Beyond Celts, Germans, and Scythians: Archaeology and Identity in Iron Age Europe (Duckworth Debates in Archaeology)

Rating:
Summary: A superbly presented, scholarly work
Review: In Beyond Celts, Germans, And Scythians: Archaeology And Identity In Iron Age Europe, Peter Wells surveys these Iron Age peoples of Europe and explores the rich archaeological evidence they left behind. Outside of archaeological findings, our knowledge of these people of antiquity is confined to commentaries by Greek and Roman writers, and not from the native peoples themselves. Beyond Celts, Germans, And Scythians draws upon recent theoretical and methodological advances in anthropology, archaeology and history from sources all over Europe and bases a new approach to the problem of the identities of Iron Age peoples. What is revealed is a complex, ever-changing mosaic of dynamic and diverse cultural identities. Beyond Celts, Germans, And Scythians is a superbly presented, scholarly work that is highly recommended for academic and professional reference collections, and is also commended for the non-specialist general reader with an interest in antiquity and prehistoric European cultures.

Rating:
Summary: A solid introduction to the topic
Review: Mr. Wells does a fine job of introducing some questions about Iron Age European peoples. He also presents interesting thoughts about the nature of identity. As an introduction, this is a fine piece, but if a reader wants a more extensive examination of the topic, he should look elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Celtic, Germanic, Scythian history, art, heritage
Review: Wells' book is an introduction to solving the problems of who the Celts, Germans and Scythians actually were, since all we really know about them come from their artifacts and what their literate contermoraries said about them. He focuses on the difficulty of identifying ancient migratory cultures, especially in light of Greek and Roman assumptions that these peoples were static and mainly defined them in terms of place rather than as moving groups (identifying them them as 'Germani' because they lived in Germany, for instance). Further, the Romans and Greeks had their own agendas in writing about the peoples of temperate Europe. Archaeology has further muddied the waters by ascribing "Celtic", "Germanic" and "Scythian", "Greek" and "Roman" labels to various artifacts and artistic styles.

Unfortunately, it is a brief text and more illustrations would have been helpful. Wells raises many questions and we have to wait for the future research will give us some of the answers.