List of ancient Celtic peoples and tribes


This is a list of ancient Celtic peoples and tribes.

Continental Celts

were the Celtic peoples that inhabited mainland Europe and Anatolia. In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, Celts inhabited a large part of mainland Western Europe and large parts of Western Southern Europe, southern Central Europe and some regions of the Balkans and Anatolia. They were most of the population in Gallia, today's France, Switzerland, possibly Belgica – far Northern France, Belgium and far Southern Netherlands, large parts of Hispania, i.e. Iberian Peninsula – Spain and Portugal, in the northern, central and western regions; southern Central Europe – upper Danube basin and neighbouring regions, large parts of the middle Danube basin and the inland region of Central Asia Minor or Anatolia. They lived in these many regions forming a large arc stretching across from Iberia in the west to the Balkans and Anatolia in the east.
Many of the populations from these regions were called Celts by ancient authors. They are thought to have spoken Gaulish, Lepontic, Hispano-Celtic , Eastern Celtic or Noric. P-Celtic type languages are more innovative while Q-Celtic type languages are more conservative. However, it is not fully known if this grouping of peoples, such as their languages, is a genealogical one, based on kinship, or if it is a simple geographically based group. Classical Antiquity authors did not describe the peoples and tribes of the British Islands as "Celts" or "Galli" but by the name "Britons". They only used the name "Celts" or "Galli" for the peoples and tribes of mainland Europe.

Eastern Celts

Source:
File:Römische Provinzen im Alpenraum ca 14 n Chr.png|thumb|right|400px|Map 3: Roman district of Raetia et Vindelicia, as it stood in AD 14. Celts dwelt in most areas of the shown land on the map except for the Rhaetians.
They lived in Southern Central Europe which is hypothesized as the original area of the Celts, corresponding to the Hallstatt Culture. Later they expanded towards the Middle Danube valley and to parts of the Balkans and towards inland central Asia Minor or Anatolia. Hercynian Forest, north of the Danube and east of the Rhine was in their lands. Celts, especially those from Western and Central Europe, were generally called by the Romans "Galli" i.e. "Gauls", this name was synonym of "Celts", this also means that not all of the peoples and tribes called by the name "Gauls" were specifically Gauls in a narrower more regional sense. Their language is scarcely attested and can not be classified as a P-Celtic or Q-Celtic.
Some closely fit the concept of a tribe. Others are confederations or even unions of tribes.
Image:ThracianTribes.jpg|thumb|300px|Map 6: Tribes in Thrace before the Roman period. Some of the tribes shown, such as the Serdi were Celts.
In the middle 3rd century BC, Celts from the middle Danube valley, immigrated from Thrace into the highlands of central Anatolia, which was called Galatia after that. These people, called Galatians, a generic name for "Celts", were eventually Hellenized, but retained many of their own traditions. They spoke Galatian, a name derived from the generic name for "Celts". Some closely fit the concept of a tribe. Others are confederations or even unions of tribes.
were the Celtic people that lived in Gaul having many tribes but with some influential tribal confederations. Galli, for the Romans, was a name synonym of "Celts" which means that not all peoples and tribes called "Galli" were necessarily Gauls in a narrower regional sense.
Gaulish Celts spoke Gaulish, a Continental Celtic language of the P Celtic type, a more innovative Celtic language - *kʷ > p.
Romans initially organized Gaul in two provinces :
Transalpine Gaul, meaning literally "Gaul on the other side of the Alps" or "Gaul across the Alps", is approximately modern Belgium, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, and western Germany, in what would become the Roman provinces of Gallia Narbonensis, Gallia Celtica and Gallia Belgica.
Some closely fit the concept of a tribe. Others are confederations or even unions of tribes.
They seem to have been an older group of Celts that lived in Cisalpine Gaul before the Gaulish Celtic migration. They spoke Lepontic a Celtic language that seems to precede Cisalpine Gaulish.
May have been Celtic tribes influenced by Ligurians, heavily Celticized Ligurian tribes that shifted to a Celtic ethnolinguistic identity or mixed Celtic-Ligurian tribes. They dwelt in southeastern Transalpine Gaul and northwestern Cisalpine Gaul, mainly in the Western Alps regions, Rhodanus eastern basin and upper Po river basin.
They lived in large parts of the Iberian Peninsula, in the Northern, Central, and Western regions.
The Celts in the Iberian peninsula were traditionally thought of as living on the edge of the Celtic world of the La Tène culture that defined classical Iron Age Celts. Earlier migrations were Hallstatt in culture and later came La Tène influenced peoples. Celtic or Pre-Celtic cultures and populations existed in great numbers and Iberia experienced one of the highest levels of Celtic settlement in all of Europe. They dwelt in northern, central and western regions of the Iberian Peninsula, but also in several southern regions.
They spoke Celtic languages - Hispano-Celtic languages which were of the Q-Celtic type, more conservative Celtic languages.
Romans initially organized the Peninsula in two provinces :
Hispania Citerior, was a region of Hispania during the Roman Republic, roughly occupying the northeastern coast and the Iberus Valley and later the eastern, central, northern and northwestern areas of the Iberian peninsula in what would become the Tarraconensis Roman province.
Hispania Ulterior was a region of Hispania during the Roman Republic, roughly located in what would become the provinces of Baetica and extending to all of Lusitania.
The Roman province of Hispania included both Celtic speaking and non-Celtic speaking tribes. Some closely fit the concept of a tribe. Others are confederations or even unions of tribes.

[Western Hispano-Celts] ([Celts of Western Hispania])

Western Hispano-Celts were Celtic peoples and tribes that inhabited most of north and western Iberian Peninsula regions. They are often confused or taken as synonym of Celtiberians but, in fact, they were a distinct Celtic population that was most part of Iberian Peninsula Celtic populations. They spoke Gallaecian which was not Celtiberian.
Eastern Iberian meseta, mountains of the headwaters of the rivers Douro, Tagus, Guadiana, Júcar, Jalón, Jiloca and Turia,. Mixed Celtic and Iberian tribes or Celtic tribes influenced by Iberians. Not synonymous of all the Celts that lived in the Iberian Peninsula but to a narrower group were not Celtiberians. They spoke Celtiberian.
were the Celtic peoples and tribes that inhabited the British Islands, Britannia, the main largest island to the east, and Hibernia, the main smaller island to the west. There were three or four distinct Celtic populations in these islands, in Britannia inhabited the Britons, the Caledonians or Picts, the Belgae ; in Hibernia inhabited the Hibernians or Goidels or Gaels. Britons and Caledonians or Picts spoke the P-Celtic type languages, a more innovative Celtic language while Hibernians or Goidels or Gaels spoke Q-Celtic type languages, a more conservative Celtic language.
Classical Antiquity authors did not call the British islands peoples and tribes as Celts or Galli but by the name Britons. They only used the name Celts or Gauls for the peoples and tribes of mainland Europe.

Britons (Celts)">Britons (ancient)">Britons (Celts)

They spoke Brittonic.
They lived in Britannia, it was the name Romans gave, based on the name of the people: the Britanni.
Some closely fit the concept of a tribe but others are confederations or even unions of tribes.
They were a different people from the Britons, but may have shared common ancestry. They lived as a tribal confederation in Caledonia ; the Caledonian Forest was in their land.
They spoke Goidelic |Geography]'' :
Para-Celtic has the meaning that these peoples had common ancestors with the Celts but were not Celts themselves, they were not direct descendants from the Proto-Celts.
They may in fact have been Proto-Celto-Italic, predating the Celtic or Italic languages and originated earlier from either Proto-Celtic or Proto-Italic populations who spread from Central Europe into Western Europe after new Yamnaya migrations into the Danube Valley. Alternatively, a European branch of Indo-European dialects, termed "North-west Indo-European" and associated with the Beaker culture, may have been ancestral to not only Celtic and Italic, but also to Germanic and Balto-Slavic.

[Belgae]

Source:
File:Peuples gaulois.jpg|thumb|350 px|Map 19: According to Strabo, the Belgian tribes .
File:England Celtic tribes - South.svg|thumb|350px|Map 20: Belgae and neighbouring tribes in Britannia.
A people or a group of related tribes that dwelt in Belgica, parts of Britannia, and may have dwelt in parts of Hibernia and also parts of Hispania.
According to classical authors works, like Caesar's De Bello Gallico, they were a different people and spoke a different language from the Gauls and Britons; they were clearly an Indo-European people and may have spoken a Celtic language. There is also the possibility that their language may have been a different language branch of Indo-European from the Nordwestblock culture, which may have been intermediary between Germanic and Celtic, and might have been affiliated to Italic.
Northern Mediterranean Coast straddling the Southeastern French and Northwestern Italian coasts, including far Northern and Northwestern Tuscany and Corsica. Because of the strong Celtic influences on their language and culture, they were known already in antiquity as Celto-Ligurians. Very little is known about this language, Ligurian which is generally believed to have been Celtic or Para-Celtic;. They spoke ancient Ligurian.
Today's Western Andalusia, Baetis river valley and basin, Marianus Mons, some consider them Celtic, may have been Pre-Celtic Indo-European people as the Lusitani and Vettones. If their language, called Turdetanian or Tartessian, was not Celtic it may have been Para-Celtic like Ligurian. Also may have been a non-Indo-European people related to the Iberians, but not the same people. A tribal confederation but with much more centralized power, may have formed an early form of Kingdom or a Proto-civilisation
Transitional people between Celts and Italics? Celticized Italic people? Para-Celtic people?

Celto">Celts">Celto-Dacian">Dacians">Dacian-Germanic">Germanic peoples">Germanic

[Rhaetians]

They lived in the Central Alps, eastern parts of present-day Switzerland, the Tyrol in Austria, and the Alpine regions of northern Italy. They spoke the Rhaetian language. There is evidence that much of the non-Celtic elements of their territory had, by the time of Augustus, been assimilated to varying degrees by the influx of Celtic tribes and had adopted Celtic speech. In addition, the abundance of Celtic toponyms leads to the conclusion that, by the time of Roman conquest, the Rhaetians were significantly Celticized.