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Traditional
Celtic style knotwork and designs have long been closely associated
with My Island
Found in pottery,
ceramics, paintings, drawings, weaving, carvings and so much more.
It gives me great pride to include
this artform and styling in my passion for
tattooing! |
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THIS SECTION EXPANDING MAY 2004
After
100 B.C. the Celts adapted a bastardised form of the Roman alphabet,
only after first becoming adept at the Greek written language. This
allowed them to begin to record their history and culture. Prior to
this time the ancient Celts used a form of writing called 'Ogham'
(pronounced OH-yam). It was the complex and difficult writing of
Druids and Bards. Ogham is also referred to as the 'Tree Alphabet'
due to the fact that each letter corresponds to a tree, and also an
associated meaning. The letters were, in fact, engraved onto sticks
as well as larger standing stones. In keeping with Druidic concepts
, each of the Ogham's twenty letters signifies the name of a tree.
For example, 'A' is 'Ailim', meaning Elm, 'B' is 'Bithe', meaning
Birch, and so on. The 'Ogham' alphabet contains twenty letters, and
is read from the bottom upwards. Letters are written or formed using
lines placed adjacent to, or crossing over, a midline. Each
individual letter may contain from one to five angled, or vertical
strokes. Vowels were constructed with a combination of dots. The
edge of the object on which the letters were carved usually served
as the midline. Ogham was named after the Celtic god of literature,
Ogma. Now you might think he couldn't have had a 'God-like'
literacy, but the language only had six letters less than our own,
super versatile modern english language. Also the combinations could
not have been so 'un'similar to the Chinese or Japanese written
characters of today. Also, reading from the bottom up, or from left
to right even, is not uncommon in several of today's cultures. My
guess is that for those accustomed to the language, it could prove
quite literate. Ogham was used on the edges of burial stones, and
also as boundary markers. They usually represented the name of a
person. Examples exist to this day. It was also carved on strips of
wood or rod, fastened together at one end. The ancient Celtic
'book', no doubt. These bound collections were opened and closed to
present poetry and story telling. Certainly would be a great way of
presenting a 'Windows 2000 for Dummies' manual, wouldn't it?
Unfortunately, since these 'books' were made of wood, none survive
today. However, the messages on stone have survived, and given us a
precious glimpse into a mysterious culture. These wooden sticks,
with their Ogham markings, were also used for divination. In a
manner similar to the way the Norse people used 'Runes'. Only the
Druids and Bards understood the system, and could have great
influence over their people when they demonstrated their knowledge
of its power. Sounds very much like the lawyers and politicians of
today, with their complex 'bound sticks' of the legal system! 369
verified examples of Ogham writing are known to exist today. They
exist in the form of standing stones mostly concentrated in good old
Ireland, but also scattered across Scotland, the Isle of Man, South
Wales, Devonshire, and as far afield as the ancient Roman city of
Calleva Attrebatum (Silchester). Similiar Ogham markings have been
found on standing stones in Spain, and also Portugal. The markings
in Spain are believed to be far older than the ones found in
Ireland. Perhaps as far back as 800 BC. It is believed that the
Celts who populated the British isles and Ireland may have embarked
upon their emigration from this area of the Iberian Peninsula.
Perhaps they were directions onward. So there we have it, the Celtic
past is very much a mystery and a puzzle that is still today being
put together with what small pieces we can find. The Celts had an
oral tradition, and thus stories or history were memorised and
passed on from one generation to the next. Unfortunately for those
of us interested in an important part of our heritage, there is very
little written recorded history.
Given that the ancient Celts didn't practice written record
keeping, we have little evidence of their tattooing. Most of our
modern Celtic designs are based on works found in the Irish
Illuminated Manuscripts of the 6th and 7th centuries. These designs
in themselves were likely refined versions of the earlier artform,
as everything in life evolves. This is also a much later time period
than the height of the Celtic tattooing. The disdain by the then
ruling factions of Europe, combined with a brutal 'Christian' regime
discouraged and suppressed the practice far and wide for some time.
Designs from many ancient stone and metal works are more likely to
be from the same time period as the Celts were practising tattooing.
Author I.M. Stead writes in the book 'CELTIC ART', "All the Britons
dye their bodies with woad, which produces a blue colour and this
gives them a more terrifying appearance in battle! " Caesar's
observation is expanded by Herodian: 'they mark their bodies with
various figures of all kinds of animals and wear no clothes for fear
of concealing these figures.' A practice recently verified in a
different culture, in a different land, with the discovery of the
Siberian 'Ice Mummies'. The leaves of woad were an important source
of the blue dye until the first half of the our 20th century, and
the Celts evidently used it to paint or tattoo their bodies. No
preserved skin has ever been found tattooed or painted or plain, but
the Siberian discovery dates to the same time period, and surely
demonstrates what was probably a more common practice than most of
us believe, or are aware of. Author W.D. Hambly wrote in his 1925
book 'THE HISTORY OF TATTOOING AND IT'S SIGNIFICANCE': "It seems
clear that the Picts tattooed by puncture and that animals were the
chief subject portrayed. The forms of beast, birds, and fish which
the Cruithnae, or Picts tattooed on their bodies may have been totem
marks. Certain marks on faces of Gualish coins seem to be tattoo
marks. Tattooing by puncture was possibly known among such Gualish
tribes as Ambiani, Baiocasses and Caletes. The markings of Picts is
historically important in showing the advances of tattoo by puncture
to an extreme northly point of Great Britian before the Christian
era." Author Charles Thomas further strengthens the arguement in his
book 'CELTIC BRITAIN': " A suggestion is that the Picts painted or
tattooed their faces, bodies and exposed limbs and that by so doing
they were maintaining in the far north a custom of great antiquity
and former wide occurence. In Scotland, tattooing may have been a
pre-Celtic, pre-Iron Age inheritance; yet there appears to be
tattooed cheeks on Gaulish coins, and we know of Caesar's remarks
about the painted bodies , of the British tribes, while one
post-Roman Irish source refers to tattooed shins - by far the most
likely meanings would be those concerning the status or rank, the
group affiliation and the occupation of anyone bearing such marks."
Twenty or thirty years ago the sceptics would have argued the
concept, but with recent discoveries we are learning that, as in
most things, we really don't know as much as we'd like to think we
do! |
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