Description
The painted warriors of Britain were recognisable thanks to the blue designs adorning their skin and made famous by Julius Caesar’s 'De Bello Gallico'. Their bravery and savagery is evident from his commentaries. Fighting unarmoured, and sometimes naked in the style of the Gaulish Gaesatae or the northern Picts, the painted ones relied on their skills with the Celtic longsword, a weapon designed to slash and hack rather than stab, and their tall shields, which could also be used as a weapon in its own right. Their tattoos generally took the form of curlicue lines, dashes and circles, which mirrored abstracted animal and natural forms. Frightening to behold, these designs probably held religious significance, uniting the warriors with their gods, their lands and their tribes. Whether woad was the source of the blue dye or some mixture of copper and iron that Caesar referred to as 'vitrum' is not entirely clear. Woad, however, does make a better candidate as it has slightly antiseptic properties.
