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Celtic from the West: Alternative Perspectives from Archaeology, Genetics, Language and Literature
This book is an exploration of the new idea that the Celtic languages originated in the Atlantic Zone during the Bronze Age, approached from various pro and con, archaeology, genetics, and philology. This 'Celtic Atlantic Bronze Age' theory represents a major departure from the long-established, but increasingly problematic scenario in which the story of the Ancient Celtic languages and that of peoples called Keltoi 'Celts' are closely bound up with the archaeology of the Hallstatt and La Tene cultures of Iron Age west-central Europe. The 'Celtic from the West' proposal was first presented in Barry Cunliffe's Facing the Ocean (2001) and has subsequently found resonance amongst geneticists. It provoked controversy on the part of some linguists, though is significantly in accord with John Koch's findings in Tartessian (2009). The present collection is intended to pursue the question further in order to determine whether this earlier and more westerly starting point might now be developed as a more robust foundation for Celtic studies. As well as having this specific aim, a more general purpose of Celtic from the West is to bring to an English-language readership some of the rapidly unfolding and too often neglected evidence of the pre-Roman peoples and languages of the western Iberian Peninsula. Celtic from the West is an outgrowth of a multidisciplinary conference held at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth in December 2008. In addition to 11 chapters, the book includes 45 distribution maps and a further 80 illustrations. The conference and collaborative volume mark the launch of a multi-year research initiative undertaken by the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies [CAWCS]: Ancient Britain and the Atlantic Zone [ABrAZo]. (Archaeology) Barry Cunliffe; Raimund Karl; Amilcar Guerra; (Genetics) Brian McEvoy & Daniel Bradley; Stephen Oppenheimer; Ellen Rrvik; (Language & Literature) Graham Isaac; David Parsons; John T. Koch; Philip Freeman; Dagmar S. Wodtko.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published August 30, 2010
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About the author
Barry Cunliffe
170Ìýbooks148ÌýfollowersSir Barrington Windsor Cunliffe taught archaeology in the Universities of Bristol and Southampton and was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2008, thereafter becoming Emeritus Professor. He has excavated widely in Britain (Fishbourne, Bath, Danebury, Hengistbury Head, Brading) and in the Channel Islands, Brittany, and Spain, and has been President of the Council for British Archaeology and of the Society of Antiquaries, Governor of the Museum of London, and a Trustee of the British Museum. He is currently a Commissioner of English Heritage.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 9, 2011
More of a 4.5 please read my review at
November 4, 2023
In this book we learn that the Celtic languages may have reached Britain via the Iberian Peninsula in the course of the Bronze Age trade in minerals - copper from the Rio Tinto area of western Spain, then known as Tartessus, tin from the mines of Cornwall, Wales and Ireland. It's a pleasing and well-expressed theory which makes a lot of sense. As soon as you see the sideways-tilted map of the North Atlantic region, you realize that from a maritime point of view, and at a time when land transport was dangerous and difficult, water was the best highway and the tip of Cornwall more or less a straight run from northern Spain.
The book consists of well-argued contributions from different disciplines, including history, genetics and linguistics. Most convincingly, from the few examples we have of Tartessian writing, there does seem to be a a clear connection between Tartessian, Brythonic and Goedelic vocabularies. The book doesn't take issue with the theory that Indo-European languages originated in the Pontic-Caspian steppe, rather it suggests that the transmission of the language moved into Spain before taking a right-angled turn towards Britain, instead of moving diagonally across Europe as was previously believed. Professor Cunliffe's theory is respected, though not yet universally approved, and more evidence may now be accrued in its support.
The book consists of well-argued contributions from different disciplines, including history, genetics and linguistics. Most convincingly, from the few examples we have of Tartessian writing, there does seem to be a a clear connection between Tartessian, Brythonic and Goedelic vocabularies. The book doesn't take issue with the theory that Indo-European languages originated in the Pontic-Caspian steppe, rather it suggests that the transmission of the language moved into Spain before taking a right-angled turn towards Britain, instead of moving diagonally across Europe as was previously believed. Professor Cunliffe's theory is respected, though not yet universally approved, and more evidence may now be accrued in its support.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
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