Being Celtic is a cultural thing, not a genetic identity or a political nationality.
At the time of the last glacial maximum (ice age) human populations in Europe were confined to three small area; the Atlantis (modern Ukraine), the Balkans (modern Greece) and Iberia (modern Basque region of Spain). The three groups were separate long enough that natural genetic mutations made them into genetically distinct groups. Then when the ice retreated, about 10,000 years ago the populations expanded northwards. Those in Atlantis populated eastern Europe, those in the Balkans populated central Europe, including Greece and the Roman Empire and some got as far north as Scandinavia. The people from Iberia populated western Europe including Britain. Melting ice and a tsunami around 8,200 years separated Britain and Ireland from mainland Europe and the people here became the ancient Britons from late stone age through the bronze age and the iron age, but they were genetically the same as those in modern Spain. France, Germany etc. Archaeology shows that there was trading with the continent and there could have been some inter-breeding with genetically similar people, but it was not an age of literacy. Julius Ceaser invaded Britain in 55BC and Britain came under Roman rule from 43AD-410AD but although they left a lot of technology the Romans (mid European originating from the Balkans) were a separate ruling class and did not inter-marry with the ancient Britons. There is very little Roman DNA in the indigenous population of the British Isles. When the Romans left there was a void in the leadership of the islands and thatâs when there were lots of small invasions from all over western Europe, Angles and Jutes from modern Denmark and Saxons from modern Germany became the Anglo-Saxons who took over, and interbred with the ancient Britons in what is now eastern and southern England. People from modern Spain and southern France (the Keltoi tribes) moved across to western England, north through Wales, Cumbria and western Scotland. They also went to Ireland and the Isle of Man. These were the Celts and they too intermarried with the ancient Britons - but as all of these people had originated from the ice-age population in Iberia it is very difficult, if not impossible, for geneticists to distinguish between them. On the other hand Viking genes from northern Scandinavia can be identified in northern Scotland and some parts of Ireland. It seems to be the language as much as anything which identifies a group of people as Celtic - and thatâs why Gallacia in northern Spain is not always considered to be Celtic; the language there died out and Spanish took its place. The ancient British language, which was never written down, died out and the germanic languages of the Angles and Saxons became Old English and developed through middle English into Modern English. On the western side of the British Isles the incoming Celtic languages, although similar, remained distinct, but they too replaced the language of the ancient Britons. Welsh, Breton and Cornish are in the Britannic group of Celtic and Manx, Scots Gaelic and Irish Gaelic are in the Goidelic group. All of these languages remained as first languages for some people until about the 20th century when English gradually took over but all the Celtic regions are keen to keep their historic languages alive. Lacemaking is much more recent and doesnât follow the same patterns. Bobbin lace goes back to about the 16th century and it is debatable as to whether it came over from Flanders (northern France/Belgium) or developed independently in England. There are only two main areas of England where BL was made; the east Midlands which is firmly in the Anglo-Saxon area and Honiton in Devon which was part of the Cornish Celtic area. Most of Britain does not have any traditional bobbin lace although embroidery, and hence embroidered laces, was widespread and done mostly by upper class ladies and by nuns who had the time to devote to their needlework. There is no tradition of bobbin lace elsewhere in the British Isles. http://atlantis-today.com/Atlantis_Ice_Age.htm https://vieilleeurope.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/restart-of-europe-after-last-i ce-age/ https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0315/180315-fine-scale-british-isle- genetic-map <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0315/180315-fine-scale-british-isle -genetic-map> http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/anglo_saxons/who_were_the_anglo-s axons/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_languages Brenda in Allhallows [email protected] www.brendapaternoster.co.uk - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
