Celtic quiz: Test your knowledge about these fierce tribes once described by Julius Caesar

An iron cauldron with a goddess depicted on it
How much do you know about the Celtic European tribes? Here, we see an artifact depicting a Celtic goddess with eagles that was found in Denmark, dating to around 100 B.C. (Image credit: Print Collector via Getty Images)

The ancient Celts were a collection of tribes that roamed Europe for centuries, reaching as far east as what is now Turkey. Best known from the writings of Julius Caesar, who recorded information on his war with the Gauls — a tribe that lived around modern-day France — the Celts are often depicted as violent, fierce and scruffy. But this picture has been filtered through ancient Roman and Greek authors who knew little about these groups, which spoke different languages and had complex cultures.

There's also no universal definition of who counted as an ancient Celt. Some historians count only continental tribes as Celtic, while others view the Brittonic-speaking tribes in the British Isles, such as the Durotriges and Iceni, as Celts as well. The association of the Celts with only the British Isles — and with Ireland in particular — that often persists today is a Renaissance invention.

Are you up to date on your knowledge of the Celts? Take our quiz to find out.

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Kristina Killgrove
Staff writer

Kristina Killgrove is a staff writer at Live Science with a focus on archaeology and paleoanthropology news. Her articles have also appeared in venues such as Forbes, Smithsonian, and Mental Floss. Killgrove holds postgraduate degrees in anthropology and classical archaeology and was formerly a university professor and researcher. She has received awards from the Society for American Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association for her science writing.

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