GAULS gôlz (Gr. Γαλάτις). An ancient name for the inhabitants of the land area from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rhine River and extending from the English Channel to the Pyrenees and extended W of the Alps. It was applied by the classical peoples to the Germanic tribes of the region. They were subdivided by Julius Caesar and other authors into Belgae, Celtae and Aquitani as early as 100 b.c. Their presence, however, was known far earlier although was not specified. As wave after wave of Indo-European peoples migrated across the steppes of Eurasia during the 3rd and 2nd millennia into northern Greece, the Danube Valley, the forests and coastal plains of modern Germany and France, they often brushed the borders of the great river valley civilizations of the ancient Near E. They may have been included in the peoples mentioned by such names as Togarmah (Gen 10:3). The scarce remnants of their languages are Germanic and show similarity to the Gothic dialects of the Danube Valley. Their art as known from excavations of old Rom. sites in Northern Europe shows grotesque zoomorphic figures and finely wrought designs related to the Persian and Sarmatian art of the Indo-Iranian plateau.