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From: Alan R <>
Subject: [DNA] The Celtic Myth - Language spread by trade alone? Uh-huh
Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2007 23:54:58 +0100 (BST)
The reason why archaeologists talk about languages
spreading along trade routes is that simple invasion
theories don't work when it comes to explaining the
spread of the Celtic languages. Even if you look at
all periods, there is very little that one formerly
Celtic area like Portugal simultaneously had in common
at any given time with say Ireland, Switzerland or
Belgium when the archaeological record is examined
closely.
Most have given up on the old La Tene and Hallstatt
Iron Age invasions as they cant explain the presence
of Celts reported in many areas such as western
Iberia, northern Britain, southern Ireland etc. That
has forced people to look back to the Bronze Age but
the period does not have any spectacular invasions in
what would later be Celtic Europe. Many then have
looked further back to the Neolithic to explain the
Celts but I don't think this works well either. Some
parts of the later Celtic world had a Neolithic
derived from the central European LBK culture while
other areas like Iberia and parts of France etc have a
Neolithic derived from the very different
Mediterranean cardial cultures. This has enticed a
small minority to look even further back in time and
suggest that the Western European hunter gatherers
spoke Indo-European or even early Celtic. This has
problems too in that the later Celtic areas featured a
lot of different cultures in that period and not a
common one.
The bottom line is that there is no period when all
the known Celtic areas simultaneously had much in
common in terms of archaeological culture. That's why
the trade network theory (mainly Bronze Age) for the
spread of Celtic language and culture is popular.
However, in truth, trade networks seem to have cut
across language groups and there is no striking
pattern of the areas that would later be Celtic
intensively trading among each other to the exclusion
of others.
No single satisfactory explanation exists for the
Celts distribution. It is possible that different
areas were celticised at different times and by
different methods. Its been baffling archaeologists
and historians for centuries now.
Alan
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