Did you know that Celts descended from Spanish fishermen?

Question

The people who ocuppied britain before the Anglo-Saxon's period and the Romans, the Celts, descended from northern Spanish fishermen (the iberians).

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article1621766.ece

That simply something curious I wanted to share with you :)

Answer 1

Modern dna testing of the Irish & Welsh has indeed shown that the closest match is not that of an 'ancient celt' from Middle Europe but the Basques of Spain.

  The pre-celtic neolithic  people of Ireland & Britain were a long headed slender race of a type known as 'mediterranean'.

Contrary to what many believe, most people in Britain & Ireland descend from either mesolithic hunters or neolithic farmers. Even the English are 95 percent of this stock--only 5 percent have Saxon dna!

   Neither beaker people, celts, Romans or Saxons obliterated the earlier peoples of the British Isles--they just added to the mix more often culturally than genetically.

Answer 2

I remember reading that they were far more extensive than that article suggested so I looked it up on Wiki.  They were very widespread and were pushed out by germans and romans and occupied territories as far east as Asia Minor.  I kind of skeptical of that researchers findings though I am sure he is probably right, there were celtic fisherman in Iberia that some Brits are descended from.

Answer 3

I would have to disagree with the findings of this particular researcher. I'm sure in the field of genetics, as in any other, it is possible to manipulate data to get the results that you want. So you have to be careful

One thing that tends to offset an Iberian-origins theory for pre-historic Britons is the fact that there is little trace of the ancient Iberians or the Hispano-Celts even in the modern Spanish population. The Romans appear to have wiped most of them out during their conquest and subjugation of the Iberian Peninsula between the 3rd century B.C. and the 2nd century A.D.

Afterwards, the Romans  resettled the region with slaves brought in from other parts of the Mediterranean including probably a lot of Carthaginians and Bedouin Arabs whom they often captured in caravan raids.  Then there were the later Vandal and Visigoth invasions.

As for the real ethnic identity of the pre-Celtic, Neolithic inhabitants of England and Wales, at the present time we simply don't know for sure. .

Answer 4

I wouldn't exactly call this accurate, but it's hardly news.  The stories of the Irish told that they are the sons of Mil - a Celt who came over from Spain, to land in and settle Ireland.  It's hardly surprising if the Celts (who were more of a cultural/linguistic group than a genetic group) would have mingled their genes with the natives in *either* location.

All that the genes show is that this Iberian group made a genetic contribution.

Answer 5

Did you know that "celts" never existed as a culturaly identifiable group? They were a construction of Greek and Roman explorers and settlers, and in more recent times of new age hippies and nationalistic governments.

Answer 6

I had heard, it was just the Irish and that is the reason for Irish with black hair.