The Celtic Diaspora [1]
The above map of the Romano-British Celtic diaspora reflects 6th. century history according to Gildas [2]
My question would be :- "How far are these migratory routes a reflection of trade routes and past immigration routes?" If the links were already there, the Romano-Britons were neither "invaders" nor "invited mercenaries": two alternatives proposed by Young [3].
According to recent research (2012) "Human populations, along with those of many other species, are thought to have contracted into a number of refuge areas at the height of the last Ice Age. European populations are believed to be, to a large extent, the descendants of the inhabitants of these refugia, and some extant mtDNA lineages can be traced to refugia in Franco-Cantabria (haplogroups H1, H3, V, and U5b1), the Italian Peninsula (U5b3), and the East European Plain (U4 and U5a). Parts of the Near East, such as the Levant, were also continuously inhabited throughout the Last Glacial Maximum, but unlike western and eastern Europe, no archaeological or genetic evidence for Late Glacial expansions into Europe from the Near East has hitherto been discovered. Here we report, on the basis of an enlarged whole-genome mitochondrial database, that a substantial, perhaps predominant, signal from mitochondrial haplogroups J and T, previously thought to have spread primarily from the Near East into Europe with the Neolithic population, may in fact reflect dispersals during the Late Glacial period, ∼19-12 thousand years (ka) ago".[4]
The link between the "Franco-Cantabria" refuge after the last Ice Age and the western areas of the British Isles may date back 19 - 12 thousand years! Oppenheimer and others suggest that these early settlers that he calls "Atlantic coastal beachcombers" spread round the Atlantic coastal fringe from the Basque refuge around 16,500 years ago. [5]
If this were the case, what was happening in the "Anglo - Saxon" areas, and how far back can we date the genetic and cultural difference between the Eastern (Northern European) population of the United Kingdom and the Western (Celtic?) peoples?
The answer to this question may give us a clue as to when and why the Celtic - British influence took place in northern Iberia.
[1] Map from Wikipedia Commons
[2] GildasAccording to recent research (2012) "Human populations, along with those of many other species, are thought to have contracted into a number of refuge areas at the height of the last Ice Age. European populations are believed to be, to a large extent, the descendants of the inhabitants of these refugia, and some extant mtDNA lineages can be traced to refugia in Franco-Cantabria (haplogroups H1, H3, V, and U5b1), the Italian Peninsula (U5b3), and the East European Plain (U4 and U5a). Parts of the Near East, such as the Levant, were also continuously inhabited throughout the Last Glacial Maximum, but unlike western and eastern Europe, no archaeological or genetic evidence for Late Glacial expansions into Europe from the Near East has hitherto been discovered. Here we report, on the basis of an enlarged whole-genome mitochondrial database, that a substantial, perhaps predominant, signal from mitochondrial haplogroups J and T, previously thought to have spread primarily from the Near East into Europe with the Neolithic population, may in fact reflect dispersals during the Late Glacial period, ∼19-12 thousand years (ka) ago".[4]
The link between the "Franco-Cantabria" refuge after the last Ice Age and the western areas of the British Isles may date back 19 - 12 thousand years! Oppenheimer and others suggest that these early settlers that he calls "Atlantic coastal beachcombers" spread round the Atlantic coastal fringe from the Basque refuge around 16,500 years ago. [5]
If this were the case, what was happening in the "Anglo - Saxon" areas, and how far back can we date the genetic and cultural difference between the Eastern (Northern European) population of the United Kingdom and the Western (Celtic?) peoples?
The answer to this question may give us a clue as to when and why the Celtic - British influence took place in northern Iberia.
[1] Map from Wikipedia Commons
[3] Young, Simon, Britonia: Caminos Nuevos, Editorial Toxosoutos, Serie Keltia 2004. pp. 105-107
[4] Pala,M et al, Mitochondrial DNA signals of late glacial recolonization of Europe from near eastern refugia. http://www.cell.com/ajhg/abstract/S0002-9297%2812%2900204-2
[5] Oppenheimer, Stephen, Origins of the British, Constable 2006
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