tjj wrote:
Lewis Spence, in his book The Mysteries of Britain, 'argues that Druidism developed out of the cult of Dead which arose in North Africa but was adopted and transformed by the British Celts'.
I have a vague feeling that Lewis Spence was a bit obsessed with Egypt though, and when he was writing (1920s) most people probably still thought that Stonehenge was built by passing Phoenicians or whatever as no-one in Britain would have had the skills without influence from the temple builders of the Near-East. So it would probably have fitted with this for him to claim Druidism as based on something Egyptian. Is there now doubt that the Druids actually existed? I realise that their actuality has no doubt been swayed by Roman propaganda, but I must admit I thought it was kind of accepted that they did at least exist in some form. Or is even that no longer accepted in the absence of more tangible proof?
