dualities.
Another distinctive Celtic practice was the use of animals, known as zoomorphic images, which often combine human, animal and mythical creatures. Many of these images can be found in the Celtic Christian manuscript, the Book of Kells. In fact, many contemporary designs have been inspired by this medieval illustrated book.
The ancient and medieval Celts did not exist in isolation, but were often in contact (and at war) with other tribes, as well as the Roman Empire. So Celtic art and culture is an amalgam of ideas and styles inspired by the pre-Celtic peoples of Britain who left us with their mysterious monuments and carvings, the surrounding influences, which eventually included Christianity, and of course what the Celts themselves created and changed to their own style.
This mixture of influences does not detract from the contributions made by the Celts. This, in fact, is common to almost all cultures. The Romans, for example, were strongly influenced by the Greeks, who in turn were influenced by the Egyptians, etc. Yet the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Celts alike all developed cultures uniquely their own.
If certain ancient Celtic symbols were originally created by earlier peoples, this is simply the way the world works. One symbol, for example, that we often see in contemporary Celtic design is the triskele, a triple spiral. This is a very ancient design found on monuments such as Newgrange in Ireland, which dates back to around 3,000 BC. We cannot say exactly what this design meant to the people who originally drew it. Later interpretations, however, have connected the triple spiral to the Trinity, while neo-Pagans say it represents the Triple Goddess.
The great thing about