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PRE-CHRISTIAN ERA INHABITANTS OF 
 
IRELAND AND SCOTLAND
 

Dr. Erich Fred Legner

University of California

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          There is evidence that early Celtic groups from Aquatania may have reached Ireland by the 2nd Century BC (see <bron178>, <Aquatania> ).  Also late in the British occupation of Ireland, Celtic farmers from England were brought to Ireland in an effort to modernize agriculture there.. Edo Nyland's discovery of the existence of a Universal Language in Neolithic times is making possible more accurate translations of ancient texts and an enlightened view of historical events (see Universal).  However, Nyland believed that the Celts never spoke Celtic that the Celts never reached Ireland or Scotland, and the Celtic language did not exist until about 750 or 800 AD.

 

       When the Judeo-Christian Benedictine monks reached Ireland in 750 AD they found there a vibrant civilization, which in some ways was far superior to that which they were familiar with on the European Continent.  Although the monks recognized that this civilization had many characteristics in common with Egypt and Libya, there was also a strong connection with South Central Europe.  They considered that the Celts must have reached Ireland about 400 BC. Bringing with them civilization to Ireland.  They recorded this in the Benedictines own operations manual the "Auraicept na n'Ecese".  Julius Caesar in his book "The Conquest of Gaul" described many Celts, and every one of their names can be translated with the Basque dictionary, the "Celtic Language" not having yet existed.  At the National Museum in Dublin, Ireland one is informed that Celts from Britain did not reach Ireland until late in the occupation.  But, the Benedictine Monks indeed minimized the fact that the vibrant Irish civilization had some of its origins in Egypt and Libya.

 

       The majority of the population that inhabited Ireland and Scotland in Pre-Christian times surely can trace its origins to Scandinavia, Northern Continental Europe and the Mediterranean.  Some of the original colonizers may have also emigrated from America in prehistoric times (See: American Stone Structures).

 

       The settlers that arrived in Ireland and Orkney, around 7,600 BC, belonged to an ocean migration of people with Rh-negative blood types, genetically identical to the Berbers of North Africa and Basques of Europe (see Migrations).  Today these dark featured people are referred to jokingly as the “Black Irish.” (See Cavalli-Sforza’s 1991, Scient. Amer. November).  Edo Nyland’s theory is that this ocean migration is associated with the trade in Reindeer Hides, used for ship sails in the Mediterranean.  The hides were obtained in Finnmark, Arctic Norway, salted and shipped to Southern Sweden and Connamara for Oak Tanning.  This began during a time when the earth’s climate was relatively colder than afterward and the North Sea was still dry land.  It was then possible to follow a western route (see Climate).  The first settlers were likely support crews for the reindeer hide trade with the Mediterranean, such as ship repair, resting places, provision of food, etc., not the regular survival clans.  Their ships may have been of the type currently being unearthed in North Africa  (see Ships).  In Norway some 100 camps of the hunters have been explored by archaeologist Anders Nummedal who noted that the petroglyphs left by these people had close affinity to those in the Basque country of France and Spain.

 

       In Ireland a whole town of house foundations can be viewed on the south shore of Killary harbor, north of Galway.  The oaks are still growing there.  The name of the town is Foher, meaning “a good place to rest.”  No archaeological work has been done there as of July 2004.

 

       Up to the 21st Century the Rh-negative blood type frequency among these people is the highest in the world.  Berbers and Basques average 32%, Irish and Scots 29% and the Norwegian islanders 17%.  There were never any Celts among these people.

 

       Later on Egypt could have had intense contact with North America.  This is suspected by the discovery in 1950 of huge boats adjacent to Khufu’s great pyramid.  They were buried between 2589 and 2566 BC..  One has been restored and it shows considerable wear as if it had undergone long journeys.  Its length is 43.63 meters, width 5.66 meters (see Egyptian Boat).  This ship was perfectly capable of crossing the Atlantic.  The other boats were left intact waiting for additional funding to rebuild them as well.  An excellent article about these boats may be found in the April/May 2004 issue of Ancient Egypt Magazine.

 

       Some interesting events took place in the Mediterranean world at the onset of the twelfth century BC.  These were turbulent times in the southern lands, where violent attacks by a mysterious group of raiders referred to as the Sea Peoples laid in ruins the Aegean civilization and even threatened the very survival of the Egyptian monarchy (Fell 1982, Odyssey).  Egypt at this time was ruled by one of the most powerful of the Pharaohs, Ramesses III, who reigned from 1188 to 1165 BC.  Edo Nyland has presented an updated view of these seafarers (see Sea People).

 

      Only the smoke-stained ruins now remain to speak mutely of the onslaught that suddenly struck down the peaceful trading empire of the Aegean peoples who fell victims to the raiders from the sea.  In Egypt a stout and effective resistance was made against the pirates, adequate warning having no doubt reached the Nile Delta when the disasters occurred  in the archipelago to the north of Egypt.   As to what happened next, we are almost wholly dependent upon Egyptian records carved at Medinet Habu to memorialize the defeat by Ramesses III of the Libyans and Sea Peoples in 1194 and 1191 BC., and a final attack in 1188 BC. by yet one more wave of Sea Peoples, this time not from Libya but from the east.  In the bas-reliefs that depict the naval battles (Fig. 193), the defeated Sea Peoples are represented as having a European cast of face.  Some of them are shown wearing hemispherical helmets that carry two recurved upward-directed horns.  For other clothing they wear a kilt.  Their weapons are swords and spears, whereas the Egyptian marines are armed with bows and arrows, and are shown able to attack the invaders with a fusillade before the Sea Peoples could come near enough to board the Egyptian vessels.  According to Ramesses III, the defeated remnants of these invaders fled westward to Libya.  Two centuries later the descendants of the invaders seized power in Egypt, reigning as the XXII or Libyan dynasty for a span of 200 years.

 

       Other writers have already made the suggestion that the Sea peoples may have included Norse sailors, largely because the monument at Medinet Habu depicts some of them as men that look like Viking predecessors.  Fell (1982) expressed the view that various inscriptions have forced upon him:  that it was very probable that the Sea Peoples included substantial naval detachments from the Baltic region, that their language was a Nordic dialect of the Indo-European family, that the so-called "Libyan" alphabet is in fact an alphabet of Nordic, or at least northern European origin, Furthermore, he believed that it was taken to Libya by the defeated Sea Peoples who survived the Battle of the Nile.  Fell believed that for some reason the alphabet they introduced has continued in use throughout subsequent Libyan history, whereas in its northern homeland it died out, to be replaced by runes.  Fell hazarded the guess that the blond Tuaregs who clung most tenaciously to the "Libyan" alphabet are probably descended from Nordic immigrants around the time of the Sea Peoples' invasions.  All these proposals may seem bold inferences, but there would be little in the way of plausible alternatives in the light of these new finds of supposed Libyan inscriptions in Europe.  However, Nyland has reviewed evidence for the origin of the Caucasian race in the area of Libya (see Blond mutation = Caucasian race)

 

       A mass immigration of people to mainland Europe and Ireland then may have occurred from North Africa around 650 A.D.  Edo Nyland’s decipherment of the Horsecreek Petroglyph (see Horsecreek) in a West Virginia canyon using Basque showed it to be an eyewitness account of a bison hunt, the animals being driven over a cliff.  Nyland noted that the very large Ogam inscription in that canyon is written in a type of Ogam different from Irish, one that has never been used in Ireland.  He suspected it to be Libyan Ogam (personal communication).  Many of the Libyans and Northern Egyptians at that time were blond and blue eyed.  Edo Nyland suspects that the Four Khalifs who conquered Egypt and Libya around 650 A.D. drove the blond people from their homeland.  They made it clear that they would not tolerate any Nonbeliever religions.  These blond people had excellent boats and they sailed first to Ireland, from where the more adventurous ones went to North America, where they eventually joined the native life style (see Great Ireland).  The 17th Century English settlers in North America wrote home telling about native tribes with blond hair (Robert L. Pyle, All That Remains, p. 66).  They were subsequently absorbed in the new population.

 
 
Bibliography
 

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For further detail, please refer to:

 

          Nyland, Edo.  2001.  Linguistic Archaeology: An
               Introduction.   Trafford Publ., Victoria, B.C., Canada.

               ISBN 1-55212-668-4. 541 p. [ see abstract & summary]

 

          Nyland, Edo.  2002.  Odysseus and the Sea Peoples: A

               Bronze Age History of Scotland  Trafford Publ., Victoria,

               B.C., Canada.  307 p.   [see abstract & summary].

 

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