Are There Any Sources?

Contrary to common belief, there are many points of reference available to us:

FIRST, there are the archaeological sources. These are the only direct source for theprehistoric part of the religiion. The main elements we find here are sacred sites such as the Viereckschanzen, the cairns in Iona and various places throughout Europe. There are also "natural" places which were used to deposit offerings. These were objects believed to be used in ritual and those which were depictions of gods. Most of which are from the time of the Roman occupation however, they still tell us quite a bit about the Celtic religion.

SECOND, there are the epigraphic sources, i.e. inscriptions. Most of those are fromthe time of the Roman occupation and as such their use is partly limited,however, some are preRoman(mainly those found in Southern Gaul and Spain).

THIRD, there are the historical sources from the diverse Roman authors. Althoughthese are often biased due to the knowledge, and political interests of the author,andthe audience to which the author was targeting. I do believe that they give us first hand information, more or less, about the Druids. I say this because, the Romans and the Celts were enemies for a long period, but the Romans still admired and reveared the Druids.

FOURTH, we have the Insular literature, which includs; Early British histories like thoseof Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth, sociopolitical geographies like those ofGiraldus Cambrensis as well as Irish and Welsh folklore, and early Celtic influencedChristianity. These sources are useable to get hints at how to reconstruct earlier religiousconcepts as well as to how Celtic religion might have looked in the Celtic countries not conquered by Rome during the first few centuries A.D.

 FIFTH, we have the folk traditions in the countries which still are "Celtic". Eventhough heavily christianised, many "pagan" deities and beliefs shine through thesetraditions. So, through this we can also try to reconstruct missing parts as well.These sources can be analysed and are additionally added by results of such comparative IEstudies,linguistics, comparative religious studies, and most of all for me ourgeneral history. These all assist in providing explanational and theoretical possibilitiesto help reconstruct and develop the Old World cultures and religions.