 BC– AD 235 occupied both traditional and nontraditional roles, that these were recorded (at least to some degree) in Greek and Roman classical sources, and that much of this can be confirmed from what has been learned from archaeological and epigraphic material.