DeDanaan

Filed by Aine MacDermot

A Celtic Chronology : From Russia’s Steppes to America’s Door; From Kurgans to Americans

Compiled by Gerard Patrick Moran, 1998
Additional notes, minor corrections, and notations by Aine MacDermot.

Most all the early information in this chronology is based on an oral tradition that was written many hundreds of years later, so that fact and legend often became confused. Much of it , distilled of elaboration, has been supported by archaeological studies.

3000BC A nomadic people of the Russian Steppe (from the lower Volga River past the Caspian Sea and Lake Aral to the lower Yenesei River in Siberia), the Kurgan, tame the horse. These people buried their dead in mounds. The name, ‘kurgan’, is Russian for mound. Some historians call these peoples the Ur people.

2400 The mounted Kurgan move to the north Black Sea area invading and mixing with a culture known as the North Pontic, who lived on the Dnieper River on the north bank of the Black Sea. Their name came from the old name for the Black Sea which was Pontus Euxeinos. From there the North Pontic-Kurgan peoples invaded southeast into the area inhabited by a culture known as Trans-Caucasian. These people lived on both sides of the Caucasus Mountains. From the merging of these people a new people known as the Indo-Europeans developed. The Indo-European language presaged the following languages:

Ancient Languages

Gaulish, Umbrian, Latin, Tarentine, Sanskrit, Illyrian, Phrygian, Thracian, Hittite, Messapian, Ligurian, Lydian, Venetic, Lycian, Praenestine, Faliscan, Lanuvian, Oscan, Sabellian, Luwian, Palaic, Prarits, Pali, Avestan, Tocharian, Sogdian, Khotanese, Pahlavi, Albanian, Armenian, Greek

Balto-Slavic
Lithuanian, Macedonian, Wendish, Latvian, Bulgarian, Russian, Slovene, Czech, Slovak Ukrainian, Serbo-Croation, Polish, Kashubian, Belorussia

Indo-Iranian
Persian, Pashto, Sindhi, Marathi, Assamese, Nepali, Urdu, Kurdis, Ossetic, Panjabi, Konkani, Bihari, Sinhalese, Baluchi, Kashmiri, Rajasthani, Oriya, Hindi, Romany, Tajaki, Lahnada, Gujarati, Bengali, Shina, Khowar, Kafiri

Germanic __________________ Italian
Icelandic, Danish, Afrikaans _____ Portuguese, French, Sardinian
Faeroese, German, Frisian ______ Spanish, Haitian, Creole, Dalmatian
Norwegian, Yiddish, English _____ Catalan, Italian, Rumanian
Swedish, Dutch, Flemish ________ Provençal, Rhaeto-Romanic

Celtic
Goidelic, Brythonic, Gaelic, Welsh, Scottish, Cornish, Manx, Breton

Seeing the diversity of languages and the cultures they represent, one can understand better how you can not say the Kurgan or Indo-European was a Celt, rather it was from their cultures the Celtic culture evolved as did so many others. There were steps: X-Kurgan, Kurgan-North Pontic, Kurgan North Pontic-Trans-Caucus, Battle Axe, Corded Ware, Tumulus, Halberd, Sword, Beaker, Urnfield, Unetice, Celtic, Hallstatt, La Tene.

These are names developed after the fact, there were steps in between, and some over-lapped. The pre-Celtic, Indo-European progenitors of the Celts were among the cultures before the Urnfield Culture, from which the Celts begin to emerge as a separate collection of peoples. The Celts of today are divided into groups represented by the Gaels (Ireland, Scotland. the Hebrides and Orkney Islands), Manx; Welsh, Cornish, and Bretons.

Separate from these developments but later connected was the emergence of the Minoan Culture centered in Crete. This culture developed a trading community that was extensive through out the Aegean Sea and eastern Mediterranean Sea coast and began to reach into the west Mediterranean area. Of particular interest to this study is the establishment of trading settlements in Asia Minor.

2399 The Battle-Axe and Corded Ware Cultures spread from the Danube to the Caspian Sea pushed West into Europe and south from the Caucasus into Asia Minor. The tribes who moved into what we know as Thrace and Macedonia are examples of the former and the Hittites are examples of the latter. Later Indo-European and Celtic peoples will pass over these same territories, even fighting each other as the migrating bands continue to drift. An example of this is the people who were originally in Thrace and Macedonia at about this time migrated to become the Bythians, Phrygians and Lydians that later tribes in Thrace and Macedonia fought during the Trojan wars.

2000 The Halberd Culture of pre-Pict peoples is in Ireland

1850 The Mycenaean Culture begins to supplant the Minoan Culture.

It begins taking over the widespread trading posts. The Myceneans appear to be a development from the Indo-Europeans who were in Thrace and Macedonia. Their dominance began in the north Aegean Sea where they took over trading posts on both sides of the Aegean and then furthered the establishment of trading posts on into the Black Sea on both the North and South shores. The groups making up the Myceneans are not centralized but a loose trading confederacy. The local community where Greek trading posts were established enjoyed a special relationship with the greeks and the Aegean trading community at large. This transformation from Minoan to Mycenean was a slow process spread over a number of years. An example is Melitus. Melitus, on the Asia Minor coast was a Minoan trading post. Mycenaeans established a trading settlement there that co-existed with the Minoan trade center, then challenged it and finally replaced it in a trade take-over. The Aegean trade was a very competitive market. Melitus’ records show that it struggled to stay competitive with the Phoenicians for eastern Mediterranean trade.

1800 Scythians who are in the area between the lower Volga and the Caspian begin to move toward the Dneiper as did the Kurgans before them. They drift toward the North Pontic area pressuring the Cimmerians who were there. The Cimmerians turn south across the Caucasus to Asia Minor. The Scythians are related to the Kurgans in that they bury their dead in kurgans and have many customs and rituals in common with the Kurgans such as the central place played by the horse in their culture.

Two peoples, the Partholonians and the Nemedians are said to be in “Greek Scythia” a later term meaning in the Pontic areas of the Black Sea with Greek trading communities. The two groups are said to be of the same people each a different faction led by different men and separated by generations. The peoples of the Pontic area develop a special relationship with the Greeks. Some of them adopt some Greek ways and dress. The 1,000 or so followers each of Partholon and Nemed in the course of doing business with Greece, were able to move to Greece. The term ‘Greece’ at this time could mean just about anywhere on the Aegean Sea, or even one of the Greek cities on the Black Sea.

After some time in Greece they learned of the island we know as Ireland and moved there. The similar events of these two peoples were several hundreds of years apart.

Rise of the Unetice Civilization from which will emerge the Italic, Venetian, Illyrian and Celtic peoples. The latter showed an influence by the Scythians. The term, ‘Celt’, is used to identify and link many tribes with converging traditions and speech. The word ‘Celt’ comes from the Greek word ‘Keltoi’ (the Greeks also called them ‘Gallatai’), the Germans called them ‘Kelten’, the French called them the ‘Celtes’ and the Romans called them ‘Galli’ and then ‘Gauls’.

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