Well, it has been four years. If I remember this all correctly the idea doesn’t seem to have gained much traction.

Professor Barry Cunliffe seems to think that the language was spread or originated in the west of Europe but there is no evidence of migrations of people after the spread of agriculture, which brought only a small population with it.

The idea that the people carrying the cultures south and east were not Celts or Gauls counter to the cultural and linguistic evidence left behind.

If the Celtic Languages were a trade lingua franca then the spread required no migrations prior to the Roman period. Language and cultural spread would be due to the developed trade networks. The Central European river systems were tied to the Atlantic trade networks.

We have Basques as closest genetically to the British Isles population but the Basques lay outside the trade network. However, if we take the theory that Celtic was the trade language it only mans the population was not displaced, the genetics could be different, but the language and culture could be the same.

The same could be said for the Germans. The Baltic trading network. Here there is some overlap.

We have archeological evidence of a wide trade network extending from Spain to the Shetland Islands and east into southern Germany or beyond. There is evidence that Celtic languages, or Celtic influenced languages were spoken as a uniting feature with other features as well.

Maybe this is a remnant of the old bronze network as it extended across Europe. We see the same shift to hill forts there as we see in the isles. This shows some connectedness. It does not mean that all the people in the network are genetically identical or subject to the same influences or pressures.

The pattern of development always seems to occur on the fringes of the heartland. Hallstatt can be seen as that fringe and La Tene developed outside that new center. It is a typical pattern.

Trying to say that Hallstatt is not Celtic is like splitting hairs over whether the Bretons or Cornish are as Celtic as the Scotts or Irish. It should be more like a cultural exchange where a part of the network had ideas that spread through interchange to the rest. Rather more like Watt building the steam engine. He didn’t have to conquer England for it to spread.


I have seen no major news on this in the meantime. Any idea on where it may have gone?