Woad

• Woad is used in Dye.

  Caesar says Britons stained themselves with vitrum. A Roman report of a dye-practice, not a pan-Celtic blue theology.

  from Julius Caesar · Gallic War, c. 50s BCE

  used in · sourced · culturally specific

• Woad is associated with Blue.

  Woad yields a blue. Caesar’s vitrum and later antiquarian “Pictish blue” are not indigo plantations.

  from Julius Caesar · Gallic War, c. 50s BCE; Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE

  associated with · sourced · documented

• Indigo resembles Woad.

  Both yield a blue dye. Indigofera indigo and European woad are different plants and different trades.

  resembles · interpretive · documented

Celtic tradition

• Woad is associated with Celtic tradition.

  The dye is often hung on “the Celts” in later writing. Caesar’s Britons are his enemy-report; Irish and Welsh literatures are other files.

  from Julius Caesar · Gallic War, c. 50s BCE

  associated with · partially sourced · historically uncertain