Gene scientists claim to have found proof that the Welsh are the "true" Britons.
The research supports the idea that Celtic Britain underwent a form of ethnic cleansing by Anglo-Saxons invaders following the Roman withdrawal in the fifth century.
Posted on 06/16/2010 12:25:16 AM PDT by restornu
Genetic tests show clear differences between the Welsh and English
It suggests that between 50% and 100% of the indigenous population of what was to become England was wiped out, with Offa's Dyke acting as a "genetic barrier" protecting those on the Welsh side.
had genes that were almost identical.
But there were clear differences between the genetic make-up of Welsh people studied.
The research team studied the Y-chromosome, which is passed almost unchanged from father to son, and looked for certain genetic markers.
Ethnic links: Many races share common bonds
The English and Frisians studied had almost identical genetic make-up but the English and Welsh were very different.
The researchers concluded the most likely explanation for this was a large-scale Anglo-Saxon invasion, which devastated the Celtic population of England, but did not reach Wales.
...said their findings suggested that a migration occurred within the last 2,500 years.
Genetic links
It reinforced the idea that the Welsh were the true indigenous Britons.
In April last year, research for a BBC programme on the Vikings revealed strong genetic links between the Welsh and Irish Celts ...the Basques of northern Spain and south France.
"It appears England is made up of an ethnic cleansing event from people coming across from the continent after the Romans left," he said.
Celtic Britons
Archaeologists after the Second World War rejected the traditionally held view that an Anglo-Saxon invasion pushed the indigenous Celtic Britons to the fringes of Britain.
Instead, they said the arrival of Anglo-Saxon culture could have come from trade or a small ruling elite.
It suggests that the Welsh border was more of a genetic barrier to the Anglo-Saxon Y chromosome gene flow than the North Sea.
Dr Thomas added: "Our findings completely overturn the modern view of the origins of the English."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
The research supports the idea that Celtic Britain underwent a form of ethnic cleansing by Anglo-Saxons invaders following the Roman withdrawal in the fifth century.
Celts are not indigenous to the British isles. They were another Indo-European group that came from Germany. When Julius Caesar invaded Britain, he met Celtic tribes in SE Britain who still remembered coming from Northern Europe. He also met a more ancient race in the interior who believed that they had always lived in Britain. These first Britons were probably related to the Basques a non Indo-European group.
The Celts got around. I was reading a book on China, and apparently they have some mummy discoveries from the western part of the country that appear to be Celts, with plaid clothes, even.
Ethnic cleansing ping.
As far as oral traditions and archeology go, it seems that the Celts arrived in Britain in several waves, the first one being about 4500 BC, a second really big one about 2500 BC. The aboriginal inhabitants were of Hamitic stock and probably came from North Africa/Middle East sort of area.
LOL!!!
Yeah, but why should the BBC let a little thing like that get in the way of an anti-English narrative
Dangit... those Germans!
This news story is dated from 8 years ago!
So!
Actually the term “Celt” did not come into vogue until the 18th century. No Irish, Scots or Welsh ethnics employed that term to describe themselves before then. It become popular as a reaction to English supremacy.
OOOOLD NEWS
Oaky Doaky!
The bind is in when they arrived in western China and Tibet. One search return states that earliest Tocharian (Sakas) inscriptions date to the 7th century BC. But DNA is a problem; the DNA of the central Asian PIE-speakers contained a marker absent from the central European Halstatt Culture populations. This discussion thread from six years ago may help:
http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/th/read/GENEALOGY-DNA/2004-08/1092252776
Protohistorical accounts transmitted by classical historians and archaeological support suggests the "Celtic migrations" began in the 7th century BC, and that Britain received two waves of Celtic settlement, late 7th and 4th=>1st century BC. (The tribal names were often found on both sides of the Channel: Parisii, Atrebates, Volcae, Belgae, one or two others. The name "Volcae" => A-S "Wealas", "Wealh" => Engl. "Wales", "Welsh". "Volcae" was also the name of a tribe in Haute-Provence, inland from Nice and Monaco. I think the British Volcae lived somewhere around Bath, in western England; their neighbors were the British Belgae, who lived in Venta Belgarum -- Winchester -- over west to Salisbury and Bath.)
The Celts also had substantial migrations to the south in the 7th down to the 3rd centuries BC, crossing the Alps to descend upon and destroy the Etruscan colony city of Melpum in the Po valley in about 609 BC, and sacking Rome in 390 BC. Three Gaulish tribes (the Tectosages, Tolistobogii, and Trocmi) overran Greece in the 270's BC and were finally defeated east of the Dardanelles by King Eumenes II of Pergamon, after which he settled them in Galatia, a district around modern Ankara. By Julius Caesar's time, the Galatians were still speaking Gaulish and contributing heavy infantry, armed in the Roman legionary fashion, to King Mithridates. Their language survived into imperial times.
The Welsh would happily agree with this !
Catherine Zeta Jones -Welsh.
Genetically different? You bet!
This is what everyone thought from the time of the Venerable Bede (d. 735 AD) until after WWII. Another revisionist theory shot down. Even movies have basically gotten it right.
I love it! You haven’t lost your touch.
In the final analysis, it is clear that people, not nature, create our identities. Ethnicity and supposed "racial" groups are largely cultural and historical constructs. They are primarily social rather than biological phenomena. This does not mean that they do not exist. To the contrary, "races" are very real in the world today. In order to understand them, however, we must look into culture and social interaction rather than biology.
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