Pre-Celtic

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The Celts in Europe, past and present
The Celts in Europe, past and present

The term pre-Celtic refers to the period in the prehistory of Central and Western Europe postdating the emergence of Proto-Celtic and predating the expansion of the Celts in the course of the earlier Iron Age (9th to 6th centuries BC). The area involved is that of the maximum extent of Celtic languages in about the mid first century BC.

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[edit] Languages

For continental Europe, pre-Celtic languages of the European Bronze Age may be taken to include other Indo-European dialects (Illyrian, possibly Lusitanian, the hypothetical Proto-Italo-Celtic dialects, "Old European") on one hand, and non-Indo-European and pre-Indo-European languages (Rhaetic, Etruscan, Basque/Vasconic) on the other. However, proponents of the Paleolithic Continuity Theory see Western Europe as being Proto-Indo-European language speaking from the arrival of modern man in about 60,000 BC.

Recent work by Gray and Atkinson suggests that a Proto-Celtic language branched from the Indo-European tree around 6000 years ago.

[edit] Archaeology

A simplified map of archaeological cultures of the late Bronze Age (c. 1200 BC): Terramare culture (blue), central Urnfield culture (red), northern Urnfield culture (orange), Lusatian culture (purple), Knoviz culture (central blue), Danubian culture (brown), Atlantic Bronze Age (green), Nordic Bronze Age (yellow).
A simplified map of archaeological cultures of the late Bronze Age (c. 1200 BC): Terramare culture (blue), central Urnfield culture (red), northern Urnfield culture (orange), Lusatian culture (purple), Knoviz culture (central blue), Danubian culture (brown), Atlantic Bronze Age (green), Nordic Bronze Age (yellow).

In both continental Europe and the British Isles, the pre-Celtic populations are likely to have been the originators of the megalith cultures (the Atlantic Bronze Age). In the later Celtic areas there are many archaeological cultures.

[edit] History

When the Celts are first recorded about 600 BC they are already widespread across Iberia, Gaul and Central Europe. Various associations with archaeological cultures have been assumed but without much justification. The homeland of the Celts is very controversial.

In Ireland the Book of Invasions gives a pseudo-history for a number of incoming peoples. However, this does not seem to be compatible with the genetics, see for example Oppenheimer's "Blood of the British".

[edit] Genetics

Studies of the DNA in populations across Europe suggest that overall some 80% of the population has been in place since palaeolithic times and only a small proportion came into (mainly) south eastern Europe in the later periods. Thus during Pre-Celtic times the population seems to have been fairly stable.

[edit] References

  • Waddell, J., The Celticization of the West: an Irish Perspective, in C. Chevillot and A. Coffyn (eds), L' Age du Bronze Atlantique. Actes du 1er Colloque de Beynac, Beynac (1991), 349-366.
  • Waddell, J.,The Question of the Celticization of Ireland, Emania No. 9 (1991), 5-16.
  • Waddell, J., 'Celts, Celticisation and the Irish Bronze Age', in J. Waddell and E. Shee Twohig (eds.), Ireland in the Bronze Age. Proceedings of the Dublin Conference, April 1995, 158-169.

[edit] See also