Origins of the Celts
http://thetranslatorscafe.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/celts-are-from-spain-says-professor/”>An article I found recently questions the commonly-held belief that the original Celtic homeland was in central Europea around Hallstatt in what is now Switzerland.
In a theory based an extensive overview of the linguistic and archaeological evidence, Professor John Koch of the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies proposes that a Celtic civilisation and culture first developed in the west of Europe in the Bronze Age rather than in central Europe.
Inscriptions found on the Iberian peninsula and dating from 800 BC to 400 BC are in a Celtic language, Professor Koch believes. The language is known as Tartessian and is believed to be the oldest written language in western Europe.
There is also an Irish legend in Do Suidigud Tellaich Temra (The Yellow Book of Lecan) about the origins of the Gaelic Celts – “We are born of the children of Mile, of Spain.”
2 Responses to “Origins of the Celts”
Colin on 11 Jun 2008 at 12:57 am #
Eh, this is a really tricky sort of thing. Linguistically, Celts exist. Archaeologically, they more or less don’t. I think Professor Koch is being a little irresponsible making those sorts of claims given the degree to which “Celts” as any cohesive pre-modern group has been discredited, especially archaeologically (see Simon James, for a start). The references to Koch as a “respected academic” rather than “respected linguist” or “respected archaeologist” is also an all-too-common tip-off that this is probably not the most trustworthy set of conclusions. And a lot of the supporting evidence they mention, like the genetic links to the Basque country, are at best circumstantial without more wide-ranging discussion of European genetics as a whole.
The Tartessian tie is really interesting, though, and I hope more comes out of that investigation.
An Cainteoir Dóchais on 12 Jun 2008 at 3:30 pm #
Nonsense. Everybody knows the Celts are one of the Lost Tribes of Israel. And the Basques are refugess from Atlantis. And Acient Egyptians had regular contact with South America.