The Gauls

 

The Gauls were a Celtic people living in Gaul, present day France and Belgium, from the Iron Age through the Roman period. They spoke the Continental Celtic language called Gaulish. Archaeologically, they were the bearers of the La Tène culture. In the 3rd century BC, the Gauls expanded towards the southeast in a series of invasions, including the Gallic Invasion of Greece, settling as far east as Anatolia, as the Galatians. They were conquered by Julius Caesar in the Gallic Wars in the 50s BC, and during the Roman period became assimilated into a Gallo-Roman culture. During the crisis of the third century, there was briefly a breakaway Gallic Empire under Postumus, Marcus Aurelius Marius, and Tetricus I.

 

                        

 

By the arrival of the Franks during the Migration Period (5th century), the Gaulish language had been replaced by Vulgar Latin. Gaulish culture developed out of the Celtic cultures over the first millennia BC. The Urnfield culture (c. 1300 BC – c. 750 BC) represents the Celts as a distinct cultural branch of the Indo-European-speaking people. The spread of iron working led to the Hallstatt culture in the 8th century BC; the Proto-Celtic may have been spoken around this time. The Greek, Phoenician, and Etruscan civilizations and colonies began to influence the Gauls especially in the Mediterranean area.

Why the Romans called the Celts in France “Gauls” has been debated, but never definitively explained. Caesar went further and called all the inhabitants of Gaul by that name, though some groups there had probably preceded the Celts and others (like scattered Germanic groups) come after them. By the time of his conquest, the culture of the Celts – including the Druidism they might themselves have adopted from Britain – was certainly dominant, but geography alone would have created strong distinctions between the various groups in France and quite possibly some had languages and traditions which have simply been lost along with most French Celtic history. While the Gauls themselves seem to have had at least rudimentary writing, the druids forbade the keeping of records; what we know comes from archeology and scattered classical writers whose accounts of the “Gauls” (or the “Keltoi”) may refer to any one of a number of groups and only fortuitously to the majority of Gaul's inhabitants.

                                   

 

Around 600 BCE, Greek Phocaeans founded Massalia (later Marseilles). Greek culture brought a number of influences to the Celts, though which exactly is often uncertain. The Gauls would later attack both Rome and Delphi and had had extensive contact with both Greek and Roman cultures by the time of the conquest. While Celtic culture remained distinct at that point, it already bore deep influences from such contacts. 

 

Caesar said the Gauls had been fierce but that “their proximity to the Province and knowledge of commodities from countries beyond the sea supplies to the Gauls many things tending to luxury as well as civilization.” Food and wine loomed large in such luxuries. Griddles and cauldrons were used for cooking; possibly small ovens too.   

 

                              

Roman writers commented on the Gauls' excessive love of meat. Though the druids were known for their worship of trees, the mistletoe ceremony was meant to protect pigs and cattle; a mistletoe potion was said to promote fertility in animals.

Some Gauls were said to use poisonous arrows (with hellebore) for hunting and to think it made the meat more tender. The Gauls had begun as hunters, but ate mainly domesticated animals in the centuries before the conquest.  

                     

 Sheep, cattle, and pigs were all farmed by the Gauls. They grew cereal crops like emmer wheat, spelt, bread wheat, barley and millet. They also grew peas, asparagus, beans, and lentils. Grain was stored in sealed underground pits, or in special granaries raised on stilts. They certainly made bread, and they also knew how to process grain and water to make alcahol.  Gaulish meals would very likely include roast or boiled meat of some kind, pork , beef or lamb. They often used to roast a whole pig on a spit.

The Romans found some Gallic pigs huge (some were described as “as dangerous as wolves”), but their own might have been very small; also the Gauls had both small and very long breeds. In general, Gallic swine were said to be the biggest and much exported to Italy. Supposedly the pigs got so fat in spring they could no longer walk. The Cisalpine Gauls (those settled in Italy) were said to call their foraging pigs with horns, each of the intermingled pigs recognizing its owner's horn. The Gauls made numerous pork products (charcuterie) which were exported to Rome.

                                      

This week we grilled rack of lamb chops over fire with white asparagus. We dressed the lamb very simply, only salt, pepper, rosemary, and a touch of olive oil. The white asparagus were cooked with olive oil, salt, pepper, butter, and parsley.