I received this book several months ago and had a hard time getting through it because it is very dry. I'm interested in Celtic history and culture and hoped that this book would provide interesting insights. However, it was mostly lists of excavations and artifacts. Perhaps it would have given me more of the stories if I had read it more closely; it wasn't long before I found myself skimming the chapters just to get through because I had a commitment to finish the book.

My expectations for this book didn't match with what it was actually like—perhaps the title led me to expect something that the Early Reviewers description would have made clear wasn't there. I was expecting more of an in-depth analysis of practices related to veneration of water, based on theory and archaeological finds, but what this book delivered was primarily a list of excavations and place name. The linguistic analysis of place names for Celtic origins and influencewas very interesting, but for a book talking about Celtic veneration of water it seemed this book didn't actually deliver on. ( )

Written in a dry academic style, this is a slow hard read, working through archaeological sites and listing items found. I could have done without the first section and the poor formatting in my ebook version didn’t help.

This book covers all kinds of sites in and near water since the Bronze Age, and I was not convinced that most of these had to do with veneration of water. Perhaps all the Celtic ones do, but you’d have to excavate this book to find out.

Having said all this, the book is packed with information on ancient sites and details of everyday items, grave goods and offerings discovered. As the book progresses to Celtic Christian times, the author includes interesting contemporary accounts, which liven the narrative. Gradually a fascinating picture built up in my mind of peoples, their lives, trade and strife between them. I now have a sense of a changing, living landscape and I am glad I read this. 3 ½ stars. ( )

3 1/2 stars This writing is composed primarily of excavation locations and their content. The religious or spiritual aspects of the word “veneration” are not delineated as perhaps anticipated throughout the book. It seems to read more as a compilation of archeological findings, not necessarily related to the lives of the people who contributed to it. It is unknown if the excavation sites were specifically geared toward watery locations or if there just happened to be a watery location nearby. If there was a Celtic tradition of tossing objects into water as a religious rite, it was not clarified. Nor were any religious or spiritual (Christian or nature) deities predominantly named for these practices. It contains writings about the structures or fortifications as much as it does the deposited artifacts. From page 89 (of 273) onward, the print moves from standard to italicized. This made for more difficult reading as did the irregular spacing of words and sentences from paragraphs. ( )