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ZERO
Lv 4
ZERO asked in Arts & HumanitiesHistory · 1 decade ago

Is this the final proof that the myths of scots history are based on fact. The picts were not celts!?

SCOTTISH LEGEND

"... the nation of the Picts, from Scythia [by which it is generally agreed that Bede means Scandinavia], as is reported, putting to sea, in a few long ships, were driven by the winds beyond the shores of Britain, and arrived on the northern coast of Ireland, where, finding the nation of the Scots, they begged to be allowed to settle among them, but could not succeed in obtaining their request... The Scots answered that the island could not contain them both; but "We can give you good advice," said they, "what to do; we know there is another island, not far from ours, to the eastward, which we often see at a distance, when the days are clear. If you will go thither, you will obtain settlements; or, if they should oppose you, you shall have our assistance." The Picts, accordingly, sailing over into Britain, began to inhabit the northern parts thereof, for the Britons were possessed of the southern... In process of time, Britain, besides the Britons and the Picts, received a third nation the Scots, who, migrating from Ireland ... either by fair means, or by force of arms, secured to themselves those settlements among the Picts which they still possess."

THE EVIDENCE

It was once thought that the Picts had a Southern European origin and were related to the ancient Iberians of Spain and Portugal and perhaps to the Basques in the Pyranees Mountains between Spain and France.

Modern research has cast doubt upon this theory. Studies done by Italian geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforzza indicate some of the nearest genetic relatives of the Scots on the European Continent are the Poles, the Russians and Hungarians. This would suggest that the earliest ancestors of the Picts migrated off the Russian Steppe as did the ancestors of the Hungarians , Bulgarians and Tartars, and that they probably lived in Asia before that.

Cavalli-Sforza says that the Irish also have some genetic links to the Poles and Russians.

So is this finally the conclusive Evidence that the Pict's or so call proto Pict's we not celts but actually Scandinavians or "Scythian" as the area was still called in medieval times.

3 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    Well, Scandinavian does make a lot more sense than Scythian; Scotland does have more Scandinavian dna than other parts of Britain,and some of it definitely arrived prior to the vikings, possibly some as old as the Neolithic. However, the tombs and stone circles of areas such as Orkney, Lewis,Aberdeenshire etc are not in anywise Scandinavian--and can trace their roots to Europe's Atlantic coast (Iberia to Brittany seem to be the main areas of monument building/expansion.) The Picts also were said to have spoken a non-Indo European language, which does not include Scandinavian languages...however, I'm not so sure the 'non Indo European' was correct, as references to Pictish kings give them Celtic names...but in the Brythonic branch, rather than the Gaelic. The Scotti may just not have understood their neighbours, hence the idea that they spoke a foreign language.

    +I cannot find any reference to Cavalli-Sforza saying that, other than an early map (70's and out of date) which placed all of central and eastern Europe in a rough similar zone. The Scots have for the most part the common western European R1b y-chromosome, whereas Hungarians are mainly R1a; two groups with a common ancestor but which diverged thousands of years in the past.

  • Kevin7
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago

    Celts lived in Spain , France even Turkey and Poland in some points in history

  • 1 decade ago

    Helloooooooooooo north, west and central Spain was populated by Celts

    http://www.tartanday-wa.org/Images/Celts.PNG

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