Sean McGrail

In this chapter I plan to review the evidence for Celtic boats and ships, the landing places these vessels were operated from, and the way goods were moved inland from beach, river foreshore and lakeside. I shall also describe some of the seafaring and navigational techniques the Celts needed to use on overseas voyages.

The precise bounds of the Celts in time and space are difficult to define. In certain parts of Europe, for example, there is a degree of cultural continuity archaeologically visible from the second millennium BC, through to Roman times (Audouze and Biichsenschtitz 1991). Furthermore, in Ireland and in other western regions of the archipelago of islands off the north-west coast of continental Europe, Celtic cultural traits, including boatbuilding techniques, continued into the medieval period and beyond. The core period of this book is, however, 600 BC to AD 600, and this chapter will therefore generally be restricted to that date range. It will also concentrate on the heartlands of the Celtic peoples (Figure 15.1) and not follow them to the eastern Mediterranean.

Environmental conditions such as sea-levels, the shape and character of coastlines, river courses and the general climate, all of which have an effect on maritime affairs, have not always been as they are today (McGrail 1987: 258-60). However, off north-west Europe in the period from the mid-first millennium BC to the mid-first millennium AD, the mean sea-level was well within today’s tidal range, at c. 1.5 to 0.7m below the AD 1950 tidal datum; the tidal regime was probably comparable with that we experience today; and the climate, including the predominant wind, must have been not unlike that of the twentieth century, apart from the 300 years or so from AD 100 to 400, when it was somewhat warmer and drier (Heyworth and Kidson 1982; Lamb 1977: 372-4, 384-5). The main environmental differences are that, in the period under discussion, there would have been less silting of estuaries, and spits and bars across river mouths would not have been as prominent as they are today. Furthermore, rivers, especially in their lower reaches, would not have been restricted to the one well-defined channel to which they are nowadays generally constrained.