RAINBOW FARMS AUSTRALIA                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                                           14th Century BC

1400 BC the Iron Age really began in Anatolia as a new way of smelting iron on a larger scale was developed, which would have a great future effect on World History, and the Celts from now on would begin to evolve into separate Septs / Family branches under their various Celtic Kings and Celtic Chieftains while constructing their duns / hill forts to protect their extensive Family Tuaths / regions.     

1318 BC This period was then known as the Late Bronze Age, as there was by now a Bronze industry with new working and casting techniques, new weapons and tools, and a wider use for metals than before, as a whole new range of Bronze implements and weapons such as socketed axe - heads and swords appeared in Ireland. The first hill - forts and ring - forts were also begun to be constructed, signalling the Hallstatt Celtic Culture, which was to only first occur in Central Europe in the 7th Century BC. Crannogs / artificial islands with palisades on all sides were also being constructed in the middle of the lochs / lakes in Ireland. Bronze swords and Bronze socketed - axes came into use about the same time as Celtic cohesion was occurring. The earliest recognized Celtic Culture was to be the Hallstatt in Salzkammergut village in Austria, with the early Celts in Central Europe living in settlements known as Oppidia, which were defence villages that were surrounded by a Gallic Wall / murus Gallicus with the timbers laid down and filled with stones, and a dry stone outer wall, down to Southern Germany only.

     Before the end of this period, north of the Alps from Bohemia to the River Rhine region, true Celtic origins began as interrelated events occurred, and the Upper Danube changed as regards to material culture and the burial rites in the bottomlands of the Upper Danube, especially in Austria and Bavaria in the south - west of Bohemia. These were settled farmers, who were different to the pastoralists, with a new higher standard of farming, as prior to this they had lived in rectangular wooden houses in a village or in large homestead groups surrounded by earthworks or palisades. They became the forerunners of sedentary mixed  farming practices in Europe. Those who died were cremated, and their broken bones placed in urns for burial in a flat cemetery area that was large, which became known as Urnfields. Civilisation spread widely on the bottomland around the Upper Danube surrounding the Swiss Lakes, in the Upper and Middle Rhine Valleys and then spread further west and to the north expanding slowly. In the north Alpine Urnfield province, that was central to Southern Germany and Switzerland, the Celts were a mixture of Old and New Cultures, who became continuous throughout Celtic history. Raids were widespread by land and sea around the Eastern Mediterranean and because of this many villages were to be abandoned, and new settlers also appeared in the Upper Danube region, and there was large scale Copper mining in the Eastern Alps. From their homeland base in Central Europe the Celts were to spread westwards into France and the Brython Isles, into the south - west into Iberia, and southwards into Northern Italy, and also eastwards through Central Europe into the Balkans and Asia Minor.

1200 BC The Celts, now began to migrate across the Continent into central western and north - western Europe, into Austria, into the Czech Republic, into France, into Hungary, in to the east of the River Rhine, and also into Slovakia, Southern Germany and Switzerland, The people north of the Greco - Roman civilization who would become known as the Celtoi / Celtae and Galatae / Galli, were tall, muscular, fair skinned, with blue eyes, blonde reddish hair and were warriors who now also began to spread eastward from eastern Europe. A new group was also to arrive into Ireland who had better tools and weapons and they lived in wattle and daub huts, while building stockades and crannogs in the lochs / lakes for self preservation. A living area used by the inhabitants, during this period in time at Templepatrick in Co. Antrim in the north - east of the Ulster Province covered an area of 300 yards in diameter that would be excavated in the 20th Century AD and Neolithic period items would be uncovered there, including, flints, axes, pieces from the Bronze Age along with many artefacts. 

    The Celts were to bring civilization to Europe before the Greeks and the Romans, as they were the first to construct harvesting implements, war chariots and invented tools that are still used today, such as  pincers, keys, iron rims for the chariot wheels, and coats of mail, they shod their horses at first in bronze that had rings round the edges tied up with thongs, and introduced the Greeks and Romans to soap / Sapo. They produced outstanding ornaments in Gold, including fibulae and torques, bronze decorations for the horses'harness, axes, helmets, swords, and pans to produce salt from sea water, and they were heavily involved in both poetry and music.

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