The Guardian keeps insisting that the new exhibition at the British Museum says the Celts never existed (Golden age of art by a Celtic race that never was, 10 July), most recently Jonathan Jones (The stunning legacy of a people who apparently did not exist, 22 September). No one who knows anything about the ancient Celts has ever said that, and one of the first images as one comes into the exhibition is a version of my map showing where we have evidence for Celts in the ancient world, both from outsiders (Greeks and Romans), but also from people who considered themselves to be Celts such as Martial, Pompeius Trogus and Sidonius Apollinaris.
But Jones admits he did not bother to read the captions. Perhaps he should have; he might have learned something.
Professor emeritus John Collis
Sheffield
