[kj] (OT) Israel .

[iPat]

id have agreed with you before, but Oppenheimer's book based on the
recent drive in DNA studies has blown that apart for me.

I believed the Celts had traditional origins in Iron Age Central
Europe, everything i had studied seemed to endorse it, but
Oppenheimer's new data clearly show that the peoples derive from the
Basque country.They came by an Atlantic coastal route many thousands
of years ago, though the Celtic languages we know of today were
brought in by later migrations, following the same route, during
Neolithic times.

The Brittany Gauls (hey! Asterix!) were what we traditionally
refferred to as the celts.

Whether we argue over a term celtic depends on who generated the word
which is a modern interpretation of Roman transcripts. Oppenheimer
shows that the term was used by roman scribes to also describe the
basques

What interests me Jim and therefore i suspect may interest you is that
its such a radical shift in historical perspective based on modern DNA
data, that while we cant ignore it we have to put it into the mix and
develop a whole new perspective, blowing away our previous
convictions.

Im seriously thinking of getting my DNA tested to see where i fall
into the scheme of things.
http://www.ethnoancestry.com/oppenheimer.html


On Sun, Sep 7, 2008 at 11:23 PM, Jim Harper <jimharper666 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> I hate to be picky Pat, but there are few historians who would describe

> those people as 'Celtic'. The Celts were of Indo-European stock, and they

> colonised the greater part of the British Isles, wiping out the original

> residents (the people you refer to) in all but a few areas. Descendants of

> those first peoples continued to exist in some areas- the Picts are the most

> famous example- and you can still see their DNA evident in the short and

> dark residents of North Wales, in contrast to the tall blonde look of the

> Celts. By the time the Romans arrived, Celt people had asserted their

> dominance over the entire island, with the exception of Highland Scotland.

>

> Those first people were certainly Brittanic, but they were not Celtic. The

> vast majority of British DNA is Celtic in origin, with successive invasions

> by Romans, Angle-Saxons, Danes, Norwegians and Normans having left

> comparatively little impact on our genes. These invaders might have been

> strong enough to politically control the island, but they lacked the numbers

> necessary to completely obliterate all preceding races.

>

> Jim.

>