INTRODUCTION

Before embarking on this short description of the early Celts in northern Britain it is necessary to review again briefly what we mean by ‘Celts’ or ‘Celtic’ (MacKie 1970; 12: Baker 1974: ch. 15). This is particularly important in this chapter because people speaking a Celtic language and following a prehistoric-looking and allegedly Celtic tribal way of life - albeit one which was gradually changing under the impact of an urban society in the lowlands - were living in the highland and island regions of Scotland at least until the middle of the eighteenth century. What is more, this tribal life style was observed and described by many educated travellers before its final demise. Thus of all the parts of Europe once inhabited by prehistoric Celts, however defined, highland Scotland is unique in that this ancient world existed there in an evolved form until - like the stone age societies of the Pacific which were also discovered and described in the later eighteenth century - it could be recorded and studied by the precursors of modern anthropologists. It is intriguing that this remarkable fact seems so little regarded by many iron age archaeologists who - seeking parallels and analogies for their excavated material among tribal cultures in other parts of the world - tend to ignore the late survival of the real thing in their own backyard. One long-noted sign of this is that the study of recent Scottish highland society still tends to be regarded as ‘folk life’ and quite distinct from ethnography and is rarely taught in departments of archaeology (that in Glasgow University being an exception).

Broadly ‘Celtic’ is used to describe first a language; second objects (artefacts or human remains) which have a connection with the historically documented iron age peoples of central and north-western Europe and their characteristic material culture; third any distinctive racial or ethnic group of people which can be isolated as speaking a Celtic language or who created the iron age society mentioned; and fourth by custom a person of modern highland Scottish or Irish descent. Since there are very few iron age burials from Scotland, and none from the highland-island zone, nothing can be said about the ethnic question for which the evidence from southern Britain and the Continent has been discussed in some detail (Baker 1974: ch. 15). This chapter will therefore review briefly the linguistic and material cultural evidence for

Prelusioric Celts living in Scotland, and the final section will try to show how a study of recent highland society can throw light on that of its iron age forebears.