View Related
Francis Prior
TV and Radio Writer and archaeologist Francis Pryor presents an inspiring new view of Britain before the Roman invasion. This is a small edited Transcript from the documentary as it relates to the so-called 'Celts'.
Simon James, Author 'The Atlantic Celts':
''What we think of as a Celtic past is largely a invention and is largely a fiction. The term 'Celtic' can traced back to at least 4 or 500 BC, but, it seems until about 1700...this term was never used to describe the people of Britain or Ireland but was always just used to talk about the people living on the continent.
At that time people were coming to understand that there were important connections between our prehistoric ancestors in Britain and those on the continent. And in the first instance people came to understand that their language was apparently similar.
From that people started to use this linguistic term as an ethnic label.''
Francis Pryor:
''I can remember when I was at college we learned that the Celts spread from Central Europe?''
Simon James:
''I think what we do see is the movement of, or an expansion from Central Europe of, certain cultural traits, particularly in the physical things people were using, so-called Celtic arts, as we call it today. You could see a Celtic sword as being rather the equivalent of a BMW car today, and the fact that lots of people drive around in BMW's does not mean we have been invaded from Germany!''
Francis Pryor:
''But this is just the mistake that many archaeologists have made about British history. We seem to be in some kind of strange kind of denial of our ancient past. Everything good has to have come from across the channel. This is now known to be false. Even with stonehenge. Some people used to believe that Stonehenge was introduced into Britain from either ancient Egypt or Crete. These notions have been radically overturned. New developments in Archaeology are beginning to discover the real story of ancient Britain. Separated from the rest of Europe Britain developed in a unique and particular way.''
NOTE:
In the book 'The Holy Kingdom - the Quest for the Real king Arthur' by Adrian Gilbert, Alan Wilson and Baram Blackett and first published in 1998 it states:
''When, in 55 BC, Julius Caeser planned his first attempt at the conquest of Britain, he had little knowledge of what lay ahead of him on the other side of the English Channel, and assumed that all the inhabitants of Britain would be like the Celts of Gaul. Although it is commonplace today to refer to the Welsh as 'Celtic', this description is not correct. Thought there may have been a few Celts inhabiting the southern, coastal counties of England and parts of Scotland, the vast majority of Britons were not 'Celtic' in the true sense of the word.
The confusion seems to stem from the identification of the Celts, or Gaels (the ethno-linguistic group, ed), with all the peoples living throughout what we now call France.
According to the Triads, the Britons always called themselves the Khumry. They were not Gauls and never called themselves Celtic.''
There are indeed voluminous writings in Welsh still in existence concerning the history, religious beliefs and traditions of the Khumry, the people from whom the Welsh and indeed to a large part the English - perhaps more than they realize - are descended.
Post Article:
Submit Your Own Article