- 2 days ago
Traces the origins of the ancient Celtic world back to the Iron Age and Bronze Age cultures of central Europe. It explores their deep roots near the Alps and the River Danube....
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:18The magnificent but mysterious Stonehenge.
00:30Great Cromlechs.
00:38The Stonehenge of the North, Kalanish.
00:42Standing stones of antiquity associated with the Celts.
00:51Peoples confined to the western edge of Europe.
01:01All part of a fanciful but mistaken identity.
01:19The cradle of the Celts lies far, far away from the lands they now inhabit.
01:30Explorers from the civilized world of the Mediterranean recognized them here in central Europe.
01:36A distinctive people whom the Greeks called Keltoi.
01:40But what made them distinctive?
01:44A cave in the karst mountains of Bohemia has clues.
01:54The discoveries made here record a grisly tale.
02:02This was a cult shelter, dating back 2600 years.
02:06The scene of ritual sacrifice.
02:21Severed human limbs were found.
02:24Mutilated skulls.
02:26In all, 40 bodies, mostly women, had been sacrificed.
02:31Horses too were slaughtered.
02:41The rituals of the scene are matters for the imagination.
02:50Archaeologists believe that this was a burial service of a powerful Celtic chief.
02:55Accompanied on his way to the other world by his wives and slaves.
03:06He was buried too with gifts and mementos.
03:09A bronze figurine of a bull.
03:17A gold armlet.
03:20And a necklace of precious ambers.
03:29One skull was used as a drinking cup.
03:33Lives, some say, the skull of the chief himself.
03:40Everywhere, evidence of human sacrifice.
03:46The cave rituals of Bohemia are matched by this piece from Austria.
03:50A large bowl, supported by a goddess, with her entourage.
03:57At the head, two warriors hold on to the antlers of a stag.
04:07They're naked in it.
04:14Warriors with conical caps.
04:18Many argue it depicts a scene of ritual sacrifice to a Celtic goddess of fertility.
04:27The sun was worshipped.
04:29It is here pulled through the skies by a mystical horse.
04:38This animal was to take a prominent place in the story of the counts.
04:44About 3,000 years ago, momentous changes were happening to the east, on the Russian steppes.
04:53They were caused by alterations in climate.
04:56It was getting drier.
05:02Crops were failing.
05:04Pastures withering.
05:06The people of the steppes moved westwards.
05:09They and their horses.
05:24Known to early Greek writers as the Sumerians, some moved south to Anatolia.
05:29Others west to the Hungarian plain and the Danube valley.
05:42The horse, of course, had been domesticated in Europe hundreds of years earlier.
05:47But now, it was not just a truck animal.
05:49These people had mastered the skill of horse riding.
05:55For the Celts, the horse became essential in peace, in war, and in religion.
06:05Other profound changes came in technology.
06:08Europe was gradually moving from the Bronze Age to a New Age.
06:13Man had discovered iron.
06:24Iron cut down forests and cut down men.
06:30It became an inexorable part of Celtic life.
06:43So here, in central Europe, by the 8th century BC, a new society was emerging.
06:54Archaeologists of the 19th century first noticed it in Austria.
06:57And Hallstatt, a little lakeside village, gave its name to the first period of Celtic development.
07:17To those familiar with the Celtic languages, the very name, Hallstatt, and the neighbouring village, Hallai,
07:24suggest the reason for the area's importance in prehistoric times.
07:32It lay not in the village, but in the towering Salzburg mountains.
07:54Archaeologists are still working here.
07:58All around them, the secret of the area's importance.
08:04Salt.
08:08A vital commodity for the preservation of food.
08:17The whole area is a labyrinth of mines.
08:20Salt mines, whose output was prized far above miners' lives.
08:32In prehistoric times, salt preserved food.
08:36It also preserved the remains of those who mined it.
08:40Bits of cloth.
08:42A miner's axe.
08:49Leather.
08:53The miner's rucksack.
08:55Perfectly preserved.
08:57As are his other simple possessions.
09:03His horn drinking cup.
09:08His tasseled cap.
09:10His tasseled cap.
09:14Scant clothing and mining axes.
09:24The miners.
09:27The miners.
09:29Troglodytes.
09:30Working.
09:31Eating.
09:32And sleeping in the mines for days on end.
09:34Life was cheap.
09:37Life was cheap.
09:37Mining disasters.
09:38Frequent.
09:39Anyways.
09:39Troglodytes.
09:40Troglodytes.
09:40Allah'u'res.
09:46Troglodytes.
09:54Troglodytes.
10:04Troglodytes.
10:05brought. We have here actually a very important
10:08fund. This fund is
10:12from this Targmure. You can see
10:14at the position of these symbols,
10:17that the whole thing is in a
10:19whole room, which means that this
10:23construction is a little older than the Targmure.
10:35Living on basic necessities, a few
10:38cherry pips survive the unknown miner who died here.
10:55The slaves who mined the salt from these mountains
10:58had their masters. They were buried in style.
11:03In 1846, a government director of mining,
11:07George Ramsauer, discovered their remains.
11:10Archaeology owes him a great debt.
11:16Here, in what is now common alpine pasture land,
11:19he unearthed a huge Iron Age cemetery.
11:25Over a thousand graves were excavated,
11:29each meticulously recorded.
11:33Some were cremated, in the old tradition,
11:36and in some graves elaborate bronze containers
11:39discovered. This one decorated with solar
11:42and duct-like symbols.
11:52Others were buried, sometimes in pairs.
12:00Some went armed to the other world, but not necessarily for battle.
12:10This bronze scabbard with its slender iron sword is vividly decorated.
12:17Two men hold between them a spoked wheel, the sun symbol.
12:26Then, a battle scene.
12:30The mounted warriors.
12:34You went to the other world with pride.
12:37Life in this world was short for men, and particularly for women.
12:43This mortality graph shows the incredibly high death rate for females between the ages of 13 and 26.
12:54Here's the reason why.
13:00A group of children and human embryos from young women who died in childbirth.
13:12Buried with them, they're simple but precious trinkets.
13:25The archaeologists' thirst for knowledge is never assuaged,
13:29and digs are a seasonal feature in this part of Austria.
13:36Dr. Kurt Zeller heads the dig of this romantically named site,
13:40Grave 106.
13:48Plundered in prehistory, many things were destroyed or broken,
13:52others stolen.
13:57A multiple grave.
13:59This body was one of five crudely cremated.
14:06But Grave 106 shows both burial styles side by side.
14:17This body was buried.
14:24Delicately handled in the field, the remains will be closely analyzed in the labs.
14:29Everything points to a male, and a rich one at that.
14:42Classical writers describe the Celts as fair-haired, tall, and muscular.
14:47Many of the finds in the region would endorse that description.
14:58But it's dangerous to make too much of this.
15:02More important is the abundant evidence of a highly stratified society,
15:07dominated by the aristocrats, whose burials were becoming increasingly opulent.
15:21The miners of the whole of this region were becoming richer and richer,
15:26as they traded the precious salt southward to the Mediterranean world beyond the Alps.
15:31But salt is not all they traded.
15:35And when you ask, if there is a similar thing that there is a similar thing in the eisenseitical society,
15:41there must be almost to say yes.
15:43It is to admit.
15:44In the great Bergwerks have not been the great Herrn,
15:47but certainly a few people.
15:49And there are certainly a few people.
15:51And there are also very stark abhängige Verhältnisse,
15:53in which they are in Sklaverei or so.
16:17This then was the cradle for the Celtic world. How would it develop?
16:31In central Europe, no strong political organizations existed. There were no great centers of power. That was now changing.
16:47Trade routes were opening up, and in prehistoric times, waterways provided the quickest and most effective means of transport.
17:05Controlling the waterways, meant controlling trade. But with trade and wealth, came trouble. Warfare was almost endemic.
17:21Guarding the main trade routes, hill forts were appearing with increasing frequency.
17:30Set to take maximum advantage of the natural terrain, they were supplemented by banks and ditches, and enclosed defenses.
17:43Inside, the simple square or rectangular huts of the inhabitants with their thatched roofs. There was no building in stone.
17:54The site, par excellence, overlooked the Danube valley, and controlled its trade, the Hoineberg.
18:04This hill fort is one of the most excavated sites in Europe. Each season, the archaeologists return. New students, new
18:14surveys.
18:18But since the Celts built their houses in timber, there are no great ruined buildings to reveal. Just the defenses.
18:29And within the hill fort, comparatively few artifacts have come to light. All the more care then, when something is
18:36found.
18:41Here, just a small piece of amber.
18:51This palmet of a Celtic chief was made after the mold was discovered.
19:00The pottery provides telltale clues of Mediterranean influences.
19:07This has unmistakable Greek designs.
19:16There's an almost reverential attitude to the civilizations of the south, even influencing the Hoineberg's defenses.
19:25Archaeologists have unearthed a wall of mud-dried bricks. Not much use in this part of the world.
19:34Built on top of the original stone defenses, Celts are simply copying Greeks.
19:41Outside the fort, burial mounds. The final resting places of successive chiefs of the Hoineberg.
19:54And among the burial sites, the giant mound, known as the Homichel.
20:03The grandest site of all. But alas, parts of it had been plundered in antiquity.
20:12Associated with such mounds were stone figures standing over them.
20:18The male figure is naked, except for his dagger, his torque, and a simple conical cap.
20:31The figure, perhaps, of the chief himself.
20:39Then 25 years ago, an amateur archaeologist working in this rich farmland area near Stuttgart, persuaded the professionals to excavate
20:48this mound.
20:58Yorg Beal led the team. Their discovery was amazing.
21:07A chieftain's tomb, unplundered, came to light.
21:16The corpse was adorned by sumptuous pieces.
21:19A wide gold bracelet.
21:26A magnificently decorated dagger, enclosed in fine gold.
21:41The chieftain's tomb.
21:43The chieftain's talk, symbol of power and authority.
21:45Worn around the neck, it had been hammered from a single piece of gold.
21:55The team were even able to restore the conical cap, made of birch bark.
22:10His shoes were adorned by thin gold plaques, immaculately embossed.
22:38This was a giant of a man, over six feet, two inches tall.
22:45His body was laid out on this bronze couch, at the time padded with animal furs and hemp.
22:53Supported by eight female figures, it is highly decorated.
23:00Portrayed on the back, the four-wheeled burial wagon, and on it, a warrior, possibly depicting the very chief himself.
23:11He's accompanied by stylized dancers.
23:17The, when we look at the different
23:18of the different parts of the grave, the four-wheeled
23:22wagon.
23:23In many places we find these, but the Hochdorfer-Wagen is especially, because he is almost all overgrown with dirt
23:30and dirt.
23:31We have the Wagen now built and can now think about it.
23:35The Schmied, who built the Wagen, worked two years ago.
23:40The Wagen consists of 1.500 different parts and the costs were cheaper than the Rolls-Royce.
23:46This shows how the Wagen today and of course in the past was cost.
23:57This elaborate wagon sported a fine service of bronze dishes.
24:04There was to be a great welcoming feast in the other world.
24:11Nine places were set. According to the Greeks, nine were needed for a quorum, nine the ideal number for a
24:18feast.
24:23The chief's drinking cup has been recreated. Always the emphasis is on the pleasures that await. There's nothing to suggest
24:31warfare.
24:35Now fully restored, the great cauldron in the tomb again shows the importance of the drinking and the feasting that
24:42lay ahead.
24:45Three lions decorate the rim. Creatures unknown to the Celts and pointing again to the influence of the Mediterranean world.
24:55But one of these lions is different. Peculiar. Not really like a lion.
25:04But one of them is sure that one of the three Greek bronze lions was lost. The Celts have taken
25:10after him. They have never seen a lion.
25:14And they have done their best to make such a animal. They have not only copied but made a new
25:20lion.
25:21All the lions take after him.
25:25Pollan analysis proves that the Hochdorf chief was buried in late summer.
25:30He represented a society whose aristocracy enjoyed great wealth in a period of great change.
25:47This is modern-day Marseille.
25:52In 600 BC, the Greeks established a trading post here.
25:57It had major repercussions on Celtic society in Central Europe and helped contribute to
26:02the growing wealth of the Celtic aristocrats.
26:08Now more than ever, Greek goods, Greek styles and in particular wine flowed into the Celtic
26:14world.
26:22The Greeks named their new port Massalia.
26:26Mont Lassois controlled its hinterland, the trade that passed through the Rhone corridor
26:32and onto the valley of the Seine.
26:37It was typical of the major hill forts of the time, but it was also untypical.
26:45In 1953, the royal tomb Vix at the foot of the fort was excavated.
26:51Amongst the first things discovered was an enormous wine crater and with it, a wonderful
26:57princely burial.
27:01The crater's lid was well preserved and on it, a statuette of a female, a goddess or princess.
27:15The skull was largely intact and a cast made.
27:24Skeleton remains were pieced together and the archaeologists argued whether it was a male
27:30or female body, prince or princess.
27:39What I found was a very fragmentary human skeleton of a very, very small person without very large
27:47muscles, very diminutive in stature, perhaps only about 160 centimeters tall, though relatively
27:55short and small.
27:57And I also realized another pathological condition that hadn't previously been noted, and that's
28:03in addition to sort of bilateral dislocations as a very young person, possibly in birth,
28:09at the hips.
28:11And so this person was actually showing that I'm pretty certain it's a female, a small female,
28:17a lightly constructed female, and one that was unique in the sense that she would have had
28:23an unusual gait pattern, and there's a sort of waddling walk, but would have been able
28:28to walk with both sides affected that's actually in this case beneficial.
28:33And also her face would have been twisted and her head permanently tilted to one side,
28:38ever so slightly perhaps, but certainly noticeable.
28:40So she's not a real sort of what you'd immediately think of as a princess.
28:48And certainly no warrior princess.
28:53The wheels of her funeral wagon had been removed and left leaning against the timber frame of
28:59the tomb.
29:01There were the usual personal trinkets and a magnificent gold torque.
29:08The Celtic symbol of authority.
29:10This is an exquisite piece of gold work, elegant and embellished by small Greek Pegasus figurines.
29:19But there are none of the implements of warfare.
29:22So what was the source of her power?
29:26There are obviously two ways in which in pre-state societies individuals
29:29could achieve power, or two primary ways, and one of them would be through the practice
29:35of war, that is the so-called war chief.
29:37But the so-called peace chief very often would have created their position or consolidated
29:44their authority as the result of other types of skills, including, among other things, this
29:49ability to kind of interact with the supernatural world.
29:53So warfare then, or the sort of the physical prowess required to be a warrior, was not necessarily
30:00a precondition for this type of governing elite status.
30:04But the fact that there are no weapons in the burial suggests that she was, on the one
30:08hand she was an individual with considerable political power, but she seems to have been
30:12in this peace chief type of category that is not a warrior chief, presumably a leader at
30:18a time when her population had more need of someone who was a religious practitioner.
30:25The most obvious feature of her tomb is that it contains so many items associated with
30:31wine and drinking, beautiful flagons, Greek drinking cups, decorated with scenes of warfare,
30:45fire, and the great bronze crater, with the capacity of over 250 gallons of wine, a gift, it
30:54is thought, from the Greeks, whose military prowess is proudly displayed.
31:02And these gorgon-like gods, snakes and lions, wine then was of great importance.
31:25I think it was the ability of alcoholic beverages to literally transport an individual into another
31:31state of consciousness.
31:32That was the important thing.
31:34I mean, they weren't just partying for recreational purposes.
31:37This was pretty clearly a highly ritualized type of behavior that not all individuals in
31:41the society would have engaged in, and that elites would have engaged in, and sub-elites,
31:46subordinates that were immediately related in a kind of retinue context, in a sort of a warrior
31:51retinue.
31:53Wine and the control over it must have contributed to the power of this shaman-like chieftest.
31:58But why such a grand burial?
32:01I suspect it was intentional that this person was being removed, and the objects that may
32:06have been associated with her are with some vestige of her life, or actually it's intentional,
32:13and I think it has a very strong socio-political dimension to it.
32:18In a sense, the burial is like a hoard, removed from view, removed from circulation, and that
32:25suggests a certain finality.
32:26It's the end of something.
32:30Indeed it was.
32:35Shortly after her death, Mont Blasois was deserted.
32:38Great changes were happening throughout the Celtic world.
32:51In Ishmael, the largest of the Arran Islands off the west coast of Ireland.
32:59The men of Ireland, true Celts.
33:10Still Gaelic speaking, living off the sea and off the land.
33:18A landscape, a society, a people that are quintessentially Celtic.
33:27But how, when did the Celts get here?
33:31Simple questions, that have provoked intense debate.
33:39Here, as indeed in the whole of Ireland, the archaeology of the early Iron Age is fought
33:45with ambiguities.
33:52There are some dramatic sights, like Danangus, but no one can be sure that this was a Celtic
33:58fault.
34:06The sea has had a profound influence on all the traditionally Celtic lands of Western Europe,
34:13an influence that goes back well before the time of the Celts.
34:19The Atlantic seaways brought in trade, brought in people.
34:28The Cornish coastline is dotted with clues to explain the attraction of these lands.
34:37This is a 19th century mine.
34:47Abandoned for a hundred years, its rocks are still rich in metals.
34:55We know that copper and gold were mined all along the Atlantic coast.
35:00Here in Cornwall, the treasure was tin, vital in the Bronze Age.
35:10Tin ingots like these were traded the length and breadth of Europe.
35:22Tin ingots like this.
35:25Stretching from Brittany, through Cornwall, through Wales and Ireland, to Scotland and its
35:30many islands, the traditional Celtic lands of today are regarded as remote.
35:36Tin ingots like this.
35:40Not so, in prehistoric times.
35:43Tin ingots like this.
35:51Tin ingots like this.
35:55Tin ingots like this.
35:56Up until the 1960s, it was believed that the Celts of Europe invaded these lands, making
36:02maximum use of the Atlantic and Irish Sea routes.
36:09Likewise, the eastern half of Britain was invaded across the North Sea and the English Channel,
36:14taking advantage of front door entry points, such as the Thames Estuary.
36:18Tin ingots like this.
36:24Such routes are still important to the commerce of our own age.
36:27But was there in the distant past an invasion of the Celts from continental Europe?
36:34Tin ingots like this.
36:35I think the whole idea, it's a very popular idea, it's almost widely accepted idea, that there
36:40was the coming of the Celts.
36:42That there was a people called the Celts, who arrived in Britain and Ireland, I don't
36:47know, a thousand years before Christ or something.
36:50I think in that sense, there was absolutely no coming of the Celts.
36:54And if you look at Irish archaeology, for instance, you find Irish archaeologists tying themselves
36:59in knots, trying to locate the coming of the Celts.
37:02There was none.
37:05But if Professor Renfrew is correct, there are things that need explaining.
37:18This school, on the Isle of Skye, is using Scottish Gaelic as its medium of education.
37:27It's the oldest spoken language of Europe.
37:29So how did it get here?
37:33If you get rid of the idea of there being a major Celtic migration into Britain, that
37:39does raise very serious problems about the language.
37:42Because the language spoken in Britain, and still spoken in parts of it, belongs to what
37:49we call the Celtic family of languages.
37:52The same languages that were spoken in Gaul and further over in Europe.
37:58So how can one explain that?
38:01Well, the old idea used to be, of course, waves of population bringing over different
38:05sorts of Celtic.
38:06But nowadays, I think many of us would see the Celtic language as being a very old language,
38:13possibly even going back to the Neolithic period or earlier.
38:18From that period onwards, Western Europe was intimately in contact, particularly along the Atlantic seaways from Spain, France, and Britain.
38:29There were ships going backwards and forwards, trading, carrying metals, carrying people.
38:33And in that context of trade and exchange, I think one can understand how a lingua franca grows up, a
38:41language which enables all these disparate people to communicate.
38:44That's the context I think we should see Celtic in.
38:48Enter genetic science and a survey of the DNA of the people of Britain.
38:52Well, in the Genetic Atlas project, we're going to build a very detailed genetic map of Britain.
38:59And by Britain, I mean Scotland, England, Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland as well, to try and see what influences there
39:07have been on the British population
39:09and compare those with the things we know about from history, like the Vikings, like the Celts, like the Anglo
39:16-Saxons, trying to see what impact they had on the make-up of the British population.
39:27Prehistoric specimens are dated, their DNA recorded.
39:30Of particular interest, mitochondrial DNA, which can only be inherited from the mother.
39:39One mother, nicknamed Hannah, was around 20,000 years ago.
39:44Over 30% of Europeans relate to her.
39:49This group's ancestral mother goes back 40,000 years.
39:58Then this orange group goes back 15,000 years.
40:05Of particular interest and related to the coming of farming,
40:08this red group, around 8,000 years ago.
40:12This yellow group, related to the recently discovered Iceman of the Alps, 13,000 years ago.
40:19And finally, a comparatively rare group, found in Britain and America.
40:27This, then, is the broad grouping of the people of the Isles of Britain.
40:36Each and every local inhabitant have the clues to their ancestry in their genes.
40:46But people speak languages, and languages can be learned.
40:50So what of Celtic languages?
40:51No DNA exists for them.
40:55I believe that those first farmers were already speaking a proto-Indo-European language
41:03out of what we call the Celtic languages developed in those areas.
41:08So we're talking, I think, a very complete continuity from the period of Stonehenge
41:13right on through the Bronze Age and the Iron Age
41:16until the development of those societies,
41:18chiefdom societies, those heroic societies,
41:22which finally emerge into the light of history
41:25when Caesar and other people describe them.
41:28The societies which in the 18th century AD
41:30were described as Celtic societies,
41:33although Caesar never referred to Celts in Britain or in Ireland.
41:43We asked Professor Brian Sykes, the head of Britain's DNA survey,
41:48to take a sample from this school at Lampeter in southwest Wales.
42:16Feshkema, Bodhida, good morning.
42:19Now, you all know what Bodhida and good morning mean.
42:22Feshkema is the same in Scots-Gallic.
42:26And the reason I introduce that is because it's the language,
42:29the Gaelic languages, the Celtic languages that define the Celts.
42:34And these languages are spoken in northern Scotland,
42:38northwest of Scotland, the Outer Hebrides.
42:41They were spoken in the Isle of Man.
42:43They're spoken, of course, in Ireland, in Wales, of course,
42:47and an extinct Celtic language in Cornwall and further south in Brittany.
42:53So what we're doing here today, with your help,
42:56is to try and see if there's a biological basis for Celts.
43:00Is there such a thing as the Celtic people, biologically?
43:04And to do this, we use DNA.
43:06DNA which is in every cell of your body
43:09and you've inherited from your distant ancestors.
43:12So, do you have a Celtic biological tradition
43:15as well as a Celtic linguistic one?
43:17That's what we're here to find out.
43:20Now, DNA is in every cell of your body.
43:23And the cells we're going to use for our tests are in the inside of your cheek.
43:28And we collect these using this tiny little brush here.
43:32So what I'd like you to do, if you will,
43:35is just to hold it by the stem and put it inside your mouth
43:39and then twiddle it around on each side of your inner cheek.
43:43So, like this.
43:46And roll it around.
43:48I'm picking up cells as you go at the...
43:52Alright.
43:53And on the other side.
43:55Good.
43:57And this is picking up cells from the cheeks
44:00and there's plenty of DNA now with modern technology
44:04to get the complete genetic readout
44:07which is what we'll use for the tests.
44:09But we also need to know where your relatives are from.
44:13Your parents and your grandparents.
44:15You have a form in front of you
44:17and if you could just fill that in
44:19let us know so we know exactly where to put you
44:21on the genetic map of Wales.
44:27Great.
44:29The pupils of this school live 30 miles from one of the great megalithic monuments of Britain.
44:36Pentraivan.
44:40Built by people of the Neolithic age
44:42and linked with the early farmers of Western Britain.
44:45Could its builders be related to the pupils of Lampeter?
44:52Hello, Linda.
44:54This is what we got from Lampeter.
44:57So, that's the data.
44:59Here.
45:01Those surveyed at Lampeter
45:03are unquestionably of common cultural stock.
45:06They're all well speaking, for example.
45:08But the biological test is different.
45:20If the Celts are genetically distinct and related to their so-called cultural ancestors in Central Europe,
45:26then they would share common genes.
45:34Their mitochondrial DNA should match.
45:53This is the ultimate scientific test.
45:56No one can argue with the DNA sequence.
46:09This sequence is distinctive for each and every one of us,
46:12as it is for the pupils of Lampeter.
46:14But is there a pattern?
46:16The most striking pattern that we've seen in the genetics
46:19has been the contrast between the West side of Britain,
46:22and I mean Cornwall, Wales, and the west coast of Scotland,
46:27and the Hebrides, the islands off the west coast of Scotland.
46:30They're really very different from the picture we're getting,
46:34we're beginning to piece together from the eastern side of Britain.
46:39And we're sort of trying to think, well, why is that?
46:42That is the most remarkable signal that we're getting so far.
46:47And I think it's probably because we're looking at a very ancient pattern,
46:53a pattern that's been established on the east side of Britain
46:56with the influence from the nearby continent,
46:59by which I mean Germany and France, the low countries,
47:03Denmark, on the east side of Britain,
47:05and on the west side, a much more Atlantic influence,
47:10people coming up from initially from Spain and Portugal,
47:15up the Atlantic coast of France, Brittany, into Cornwall,
47:19and up that side.
47:20And they've kind of met, if you like, in Britain.
47:23But these would be very, very old patterns,
47:26patterns that might have been established,
47:28for example, with the megalith builders coming up the Atlantic coast.
47:33The Lampeter sample is in keeping with the general pattern.
47:3634% had an ancestry going back 20,000 years.
47:4025% an ancestry going back to the age of the megalith builders.
47:46There was no trace of peoples from the Celts of Central Europe.
47:5825% of the people, so the megalith builders of Pentreivan,
48:02of Kalanish,
48:06those people who introduced farming to Britain
48:09and built their stone monuments,
48:13built Stonehenge,
48:15they and their predecessors
48:17are the true ancestors of the Celtic lands of Britain.
48:22Who then are the Celts?
48:25The whole problem of the use of the word Celts
48:29is being hotly debated, very hotly debated at the moment.
48:33And I think rightly so,
48:36because we've used it in a rather sloppy way in the past.
48:39You can talk about Celts in terms of language.
48:42There is a Celtic language group
48:44which was spoken over large parts of Western Europe.
48:47No doubt about that.
48:48If those who spoke Celtic were Celts, fine.
48:51You could define it in terms of art styles
48:56and the beliefs that went with the art styles.
48:59Again, that would spread over a large part of Western Europe.
49:03But if you took the word Celt in the narrow sense
49:09of the people who called themselves Celts,
49:12then it's far more restricted.
49:14The British, for example, were never called Celts.
49:16So, under that more restricted definition,
49:20you can't call a lot of people who otherwise you would believe to be Celts, Celts.
49:26There's no simple answer.
49:28I think we have used it poorly in the past.
49:32But I think we can go on using the word Celt
49:35so long as we remember that it's a fuzzy concept.
49:42There are cores in it, but it is fuzzy.
49:45And therein lies its fascination.
49:51Therein lies its fascination indeed.
49:54The Celts remain one of Europe's great enigmas.
50:04Aosia, aosia, aadha, aadha, aadha.
50:10And therein lies its fascination indeed.
Comments