Abstract
There is a silent majority in Celtic society unrepresented in the tumulus cemeteries and merely implicit in the fortified settlements of the late Hallstatt and La Tène periods which tends to be glossed over or oversimplified in the archaeological literature. Most reconstructions of Celtic society make assumptions about the lower echelons that in fact have no firm investigative basis, but which are seminal to the arguments developed. I believe that an understanding of the nature of this group and its relation to the upper echelons is essential to any general reconstruction of Celtic society, and can no longer be avoided simply because of the difficulties inherent in its interpretation.
Keywords
- Slave Trade
- Silent Majority
- Ancestor Worship
- Lower Echelon
- Greek World
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Arnold, B. (1988). Slavery in Late Prehistoric Europe: Recovering the Evidence for Social Structure in Iron Age Society. In: Gibson, D.B., Geselowitz, M.N. (eds) Tribe and Polity in Late Prehistoric Europe. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0777-6_8
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