Finding Ancient Druids
By Adam Gwilt
Using ancient sources and archaeological evidence, the origins and development of the druids is explored.
Druids, the ancient priests of Britain and Ireland, have long intrigued and kindled the imagination of large popular audiences. The stereotypical image of the white robed wise man, carrying perhaps a golden sickle and mistletoe, or clasping a white staff, remains strong with us today, the outcome of many centuries of thinking and invention. Yet what evidence do we have for these powerful but elusive figures?
Earliest mention of Druids comes from the Classical authors, notably Posidonius, Strabo and Julius Caesar, writing during the 1st-century BC. These inform us of druidae in Gaul (France) and Britain, who were wise men, observers of natural phenomena and moral philosophers. They performed powerful roles in these Celtic societies, sanctioning war, acting as keepers of knowledge, administrators of justice and supervisors of sacrifices and religious ceremonies.
Closely allied were bards (bardoi), the singers and poets, and diviners (vates), who interpreted sacrifices in order to foretell the future. Caesar suggests that Druidism originated in Britain, whilst Timaeus, a Greek historian, is thought to have first mentioned them as early as the later 4th-century BC.
Druids and bards were also prominent in medieval Welsh and Irish texts, probably giving account of much earlier oral tradition, passed on by word of mouth. The Irish texts include the Ulster Cycle, the Book of the Dun Cow and the Fenian Cycle.
In Wales, the roles and privileges of bards were laid out in documents relating to laws set down by Hywel Dda in the 10th-century AD. During the 18th-century, druids came to be seen as the ancestors of the bards, the praise poets, musicians and genealogists, who flourished in Welsh medieval society.
The visual appearance of druids - what they wore and what possessions they owned - is difficult to clarify. There are few illustrations or inscriptions of the time, whilst the evidence provided by archaeology rarely provides certain answers. A druidic ceremony recounted by the author Pliny, in his Natural History, has been drawn upon by many. In this account, a white robed druid climbs an oak tree to cut down mistletoe with a golden sickle.
A revival of interest in druids began during the Renaissance (14th to 16th-centuries), when translations of the Classical Greek and Roman texts became widely available. A number of sources describe the druids as performing human sacrifice, their places of worship being in isolated wooded groves and near sacred pools and lakes. For example, the historian Tacitus writing during the 1st-century AD tells us of the druidic groves on Mona (Anglesey), mentioning also that the blood of prisoners was drenched upon their altars.
Such accounts led John Aubrey, leading antiquary of his time, to suggest in 1659 that the stone circles at Avebury and Stonehenge had been druidic temples. Similarly, in 1723, the Reverend Henry Rowlands identified a number of megalithic monuments on Anglesey as the temples and sacrificial altars of druids. By the late 18th-century, ‘neo-druidism’, led by the likes of the Reverend William Stukely, had become a potent cultural movement in Britain. However, with advances in archaeological understanding during the 19th-century, it became clear that these monuments were built over 4,000 years ago, long before the appearance of druids. Nevertheless, modern druids and bards continue to meet within stone circles today.
If archaeology struggles to identify druids, it does nevertheless provide convincing evidence for the religious expression of Celtic Iron Age people. In Wales, a tradition of offering prestige metalwork to the gods is well illustrated at the site of Llyn Cerrig Bach on Anglesey. Here, between 300BC and AD100, chariots, weapons, tools and decorated metalwork items were cast from a causeway or island into a small lake. Coincidentally, an account by the Roman author Tacitus vividly recounts the crushing of a druidic stronghold on Anglesey by the Roman army, leading some to infer that Llyn Cerrig Bach was a druidic site.
Other instances of Celtic Iron Age ritual have also been identified. For example, a probable sacrificial victim preserved in peat has been found at Lindow Moss in Cheshire (England). In southern and eastern England, Iron Age temples containing offerings of coins, brooches, food and weapons have been excavated. Recently, the famous Cerrig-y-Drudion bowl, elaborately decorated in the Celtic or La Tène art style, has also been convincingly interpreted as a ceremonial crown. This and a number of other crowns and regalia, found with burials or in temples in Britain, may have denoted priestly office.
In this prehistoric world, the power of the pagan Celtic gods was keenly felt, ever present and intermingled within everyday life.
Background Reading
- Druids by A. Ross. Tempus Publishing (1999).
- Exploring the World of the Druids by M. J. Green. Published by Thames & Hudson (1997).
- Shrines & Sacrifice by A. Woodward. Published by Batsford (1992).
- Tacitus: the annals By J. Jackson. Published by William Heinemann (1951).
- The Bog Man and the Archaeology of People by D. Brothwell. British Museum Publications (1986).
- The Druids by S. Piggott. Published by Thames & Hudson (1968).
Images:
Imaginative illustration of ‘An Arch Druid in His Judicial Habit’, from The Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands by S.R. Meyrick and C.H. Smith (1815).
The druids have long been associated with Anglesey in popular imagination.
The historical evidence upon which this association is based is an account by the Roman author Tacitus, who wrote of the Roman conquest of Anglesey:
"On the beach stood the adverse array [of Britons], a serried mass of arms and men, with women flitting between the ranks. In the style of Furies, in robes of deathly black and with disheveled hair, they brandished their torches; while a circle of Druids, lifting their hands to heaven and showering imprecations, struck the troops with such an awe at the extraordinary spectacle that, as though their limbs were paralysed, they exposed their bodies to wounds without an attempt at movement. Then, reassured by their general, and inciting each other never to flinch before a band of females and fanatics, they charged behind the standards, cut down all who met them, and enveloped the enemy in his own flames. The next step was to install a garrison among the conquered population, and to demolish the groves consecrated to their savage cults; for they considered it a pious duty to slake the altars with captive blood and to consult their deities by means of human entrails."
Translated by John Jackson, published by William Heinemann (1951).
[Image © National Museum of Wales].
18th-century drawing of a supposed Druid Temple at Tre’r Dryw (Anglesey). By the Anglesey antiquarian Reverend Henry Rowlands (1723).
[Image © National Museum of Wales].
Early 19th-century speculation on how a Druidic ceremony might have appeared at Stonehenge.
We now know that Stonehenge was built some 1,500 years before the first historical reference to the Druids.
[Image © National Museum of Wales].
Llyn Cerrig Bach (Anglesey).
A large quantity of Iron Age metalwork was found in this lake during 1943.
[Image © Philip Macdonald]
Selection of metalwork found in Llyn Cerrig Bach, including slave chains, bent swords, tools and chariot equipment.
[Image © National Museum of Wales].
National Museums & Galleries of Wales
Published: 18 February 2004
