[SunkenCiv]

Thanks DariusBane for the topic and Army Air Corps for the additional ping.

America B.C.
by Barry Fell
(1976)
find it in a nearby library

A fascinating letter I received from a Shoshone Indian who had been traveling in the Basque country of Spain tells of his recognition of Shoshone words over there, including his own name, whose Shoshone meaning proved to match the meaning attached to a similar word by the modern Basques. Unfortunately I mislaid this interesting letter. If the Shoshone scholar who wrote to me should chance to see these words I hope he will forgive me and contact me again. The modern Basque settlers of Idaho may perhaps bring forth a linguist to investigate matters raised in this chapter. [p 173]

from Iberia, Not Siberia:

Although questionable in the minds of most anthropologists, some linguistic evidence might point toward the Iberian Peninsula. In the 1960's, the Morris Swadesh in the Handbook of Middle American Indians, claimed he found a connection between the Nadene (Athasbascan) linguistic family of North America and the Basque linguistic isolate. This connection, he argued, dated back thousands of years. Basque is the only European language to have survived the influence of proto-Indo-European, which entered the Basque region more than 5,000 years ago. One can infer then that Basque language is at least 5,000 years old, and some argue it is far older. The Basque themselves contend they have survived in their homeland for tens of thousands of years. Though Swadesh has been criticized as a lumper when it comes to linguistic correlations, the claim is nonetheless intriguing under the circumstances. It should be noted that linguist Merritt Ruhlen recently reported to have located a language related to Nadene in Asia. Ket, the only remaining member of the Yeniseian family of languages, shares common words like "birch bark" with some Nadene languages. Ket is spoken by about 550 people (out of a total population of 1,100) who live along the Yenisei River in central Siberia (Lysek 2000).

[DariusBane]

Thanks for the ggg ping!

You article is interesting in the extreme. Like all simple things in life simple streamlined explanations don’t account for the complexity of life. It is not difficult for me to imagine this continant being settled many different times by many routes and peoples. In fact the simple explanation takes a bit of faith to fully endorse.

[Grimmy]

He said Sea People! Muahahaha!

Serious for a sec...

Might the pre-celts be remnants of whatever people and culture was inhabiting Doggerland before the floods submerged it?

It seems to pattern geographically. The coast of Europe, some of the nordic area, the British isles and some colony expansion into eastern US coasts.