John Waddell, "The Celtic World: A History" (Four Courts Press, 2026)

Summary

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Podcast Summary: New Books Network

Episode: John Waddell, "The Celtic World: A History" (Four Courts Press, 2026)

Date: May 23, 2026
Host: Dr. Miranda Melcher
Guest: Professor John Waddell

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Episode Overview

This episode features Professor John Waddell discussing his book "The Celtic World: A History." The conversation explores the origins and evolution of the ancient Celts, delving into language, archaeology, mythology, and the changing ways scholars and the public have understood the "Celtic world." The discussion weaves through shifting theories, key archaeological discoveries, popular fascination with Druids, and the emerging role of DNA studies, aiming to illuminate the complexity and connectivity of past Celtic societies.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Motivation and Scope of the Book

• Waddell’s Academic Background
  • Archaeologist with a long career studying the ancient Celts.
• Purpose of the Book
  • Intended to cover the overlooked story of the discovery of Celtic languages alongside archaeology—a major gap in scholarship.
  • Quote (02:37):

    "Because a Celt is first and foremost somebody who spoke a Celtic language, the story of the discovery of the Celtic languages along with the archaeology had never been covered in any detail. ... It's a story of discovery about those ancient Celts who spoke ancient languages."
    — Professor John Waddell

2. The Meaning and Origin of 'Celt'

• Classical References
  • The term appears in Greek and Roman sources (e.g., Julius Caesar on the "Celtae").
  • Self-designation was localized; notably, Britons and Irish did not call themselves Celts in antiquity.
• Ongoing Mystery
  • Etymology and exact meaning remain unresolved.
  • Quote (05:20):

    "There's no neat explanation for what the name might mean. So that is one mystery that is unresolved, I'm afraid."
    — Waddell

3. Diversity and Unity in the Ancient Celtic World

• Cultural Variation vs. Linguistic Continuity
  • Considerable diversity from Ireland to Asia Minor, yet a consistent linguistic thread united Celtic-speaking communities.
  • Connectivity:

    "There was not just extraordinary mobility ... but there was an enormous amount of trade and exchange..." (06:23)
    — Waddell

  • Rivers and Atlantic seaways were key conduits linking distant groups.
• Debate over 'Celtic Culture'
  • Modern scholarship questions the notion of a single cohesive Celtic culture; connectivity and shared language provide evidence for a broader Celtic world.

4. The Shifting Study of Celtic Origins

• Pre-19th Century:
  • Dominated by speculation and biblical origin myths (e.g., sons of Noah as European ancestors).
  • The concept of the Celts was largely ignored or misunderstood.
  • Quote (10:13):

    "...Biblical mythology ... took sway and this ... occluded the Celtic picture until the 17th century, when people began to look more closely at similarities in language."
    — Waddell

• Emergence of Celtic Studies:
  • Scientific approaches to linguistics and archaeology began in the mid-19th century.
  • Key finds (e.g., at Lake Neuchatel, La Tène) shaped the academic field and public imagination.
  • Quote (13:46):

    "Language and archaeology came into the picture together, ironically, almost at the same time."
    — Waddell

5. The Allure and Misinterpretation of the Druids

• Rise in Popularity (18th Century):
  • Druids used as catch-all explanations for mysterious monuments like Stonehenge and megalithic tombs.
  • Skeptical View:

    "They became a convenient explanation for a lot of archaeological evidence that was not very well understood." (11:42)
    "...in many ways, they were, to my mind, a slight distraction..." (12:29)
    — Waddell

  • Actual evidence for Druids is scant, reliant mostly on classical texts and problematic early Irish/Welsh literature.

6. The Influence of Race Science and Eugenics

• Problematic Legacy (19th–Early 20th C.):
  • Racial theorizing (skull shapes, etc.) was widespread and often prejudiced.
  • Now recognized as unscientific and damaging to serious Celtic scholarship.
  • Quote (17:13):

    "Racial theorizing was almost a malevolent business ... racial prejudice kept into the story as well."
    — Waddell

7. Major Archaeological Discoveries

• Key Sites and Finds:
  • Chariot burials in Champagne (e.g., La Gorge Maillet, 1876), lavishly equipped with imported Mediterranean goods.
  • Pillier des Nautes (Pillar of the Boatmen) from Paris, blending Roman and Celtic deities like Cernunnos.
• Modern Excavations (Late 20th Century):
  • Danebury (England), Manching and Heuneburg (Germany), Lavo on the Seine (France); all demonstrate wide connections and elite lifestyles.
  • Quote (22:54):

    "Extraordinary finds were made that illuminated ... the long distance traffic that was part and parcel of the Celtic world."
    — Waddell

8. The Promise of Genetic Studies

• Ancient DNA Research:
  • Providing new insights into migration, social structure, and especially the roles of women in elite Celtic society.
• Future Directions:
  • Most major advances expected from archaeology and genetics, rather than new ancient texts.

9. Contemporary and Personal Research

• Waddell's Ongoing Work:
  • Focused on prehistoric and Celtic art in Ireland (Newgrange, the Petrie crown), connecting solar symbolism to wider European traditions.
  • Quote (27:37):

    "On this tiny object, you actually have a great cosmological narrative hidden in the artwork ... the sun sailing across the heavens in a solar boat."
    — Waddell

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Memorable Quotes and Moments (with Timestamps)

• On defining the Celts:

  "A Celt is first and foremost somebody who spoke a Celtic language..."
  — Waddell (02:37)

• On the name’s mystery:

  "Scholars can't agree as to what it might mean. There's no neat explanation."
  — Waddell (05:20)

• On the role of Druids:

  "They became a convenient explanation for a lot of archaeological evidence that was not very well understood..."
  — Waddell (11:42)

• On scientific racism:

  "Racial theorizing was almost a malevolent business... It detracted from the real study of the Celts."
  — Waddell (17:13)

• On the universality of solar symbolism:

  "...On this tiny object, you actually have a great cosmological narrative hidden in the artwork."
  — Waddell (27:37)

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Notable Segments & Timestamps

• Introduction & Book Rationale: 01:30–04:00
• Origins of 'Celt': 04:00–05:43
• Unity & Diversity in the Celtic World: 05:59–08:09
• 17th–19th Century Understanding: 08:38–11:31
• Druids and Popular Fascination: 11:31–13:32
• Origins of Celtic Studies as a Discipline: 13:46–15:16
• Race Science’s Influence: 17:13–18:36
• Major Archaeological Discoveries: 18:59–22:13
• Modern Finds and Genetics: 22:13–25:38
• Waddell’s Current Work: 26:07–29:08

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Conclusion

This episode is a sweeping tour through the multi-faceted world of the Celts, from linguistic mysteries and archaeological marvels to the pitfalls of outdated scholarship and the thrill of new scientific advances. Professor Waddell’s expertise weaves a story that is both scholarly and engaging, highlighting how our understanding of the Celtic world is always evolving—driven by new discoveries, revisited texts, and the integration of scientific methods.

For those curious about the Celts, their art, language, and ongoing discoveries, "The Celtic World: A History" offers both illumination and invitation to the ongoing quest for understanding.

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Transcript

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[Professor John Waddell]

Welcome to the New Books Network

[Dr. Miranda Melcher]

hello and welcome to another episode on the New Books Network. I'm one of your hosts, Dr. Miranda Melcher, and I'm very pleased today to be speaking with Professor John Waddell about his book titled the Celtic World, A history, published by Four Courts Press in 2026. Now, this book takes us to a whole bunch of kind of different places and times. Well, way back in time, understanding the Celtic world and putting together lots of different kinds of history too. We're going to be talking about all sorts of different areas of research to kind of build up this picture of a world. So we'll probably end up going into more details in some places than others, but trying to get a sense of something quite far back in time that maybe we haven't always had a good sense of. So I think this conversation will be quite illuminating in many respects. John, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast.

[Professor John Waddell]

It's a pleasure.

[Dr. Miranda Melcher]

Miranda, could you please start us off by introducing yourself a little bit and tell us why you decided to write this book?

[Professor John Waddell]

Well, I I am an archaeologist and I over many years used to teach and study the archaeology of the ancient Celts, and there are hundreds of books on these people in Ancient times in many languages, Hungarian, German, Czech, French and of course in English. There are books on their archeology, their history as recorded by classical writers, books on mythology and of course, books on Celtic art. The literature is pretty large, but I was struck by the fact that because a Celt is first and foremost somebody who spoke a Celtic language, that the story of the discovery of the Celtic languages along with the archaeology, had never been covered in any detail. So I decided, in a moment of folly, perhaps being just an archaeologist with no particular training in linguistics, to attempt to chart how the story of the ancient Celts and their language was discovered over time. And that's what produced this book eventually. It's a story of discovery about those ancient Celts who spoke ancient languages.

[Dr. Miranda Melcher]

I mean, that, I think is a nice summary of what is very clearly quite a lot of work putting all of this together. So I think we can now get into exploring some of the things then that the book investigates. And obviously you've mentioned these questions already of language and identity. So let's talk about that word Celt. I mean, where does that even come from?

[Professor John Waddell]

Well, an obvious place to look is the writings of Greek and Roman scholars. Julius Caesar is a, a famous example. He simply records that in Gaul, when he visited it in his murderous campaigns, there was a large group of people who called themselves Celtae or Celts. And the name Celt or Celtoi figures in other parts of the Celtic world as well. So it seems to have been a self designation by a number of people in pre Roman times in various parts of Europe. Oddly enough, it seems as if the people in Britain and in Ireland in these centuries BC did not call themselves Celts. And this preoccupied a lot of people in the 1990s in particular who decided to question the existence of an ancient Celtic world. But that's another story. Basically, it's a name that is recorded in various sources. And I have to say, as far as I can understand it, scholars can't agree as to what it might mean. There's no neat explanation for what the name might mean. So that is one mystery that is unresolved, I'm afraid.

[Dr. Miranda Melcher]

I mean, it's always fun to have unresolved mysteries. Thank you for explaining kind of what we do and don't know. But picking up that thread then, of kind of questioning the idea of whether there is an ancient Celtic world, is there a thing as an ancient Celtic culture?

[Professor John Waddell]

That is a very good question because once again, looking at the archaeological evidence from Ireland in the west, all the way east to Asia Minor. It's very clear there's great diversity in this Celtic speaking world in the last few centuries bc. And this diversity has prompted some people in recent years to question the existence of the ancient Celts. But if you look beyond the cultural diversity, there is this continuous linguistic thread that literally links one Celtic community, one Celtic speaking community, to another. And various discoveries, particularly in the 1990s, demonstrated, at least according to experts in Celtic languages, that in these crucial centuries there was no huge language difference in the Celtic language family. Today, of course, we're familiar with the major differences between Scots Gaelic, Welsh and Irish as spoken in Ireland. But apparently in the past, according to those who know their linguistic matters, there was a greater degree of uniformity. And this of course, means that people could communicate more readily across this large geographical area. And then again, looking at the archaeological evidence, one thing that becomes readily apparent is that in this ancient Celtic world, there was not just extraordinary mobility, people moving from place to place, but that there was an enormous amount of trade and exchange in which the Atlantic seaways and of the great rivers of Europe, the Danube, the Rhine, the Saone and many others, played a huge part in connecting people. And when you look at some of the archaeological evidence, you can see that while there is diversity, there is also, from time to time, intriguing evidence of connectivity over a wide area of continental Europe. And that's what gives, if you like, greater substance to this notion of an ancient Celtic world.

[Dr. Miranda Melcher]

Yeah, of course, the world doesn't have to mean, as you said, kind of all exactly in one place, like connections and trade are really important. And obviously, as you're describing this, this is clearly something that's kind of still being investigated and discussed and debated with the mysteries that are unsolved. You mentioned some kind of key things happening in the 1990s. How kind of recent is this? Like, what sorts of explorations and research of the Celtic world did we have, say, before the 19th century?

[Professor John Waddell]

Before the 19th century, there was an enormous amount of speculation. Celts became a popular topic. I suppose from the 17th century onwards, people began to realize that there were connections between the languages spoken in Wales and in Scotland, and indeed place names in France. And this was how, if you like, the notion of the Celts gradually became part of the, if you like, general thinking. And various books were written in the 17th century about the Gauls and about the Celts. But it was all very ill informed in many ways, because one of the things that struck me when writing this book was just how various countries had very different origin myths that didn't actually bring the Celts into the picture at all. You might think that perhaps in Ireland, a very Celtic country in many ways, that they would not have forgotten their Celtic origins, but they did. And what happened here and in Britain and in France and in Germany in particular, there was a, if you like, because of the significance of the stories in the Bible. In Genesis, we know that the three sons of Noah and their offspring were responsible for populating the world. So this had to be somehow the story that took, if you like, prominence. Japhet, one of the sons of Noah, was the ancestor of the peoples of Europe. So the Celts were completely forgotten. Biblical mythology, if you like, took sway and this, I think, occluded the. The Celtic picture until the 17th century, when people began to look more closely at similarities in language. But even then, there was an enormous amount of wild speculation and misinformation about, about the Celts. And it wasn't until the beginning of the, well, the middle of the 19th century that if you like, the scientific study of archaeology of the Celtic world and of, well, what is today called Celtic studies, the languages and literatures of the Celtic world, began to be part and parcel of academic exploration, so to speak. So it's a long and varied and complicated story. And of course, Druids have always figured prominently in the history of the Celts as well. So they sort of surfaced again in the 18th century in particular, to complicate the picture, they were part of the, if you like, well, the fascinating side of the Celtic story in their day.

[Dr. Miranda Melcher]

Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned the Druids, because that is something I want to ask about, you talk about in the book, that this kind of, as you mentioned, later 18th century is a particular moment for that fascination.

[Professor John Waddell]

So why, I think they became a convenient explanation for a lot of archaeological evidence that was not very well understood. I mean, the attribution of Stonehenge to the Druids, for example, is a very well known example. But in fact, it was a common place in both Ireland and in Britain in the 18th century to attribute not just stone circles, but also megalithic tombs and other monuments to Druids. They were, if you like, an obvious priestly cast. That would sort of be a good explanation for the rituals that people believe to have taken place in these stone circles and around these megalithic tombs. And they became extremely popular not just in Britain and Ireland, but also in France as well. But in many ways, they were, to my mind, a slight distraction because our knowledge of the Druids and various people much more learned than I have written about this, Miranda Green being just one example. Our knowledge of the Druids is actually rather skimpy. It relies to a great extent on classical sources, which may or may not be true and truthful, but also on sort of early Irish references in medieval Irish and Welsh literature, which themselves present many problems as well. So the Druids were fascinating, but to my mind are just a small part of the greater Celtic story.

[Dr. Miranda Melcher]

Yeah, no, that definitely makes sense, but is a thread I wanted to pull on a little bit from what you were mentioning before.

[Professor John Waddell]

You can see I'm running away from the Druids of a tall no, fair enough.

[Dr. Miranda Melcher]

The other thread I'd like to pull is about, as you were mentioning, the sort of origins of proper academic study, right, Celtic studies. So can you tell us more about sort of when, why and how that discipline begins to be formed?

[Professor John Waddell]

I think it takes off again, as I said, in the middle of the 19th century, two things happen in the field of Celtic studies, in that field of language and literature. Some of the first, if you like, truly academic studies of the ancient languages of the Celts were published, and at the same time a series of finds were made at a place on Lake Neuchatel called LA10 that could be reasonably attributed to the ancient Kels. And if you like, very slowly, language and archaeology came into the picture together, ironically, almost at the same time. And then, as the study of the languages developed, so too did a series of archaeological discoveries in France in particular, and they brought, if you like, the physical evidence of the ancient Celts into the popular domain. And very slowly, a picture was built up in the latter part of the 19th century and obviously into the 20th century of both Celtic archaeology and Celtic studies in the linguistic sense. And that progress continues today. And today we know an enormous amount about both the archaeology of the Celtic world and the language spoken by these peoples.

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[Dr. Miranda Melcher]

Yeah, and I think this interdisciplinariness is obviously a feature still of Celtic studies and was sort of throughout these developments. You've just been describing even aspects of academia that we may no longer really be using. So obviously phrenology is no longer a big deal now. But it was right? Race science and eugenics was. So how was Celtic studies of sort of the more 19th, early 20th century related to those disciplines?

[Professor John Waddell]

I think in the 19th century in particular, racial theorizing was almost a malevolent business because it naturally meant that people, for example, based on the size of a skull or the shape of a skull, racial characteristics were claimed to exist. And it was possible to identify Kels and non Kels. And of course, a fair degree of racial prejudice kept into the story as well. It's now recognized that this racial nonsense, even though it was very prevalent in the 19th century and indeed in the early 20th century, was in fact an unfortunate byproduct of unscientific nature. The skull shape, for example, tells you nothing about a person's identity, in a sense. And in, in many ways it detracted from the. The real study of the Celts. But it was one of these things rather like, I suppose, the overemphasis on druids in the 18th century that just complicated the picture and led to an awful lot of irrational writing and irrational thinking.

[Dr. Miranda Melcher]

Yeah, that's definitely one sort of rabbit hole that wasn't helpful to go down in exploring all things ancient Celtic, obviously. Archaeology, on the other hand, has resulted in quite a number of finds. So I wonder if you can tell us a bit about this aspect of Celtic studies and especially sort of speak to how geographically wide ranging these investigations have been.

[Professor John Waddell]

Well, I mean, needless to say, the archaeological discoveries do figure prominently in this book, the Celtic World. And I suppose the first great steps in the archaeological field happened in the 1860s onwards, with the identification of numerous finds from Celtic burials in eastern France in the Champagne region, for example. Most notable amongst these was a famous chariot grave from a place known as La Gorge Maillet, which was found in 1876. And it was found by a local antiquarian who used to sort of ride across the chalklands of Champagne, supposedly listening carefully to the different resonances of his horse's hooves, and was able to identify hollows in the chalk and then dig up a grave. Thousands of graves were actually ransacked in the Champagne region in the 19th century. But La Gorge Maillet was exceptional because it produced a very rich chariot burial with a warrior, with weaponry, Etruscan wine jugs, spearheads, bronze helmets and so forth. And the finds were all displayed in the Universal Exhibition held in Paris in 1878. And this would be one of the things that would have brought the ancient Celts to widespread popular attention. And, of course, there are many other finds as well.

[Dr. Miranda Melcher]

Any other ones you particularly want to mention?

[Professor John Waddell]

Well, I suppose even going back further in Paris today, if you go to the medieval museum at Cluny in central Paris, there's a much older discovery called the Pillier des Notes. It's the Pillar of the Boatmen, and it consists of a series of stone blocks that were once part of a large monument built by the boatmen of the River Seine in honor of a Roman emperor. And it contains several fascinating carvings, not just of Roman gods like Vulcan and others, but also of a series of Celtic deities, including the famous horned God Cernunnos. And this excited widespread interest at the time, because for the first time again, Celts and Romans were brought, if you like, to popular attention. And you can still see the image of Cernunnos, the horned God of the Celts in that museum today. And now, of course, many other examples of horned figures populate the world of the ancient cells as well.

[Dr. Miranda Melcher]

Yeah, those are definitely some of the intriguing aspects, I think, of the book there. And obviously, obviously, there's so many more details there for anyone who wants more that we're not going to have 12 hours together now to get into. There is clearly a lot, though, happening in this field pretty recently. Are there any other findings you want to discuss made in sort of the end of the 20th century?

[Professor John Waddell]

I suppose I should mention, of course, the major excavations that have taken place, particularly in Britain and in continental Europe, that have really illuminated aspects of the the Celtic world in England. For example, Barry Conliff spent many years digging the great hill fort of Danebury in the south of England. And this added considerably to our understanding of Iron Age hill forts in Celtic Britain and on the continent. You had great excavations in places like Manching in Bavaria, and particularly at the Heberg on the upper Danube, where again extraordinary finds were made that illuminated in particular the long distance traffic that was part and parcel of the Celtic world. The people who lived in the Heberg were closely in touch with Massalia, present day Marseille, a Greek colony there, and in imported a striking amount of Mediterranean material and ideas into this part of southern Germany in the latter centuries bc. So sites like these, Danebury, Manching, the Heineberg and a whole series of burials in more recent years have all added to the sort of extraordinary picture we have now of the Celtic world. Even more recently, in the small town of Troyes in eastern France, there's an exhibition about a grave discovered at a place called Lavo on the Seine, which again is an extraordinary find of a princely burial, a young male buried on a chariot, but again with imported Mediterranean drinking vessels and with toilet implements that indicated he kept. He kept a close eye on his nails and his hair. In other words, physical appearance was part of the, how could you call it, the concerns of the elites of this Celtic world in these centuries around 500 BC. The picture we have now that it is emerging is one of an extraordinary, complex but fascinating society. And you mentioned what might happen in the future. Well, obviously I don't think any new texts will be discovered to add to our understanding of the Celtic languages, but certainly more brief inscriptions will be found. But it's archaeology that's going to provide the bulk of new discoveries and there will undoubtedly be many more to come. And one of the most exciting things in the modern archaeological discovery of the world of the ancient Celts is the development of genetic studies, the study of ancient DNA. These are demonstrating now just the beginnings of fascinating connections between communities and revealing also a lot of interesting detail about the possible role of women in the upper echelons of Celtic society as well. And I've no doubt that discoveries on this front in particular will be to the fore in years to come. It's a very exciting possibility.

[Dr. Miranda Melcher]

Yeah, it definitely sounds like it. I mean, this is such an active field, as you mentioned, especially on the archaeological side, and clearly something you're continuing to pay attention to and be excited about. And obviously this book is out in the world for people to learn more and then hopefully be able to follow along perhaps, on those forthcoming developments. What might you be working on? Are any of these your projects? Do you have kind of anything currently on your desk you want to give us a sneak preview of?

[Professor John Waddell]

At present, I'm turning my attention to something very Irish, and that is to prehistoric art in Ireland, of which there is a fair amount, because, of course, one of the greatest corpuses of prehistoric art is to be found in the great passage tombs of Newgrange and now. And it is actually a very interesting and intriguing body of evidence. But also, the study of prehistoric art in Ireland takes you into the Celtic world as well. And there's some very interesting sort of examples of Celtic art in Ireland in the National Museum and elsewhere. One of the pieces that I touch on, for example, in the book the Celtic World, is a tiny bronze object called the Petrie crown. And basically it was a very small bronze object that must have fitted on the head of a small idol because it's only a few centimeters in diameter. The disks on this crown are decorated, they're only 5cm across and there's two of them, but they bear a highly stylized image of the sun in a solar boat. It is a popular belief in prehistory and in the Celtic world, indeed, that the sun was probably conveyed across the heavens in a boat with a bird's head, prow and stern. And there are many images of this in Scandinavia and the Rock Art Fair, and indeed on Late Bronze Age material in Central Europe. It was a widespread European belief, the sun sailing across the heavens in a solar boat and obviously descending then into the underworld to travel beneath the earth, to rise again in the East. It figures then on the petri crown and on this tiny bronze object, dismissed, I might add, in a recent British Museum publication. As a bronze contraption on this tiny object, you actually have a great cosmological narrative hidden in the artwork. I grant you, it's a stylized boat, but nonetheless, it's clearly a boat with the sun in it. And this gives us an insight into some of the beliefs and practices in late prehistory in the Celtic world and indeed beyond. We forget how important the sun was in prehistoric and indeed pre modern communities, because everyday life and everything in it was governed by the sun. So it's no surprise to find solar preoccupations on metalwork in the Celtic world and indeed on the carved stonework in places like Newgrange and Nauth. So if you're like, I can't avoid the Celtic world when looking at prehistoric

[Dr. Miranda Melcher]

art as well, well, it certainly sounds like you have a lot that you're currently working on that you're excited about, which is wonderful. And the book the Celtic A history, published by Four Courts Press in 2026, is available for people to dive into should they want even more details than we've been able to cover here. So, John, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast.

[Professor John Waddell]

My pleasure, Miranda. Thank you.

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