DeDanaan

Filed by Aine MacDermot

Celtic identity is a chronically vague and indefinable concept, but also one of special importance at the present stage in our history and understanding of where we came from. To a great extent, our understanding of the proper place and status of Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and Brittany - as nations in Europe and as parts of the world - depends on the significance one attaches to ‘Celticity’. Even so, Celticity today remains a subject of profound uncertainty and over-heated debate amongst both the public at large and the academic specialists. James P. Mallory of Queen’s University, Belfast, Ireland, is a world-renowned archaeologist and a prolific writer on the subjects of Ireland in the Bronze and Iron Ages, Indo-European Studies, and the saga literature of medieval Ireland.

In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth by JP Mallory : This book takes a multidisciplinary approach in the quest to find the origins of the Indo-Europeans with the main focus on the extrapolated language of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and archaeology. Some of the basics of Indo-European theory are presented, and while no direct proof exists that a Proto-Indo-European culture existed, it is the only cohesive theory which explains the similarity in languages, cultures, and myths throughout Europe and Asia. Mallory suggests paleolinguistics supports the idea that the languages of Europe and Asia which resemble each other did not spring up independently of one another and it is not likely that the civilizations that sustained them did either. The fact that most of the languages of Europe, Iran, and northern India are linked has been established on a pretty solid basis.

Celtic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages. They were spoken across western Europe in ancient times, but are now limited to a few enclaves in the British Isles and on the peninsula of Brittany in France. There are four main groups of Celtic languages, of which the first two are now long extinct:

*Gaulish and its close relatives, Lepontic, Noric, and Galatian. These languages were once spoken in a wide arc from France to Turkey and from the Netherlands to northern Italy.
*Celtiberian, anciently spoken in Aragon and elsewhere in Spain.
*Goidelic, including Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Manx, and Shelta.
*Brythonic, including Welsh, Breton, Cornish, Cumbric, the hypothetical Ivernic, and possibly Pictish.

The separation of these groups probably occurred well before 1000 BC, possibly with an early split of an Insular Celtic branch. The early Celts are commonly associated with the archaeological Urnfield culture.

Indo-European, family of languages having more speakers than any other language family. It is estimated that approximately half the world’s population speaks an Indo-European tongue as a first language. The Indo-European family is so named because at one time its individual members were prevalent mainly in an area between and including India and Europe, although not all languages spoken in this region were Indo-European. Today, however, the Indo-European languages have spread to every continent and a number of islands. It should be stressed that the term Indo-European describes language only and is not used scientifically in an ethnic or cultural sense. The languages classified as Indo-European are sufficiently similar to form one major linguistic division.

The characteristics Indo-European languages share with respect to vocabulary and grammar have led many scholars to postulate that they are all descended from an original parent language, called Proto-Indo-European, which is believed to have been spoken some time before 4000 B.C., perhaps before 8000 B.C. or earlier. Since there are no written records of Proto-Indo-European, it apparently was in use before writing was known to its speakers. Even its existence is an assumption, although a plausible one and the only really satisfactory explanation of the common features of the modern Indo-European languages. There has been much speculation as to the region where the speakers of Proto-Indo-European first lived and the nature of their culture, but nothing definite is known. One theory of the origin of the individual Indo-European languages suggests that as the ancient speakers of Proto-Indo-European migrated or moved away from each other, losing contact, their language broke up into a number of tongues. These tongues later also split up still further, eventually giving rise to the many modern Indo-European languages.” - The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition

Of course, language and “race” aren’t necessarily connected at all, i.e. the Indo-European group in western China was the Tocharians. Tocharian is an extinct Indo-European language which stands by itself as one of the twelve major groups in the IE language family. It was not discovered until the turn of this century, as a result of archaeological expeditions to Chinese Turkestan. There is evidence both from mummies and Chinese writings that many of them had blond or red hair and blue eyes. This suggests the possibility that they were part of an early Indo-European migration that ended in what is now the Tarim Basin in western China. (Asian scholars tend to think the migration happened in the other direction, towards the west.) The Tocharians, living along the Silk Road, seem to have played a part in the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism to China as they had contacts with the Chinese and Persians, and Turkic, Indian and Iranian tribes. [Aside: I’ve also noticed that many Tibetan depictions of Buddha show a blue-eyed figure, and I had always wondered about this.] Mallory has also written a book about these people : The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West, which you might also consider getting your hands on.

In Search of the Indo-Europeans: Language, Archaeology, and Myth is a valuable contribution to a fascinating field. This book is a must for anyone wishing to gain insight into the subject. You will learn something from this book, no matter how much you know or don’t know. Just don’t expect to learn it all on the first run.