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Anglo-Saxon, Celtic or Spanish? The Genetic (DNA) History of England
What’s the genetic history of England? An Oxford study from 2006 found that most people from England are mainly descendants from ancient Spanish tribes from the Bay of Biscay who settled in ancient Britain around 6-7,000 years ago. In England, according to this study, around 64 per cent of people are descended from these tribes, outnumbering the descendants of Anglo-Saxons by about three to one. In Scotland, about 73 per cent are descended from these tribes, with 83 per cent in Wales.

Professor Bryan Sykes, the late professor of Human Genetics are Oxford University, said that: "About 6,000 years ago Iberians developed ocean-going boats that enabled them to push up the Channel. Before they arrived, there were some human inhabitants of Britain but only a few thousand in number. These people were later subsumed into a larger Celtic tribe... The majority of people in the British Isles are actually descended from the Spanish." Sykes added that the "the overlay of Vikings, Saxons and so on is 20 per cent at most. That's even in those parts of England that are nearest to the Continent," he said. "The only exception is Orkney and Shetland, where roughly 40 per cent are of Viking ancestry."

Thus, according to this study, the majority of the people in England are descendants of ancient Iberian tribes, but can we call these people Celts? Well, on first thought, no we can’t, as a Celt is often defined as someone who speaks a Celtic language, and the Celtic languages didn’t develop this early. However, on second thought, these ancient settlers of Britain potentially began speaking the Proto-Celtic language soon after they settled in Britain, and could be considered a proto-Celtic people.

Barry Cunliffe, the Emeritus Professor of European Archaeology at Oxford, in his book The Ancient Celts, argues that the Proto-Celtic language could have developed thousands of years earlier than initially thought in ancient Britain as a lingua-franca or trading language that linked the Atlantic Zone sometime between 5500-2800 BC.

Sources:

Schiffels, S., Haak, W., Paajanen, P. et al. Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon genomes from East England reveal British migration history. Nat Commun 7, 10408 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10408

Settlers: Genetics, Geography and the Peopling of Britain - Oxford University Museum of Natural History - http://www.oum.ox.ac.uk/settlers/

Oxford University Museum of Natural History - Genetic Ancestry and the People of the British Isles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8k9LMaFeRM&t=1s

University of Oxford - Who do you think you really are? A genetic map of the British Isles https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2015-03-19-who-do-you-think-you-really-are-genetic-map-british-isles

University of Oxford - People of the British Isles - Population Genetics and Facial Genetics https://www.peopleofthebritishisles.org/ https://www.peopleofthebritishisles.org/population-genetics

Scotsman - We're nearly all Celts under the skin We're nearly all Celts under the skin | The Scotsman

The Independent - Celts descended from Spanish fishermen, study finds Celts descended from Spanish fishermen, study finds | The Independent | The Independent

Patterson N. et al. Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age. Nature. 2022 Jan;601(7894):588-594. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04287-4. Epub 2021 Dec 22. PMID: 34937049; PMCID: PMC8889665. Large-Scale Migration into Britain During the Middle to Late Bronze Age - PMC (nih.gov)

Barry Cunliffe (2018) – The Ancient Celts (Second Edition) (Oxford University Press)

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