In U.K., a Culture From, But No Kinship With, the Celts
March 19, 2015
Genetic scientists have found that residents from different regions in the United Kingdom who claim a broad kinship based on a shared Celtic heritage actually descended from several genetically unrelated groups. A study by Oxford geneticist Peter Donnelly and his colleagues, published in the journal Nature, shows that there is no such thing as a single Celtic people today. The scientists also found that most of the ancient peoples who invaded the United Kingdom left almost no genetic mark on the modern population.
The tomb of an Iron Age Celtic prince has been unearthed in a small French town. The biggest find at the site was a huge wine cauldron. Standing on the handles of the cauldron, is the Greek god Acheloos. The river deity is shown with horns, a beard, the ears of a bull and a triple mustache. Credit: © Denis Gliksman, INRAP
The Celts were inhabitants of ancient Europe. The earliest evidence of Celtic culture comes from the village of Hallstatt, near Salzburg, Austria, dating from about 700 to 500 B.C. At its greatest extent, Celtic culture extended from present-day Portugal to the Balkans, and from Austria to the southern coast of France. Celtic-speaking people lived in what is now the United Kingdom by the mid-600′s B.C. Over the next 1,700 years, the land was invaded by a series of peoples. The chief invaders were the Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, and Normans. Most scholars believed that modern-day residents of the United Kingdom are descendants of these early peoples and invaders.
The scientists examined DNA samples obtained from 2,039 people from all parts of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The sample, however, was not random. All of the people sampled had grandparents who, known from family history, had all been born within 50 miles (80kilometers) of each other. In effect, this study examined the genetic diversity of the United Kingdom in 1885, the average year of the birth of the grandparents. By doing this, the scientists removed the effects of modern transportation and the large population shifts that have occurred since the 1900’s. This provided a glimpse at the genetic diversity of the United Kingdom from a simpler time, when people rarely moved far away from where they were born. They compared the DNA samples to more than 6,000 DNA samples taken from people in Continental Europe.
The results of the DNA analysis showed that large swathes of the United Kingdom are populated by a relatively homogenous genetic group largely of Anglo-Saxon origin, with many genetic similarities to the French and Germans of Continental Europe. Almost no genetic elements that could be traced to Roman or Viking invasions were found. The scientists also tested DNA among people in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Cornwall, where many people claim a shared Celtic heritage. The scientists found no evidence of Celtic ancestry among these groups. Scientists believe that in these areas, Celtic culture was introduced through trade with continental Celts, which would not leave any genetic traces as would migration and intermarriage.
