CELTIC ANATOLIA
by Lea Sultan Celik Sommerseth Shaw ISIK
Celtic, now associated to Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany and the Atlantic coast But there is another Celtic story, thousands of kilometres to the east, beneath the Anatolian sun.
More than two thousand years ago, Celtic-speaking peoples crossed from Europe into Asia Minor and eventually established themselves in the highlands surrounding ancient Ancyra now Ankara. Their country became known as Galatia.
During the great Celtic movements of the third century BCE, groups of Celtic-speaking peoples travelled through the Balkans. In approximately 278–277 BCE, groups led by Leonnorius and Lutarius crossed into Asia Minor after becoming involved in the struggles of Nicomedes I of Bithynia. They subsequently moved through Anatolia before establishing themselves in its north-central highlands.
These settlers became known as the Galatians.The similarity between Galatian, Gaul and Gallic is not accidental. Ancient Greek writers used Galatai for Celtic peoples, while Latin writers used Galli. The Galatians of Anatolia were part of this broader ancient Celtic world.
This gives Anatolian history an extraordinary chapter, there was once a Celtic-speaking society in the heart of what is now Turkey, three Celtic Peoples of Anatolia were the Tectosages — Tolistobogii — Trocmi.
Ancient Galatia therefore had several political centres rather than simply being one city or one homogeneous kingdom. According to Strabo's description, each of the three peoples was itself divided into four sections, while representatives shared a common council.
Imagine Ankara not as the capital of modern Turkey but as one of the principal centres of an ancient Celtic-speaking population.That forgotten image changes the way we look at both Celtic history and Anatolian history.
The Celtic world was much larger and more diverse than the modern Celtic nations. Celtic-speaking communities once existed across substantial areas of continental Europe, and the Galatians represented one eastern branch of that much broader ancient phenomenon.
When they entered Anatolia, moreover, they entered a land that already possessed enormously complex cultures.Phrygian traditions had existed there. Greek-speaking communities flourished across Asia Minor. Cappadocia bordered the Galatian heartland. Persian, Hellenistic and indigenous Anatolian influences had crossed the peninsula for centuries.
The Galatians consequently became part of Anatolia's cultural mixture rather than remaining an isolated European colony.Archaeological scholarship cautions us especially against constructing the Galatians solely from hostile Greek and Roman descriptions. Modern research describes their culture as considerably more complicated than the traditional stereotype of foreign Celtic warriors endlessly raiding Asia Minor.
The Galatians spoke a Celtic language conventionally called Galatian, closely related to the Celtic languages of ancient continental Europe.Greek increasingly became important within the cultural environment surrounding them, and later Roman political authority transformed the region. Yet the Celtic identity did not simply disappear immediately.
Galatians retained a recognizable Celtic character well into the Roman imperial period and that Celtic speech survived in rural Galatia into Late Antiquity. For centuries, therefore, somewhere among the hills and settlements of central Anatolia, people were speaking a Celtic language.
A language related to those spoken thousands of kilometres westward survived beside the ancient languages and cultures of Anatolia. The map of language was never as simple as the political maps we inherit today.
They arrived as migrating Celtic communities, but generations of life among Anatolian and Hellenistic societies transformed them. Archaeological and historical evidence indicates substantial Hellenistic influence on Galatian society.
A Celtic tradition could encounter a Phrygian landscape. A Galatian leader could participate in Hellenistic politics. Greek could coexist with Celtic speech. Eventually Roman institutions could be placed over all of them.
They fought and negotiated with the great powers surrounding them. They were defeated by Pergamene forces under Attalus I around the late third century BCE and later by the Roman commander Manlius Vulso in 189 BCE. During the first century BCE, Galatian rulers became important Roman allies.
Celtic Anatolia challenges our modern instinct to divide civilizations into neat geographical boxes. Their existence reminds us that the ancient Mediterranean, Balkans and Anatolia formed interconnected worlds through which soldiers, merchants, families, languages, religions and stories travelled continually.
The history of the Celts belongs not only to Europe's western shores but also, unexpectedly and beautifully, to the mountains and plains surrounding Ankara, Pessinus and Tavium. Long before our modern borders divided Europe from Asia, Celtic voices had already crossed them. And for centuries, those voices spoke beneath the Anatolian sky.
Lea Sultan Celik Sommerseth Shaw ISIK
Writer • Publisher • Researcher
© 2026
LCSS INC ™ Lea Sultan Celik Sommerseth Shaw ISIK
Geneva
© 2026 LCSS INC. Lea Sultan Celik Sommerseth Shaw. ISIK All rights Reserved.