I finally figured it out; the Gauls were ninjas!
I have been doing a lot of research on Gaul/France recently; I'm very psyched about it. samildanach and I have been planning to do a 2012 trip to Burgundy for some time, and then I started having all this Gaulish Celt mystical stuff come up lately, and OMGs the research possibilities, squee! I'm at the point of tipping over, flailing enthusiastically about what an amazing tool WorldCat is (giant search tool of 10,000+ libraries, 1.5 billion listed items! Eeeeee!), and how there's a major new museum complex opening next spring at Alésia (site of the climactic battle between Julius Caesar and Vercingetorix).
And damnit, why haven't I ever heard that there's a Museum of Celtic Civilization at Mont Beuvray/Bibracte, a major oppidum site that is one of 36 "Grand Sites of France", a French governmental designation for areas that are "exceptional, fragile, protected and listed cultural landscapes that are both well-known and emblematic"?!? (Others include UNESCO World Heritage sites such as Carcassonne, Mont St-Michel and the Pont du Gard.)
It's just crazy that folks in the Celtic Reconstructionist Pagan communities tend to act like Gaulish practice has to be written off as impractical due to lack of resources, when people aren't talking about sites like the ones above, OR the Gallo-Roman museum in Lyon (next to an ancient amphitheatre where they still hold concert series today!), OR the Archaeological Museum in Dijon that hosts all of the materials from the temple of Sequana at the Sources of the Seine.
It's just. . . bizarre. Lyon and Dijon are, if mentioned in travel books AT ALL, usually referred to as places Americans just don't go. Amazon.com's French Travel Guide section doesn't even *have* a subcategory for Burgundy, although they have 77 books in the Bordeaux section and 178 in the Corsica section?!?
I'm just flat-out stunned how I'm finding these things by sheer random luck (or, after the first happy accidents, diligent searching).
*stands up and waves signal flags* There is info on Gaulish religion out there, guys, really. I promise. And it's AWESOME.
P.S. Sorry if you're interested but French isn't in your skill set - I tried to include English version links above, but don't promise any accuracy or function beyond the front page. You can always surf there in the Google Chrome browser and set it to automatically translate.
And damnit, why haven't I ever heard that there's a Museum of Celtic Civilization at Mont Beuvray/Bibracte, a major oppidum site that is one of 36 "Grand Sites of France", a French governmental designation for areas that are "exceptional, fragile, protected and listed cultural landscapes that are both well-known and emblematic"?!? (Others include UNESCO World Heritage sites such as Carcassonne, Mont St-Michel and the Pont du Gard.)
It's just crazy that folks in the Celtic Reconstructionist Pagan communities tend to act like Gaulish practice has to be written off as impractical due to lack of resources, when people aren't talking about sites like the ones above, OR the Gallo-Roman museum in Lyon (next to an ancient amphitheatre where they still hold concert series today!), OR the Archaeological Museum in Dijon that hosts all of the materials from the temple of Sequana at the Sources of the Seine.
It's just. . . bizarre. Lyon and Dijon are, if mentioned in travel books AT ALL, usually referred to as places Americans just don't go. Amazon.com's French Travel Guide section doesn't even *have* a subcategory for Burgundy, although they have 77 books in the Bordeaux section and 178 in the Corsica section?!?
I'm just flat-out stunned how I'm finding these things by sheer random luck (or, after the first happy accidents, diligent searching).
*stands up and waves signal flags* There is info on Gaulish religion out there, guys, really. I promise. And it's AWESOME.
P.S. Sorry if you're interested but French isn't in your skill set - I tried to include English version links above, but don't promise any accuracy or function beyond the front page. You can always surf there in the Google Chrome browser and set it to automatically translate.