Thracians - Illyrians - Celts. Cultural connections in the northern Balkans in the 4th-3rd centuries BC

Abstract

The result of the colonisation of the eastern and southern part of the Carpathian Basin by Celtic communities was the appearance of some new communities characterised by the cultural amalgamation of the newcomers with the indigenous populations, which led to the construction of new collective identities. At the same time, the “colonists” established different social, political or economic relationships with different indigenous populations from the Balkans. This article discusses the practices related to the cultural interactions between the aforementioned communities and the ways in which these connections can be identified through the analysis of material culture from the eastern and southern Carpathian Basin, and the northern and north-western Balkans.