The Origins of the British: The New Prehistory of Britain by Oppenheimer Read Free Book Online Page A

claims, and, unlike Simon James, I feel that these claims justify continuing the study of modern insularceltic languages in the context of the classical Celts. But, there are several loose ends to address. The most important of these is their tacit assumption, still perpetuated, that
all
Ancient Britons were celtic-speaking (i.e. that the whole of the British Isles spoke celtic languages). While much of the western and northern British Isles was unarguably celtic-speaking, as far back as records go, the same cannot necessarily be claimed for England. There is fairly good evidence that over the past two thousand years celtic languages were spoken almost universally in those areas – Wales, Cornwall, Cumbria, Scotland and Ireland – that we now associate with a ‘Celtic heritage’. Indeed, hundreds of inscriptions on stone, made after the Romans had left, are ample evidence of how celtic languages thrived in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cumbria and Cornwall. However, England (apart from the West Country and Cumbria), although rich in stone inscriptions, is notably practically devoid of any in celtic dating from any period ( Figures 2.2 and 7.4 ). 19
    As far as the subjective visual impressions are concerned, Tacitus compared the southern Welsh exclusively to the Spanish in one of the few contemporary descriptions of the people of south-west Britain:

     
    Figure 2.2
Gallo-Belgic coins and their British derivatives do not overlap later celtic stone inscriptions in the British Isles. That is possibly a coincidence, but it is consistent with a prior Belgic human (and/or cultural) migration to southern England, which could be inferred from Caesar and Tacitus. (For detail of Gallo-Belgic coin distribution, see Figure 7.3 .)
     
The dark complexion of the Silures, their usually curly hair, and the fact that Spain is the opposite shore to them, are an evidence that Iberians of a former date crossed over and occupied these parts. 20
     
    The Silures inhabited south Wales. Along with the Ordovices in central Wales and the Deceangli in north-west Wales and Anglesey, they put up an extremely fierce and prolonged resistance to Roman occupation – a sense of independence that has lasted. Tacitus here makes a direct migratory connection between the Silures in Wales and the people of Spain, on the other side of the Bay of Biscay. He makes this comment based on physical appearances, in a throwaway remark that is reminiscent of similar casual subjective comments still made today about the Mediterranean appearance of Welsh people.
    The Spanish connection also makes one think again of the ancient Greek and Punic references to the tin trade along the Atlantic coast from Spain up to the west coast of Britain. These references support the possibility that a ‘Celtic’ entry to the western side of the British Isles came from the south rather than from the nearby Continent on the other side of the Channel. What other information Tacitus may have based this remark on we shall never know, but it also emphasizes that there was a lack of similarity between the Welsh and the English even in his day. I shall discuss the Spanish connection shortly, but for the moment such comments mean that we cannot assume that the inhabitantsof Roman England had exactly the same origins as the Welsh, let alone being ‘Celtic’ or universally celtic-speaking.
    I shall come back to the question of what other languages apart from celtic
were
spoken in Roman England in Chapter 7 . For the time being, however, the patchy evidence in England tells us that we cannot assume that the Ancient Britons of England all spoke celtic, or that the English language is merely the result of complete physical and cultural replacement of Celts by the Anglo-Saxons starting from around AD 400. In those parts of the British Isles that were clearly celtic-speaking throughout ( Figure 2.1b ), there is abundant evidence from inscriptions, literature and modern languages to chart their history of