The Celts: Search for a Civilization is a book written by the historian Alice Roberts, designed to accompany a BBC documentary series about the Celts (though I have not bothered to watch the documentary). It doesn't seek to be an academic or dispassionate history of the Celts; rather, it attempts to illustrate why the Celts were an authentic, interesting, and unique civilization. The author shares many discoveries and why they are interesting; the Hallstatt and La Tene archaeological finds; grave goods; statues and art; jewelry and metalwork, and so forth. The images included in the book kind of blew my mind, the cauldron in particular was extremely complex and intricate, which surprised me when I realized that it was created in a culture that relied on oral transmission of blacksmithing skills. The book held my interest and attention right through the end, and I'm kind of sad that I've read the book and there's not more to read.
However, there are a couple of nitpicks I have: firstly, the author slightly embellishes some of the findings. In particular, there was a nude statue that she explained with such detail and enthusiasm that it made it sound like one of those super awesome ancient Greek sculptures, but when I looked at the image provided of the statue, it was pretty lame. Additionally, there was a bronze couch in a prince's tomb. The couch was described as this awesome and "majestic" thing, but when I looked at the image, it seemed to just be a couple of slate plates; uninteresting by modern standards -- though I do understand that bronze in that quantity back then symbolized wealth.
// Brevity Quest 2025