A Race Apart: Insularity and Connectivity

摘要

This paper seeks to re-examine the long-held view that the Celtic language developed somewhere in westcentral Europe and was carried westwards to the Atlantic zone, eventually reaching Ireland. An overview ofhe archaeological evidence for Atlantic connectivity illustrates the longue duree of community interactionsalong the seaways, beginning around 9000 BC, to the second quarter of the 3rd millennium. At this timemobility increased dramatically and it has been shown clearly that the Maritime Bell Beaker package spreadeastwards to impact on and interact with the Battle Axe/Corded Ware tradition. Connectivity was at its mostintense during the subsequent Atlantic Bronze Age until, from the 8th century BC, what had been a unified zonebegan to fragment into a series of regional systems. This broad archaeological scenario, with its firmchronological framework, receives more support from recent DNA studies than does the previous view, whichdrew heavily on ancient and (now) antiquarian views of Celticness and invasion hypotheses. It is posited thatthe Celtic language could in fact have emerged in the Atlantic zone and spread eastwards.