Exploring Celtic Origins: New ways forward in archaeology, linguistics, and genetics

by Barry Cunliffe (Editor), John Koch (Editor)

Exploring Celtic Origins is the fruit of collaborative work by researchers in archaeology, historical linguistics, and archaeogenetics over the past ten years. This team works towards the goal of a better understanding of the background in the Bronze Age and Beaker Period of the people who emerge as Celts and speakers of Celtic languages documented in the Iron Age and later times.

Led by Sir Barry Cunliffe and John Koch, the contributors present multidisciplinary chapters in a lively user-friendly style, aimed at accessibility for workers in the other fields, as well as general readers. The collection stands as a pause to reflect on ways forward at the moment of intellectual history when the genome-wide sequencing of ancient DNA (a.k.a. ‘the archaeogenetic revolution’) has suddenly changed everything in the study of later European prehistory. How do we deal with what appears to be an irreversible breach in the barrier between science and the humanities?

Exploring Celtic Origins includes colour maps and illustrations and annotated Further Reading for all chapters.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Linguistics

224 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 2018

About the author

Sir Barrington Windsor Cunliffe taught archaeology in the Universities of Bristol and Southampton and was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2008, thereafter becoming Emeritus Professor. He has excavated widely in Britain (Fishbourne, Bath, Danebury, Hengistbury Head, Brading) and in the Channel Islands, Brittany, and Spain, and has been President of the Council for British Archaeology and of the Society of Antiquaries, Governor of the Museum of London, and a Trustee of the British Museum. He is currently a Commissioner of English Heritage.

Reviews

[t bannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dense scholarly work that is meant for academics but is worth muscling through if are intellectually curious about the origins of Europeans. Chapters are written by different scholars and are uneven. Cunliffe is the best story teller with a broad view of history and the various disciplines that are brought to bear on the subject. I had to skim through the chapter on metallurgy - yes metallurgy. But the linguistic and genetic discussions are thought provoking. Not the type of book you will read on a beach for pleasure.

[Maya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Please read my review at Celtic Scholar’s Reviews and Opinions