It´s really crazy how sometimes seemingly unrelated things appear to be interconnected. A couple of days ago I posted a blog article about a market in Ankara. After that I researched a little about the history of Ankara, and in a Wikipedia article I stumbled over this sculpture. It´s the sculpture of the "Dying Gaul", also called the "Dying Galatian". Originally It was commissioned in bronze by Attalos I of Pergamon after the victory over the Galatians in Anatolia around 230 BC. This is a marble copy sculpted by a roman artist, presently at display in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.  It´s from the Capitoline Museum of Rome. I read an article in the Washington Post about the exhibition and went to have a look at it and took some pictures.

Who were the Galatians? They were a celtic tribe that came to Central Anatolia from Thrace (present day Bulgaria) and settled in the Anatolian Highlands around ancient Ancyra. Galatia is another term for Gaul, the roman word (Galli) for Celt. Galatia has also been called the Gallia of the east. The galatian language continued to be spoken a long time after the Celts left. A traveling priest called St Jerome, observed that galatian was the same gaulish language that was spoken in the western world of the Gauls around Trier (present day Germany). Of course the western Gauls were also Celts, that had moved all the way to the islands off the european coast (present day British Isles). The most up-to-date results of historians state that the Celts, over time, moved and spread around, from Scythia (disputed?) into Asia Minor, into the Balkans and all over Southern and Western Europe. So here is the really cool thing: The same language spoken in Central Anatolia (present day Turkey) and Western Europe and wherever else the Celts were heading. Early globalization! There were trade and travel routes between celtic tribes and lands trough greek and roman territory. Imagine this dying Galatian (Gaul) speaking the same language as some druid in Western Gaul (present day France). Our favorite fictional Gauls are Asterix and Obelix, imagine them being kin to this guy. If you see the close up of his face trough the link above, you might be inclined to believe that they were actually related. This is why history is so great. It let´s your imagination spin. Who are we? Who were our ancestors? This is about the interconnectedness I referred to above. The best thing about it? It reveals many primitive and hollow dogmatic ideas of our times. It ridicules the biggest scourge of humanity today: Sinister nationalism and bigotry.

People have always been fascinated by the sculpture.

Amused by the artistry or some specific detail?

Thomas Jefferson wanted the original or a reproduction for his Monticello.

Especially artists consider this work a classic. A famous depiction of emotion.

The sculpture gets a lot of attention in Washington D.C.  Do they see the interconnectedness?