Celtic Origins Traced With Ancient DNA

The Urnfield culture probably was a major factor spreading Celtic languages, and the Celtic languages and culture probably originated not with the Hallstatt Culture but with an early demic diffusion of an earlier culture found in Romania around 2,000 BCE to 1,200 BCE. The body text of the introduction explains that:

The debate is currently focused around three main models: (1) a Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age spread along the Atlantic seaboard linked to the Bell Beaker Culture; (2) a Bronze Age spread from France, Iberia or Northern Italy; and (3) a Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age spread from Central Europe associated with the Hallstatt and La Tène Cultures. Thus, the appearance and dispersal of the Celtic language constitutes a key question concerning the cultural formation of Bronze and Iron Age Europe.

In an accompanying paper, we report the generation of 752 new genomes, including 126 originating from France, Germany, Austria, and the British Isles, which are of immediate relevance to these questions.

Figure 2 in the paper looks at relative contributions of ancestry across Europe around 2300 BCE and 500 BCE.

Celtic languages, including Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Breton, are today restricted to the Northern European Atlantic seaboard. However, between 3 and 2 thousand years before present (BP) Celtic was widely spoken across most of Europe. 

While often associated with Bell Beaker-related populations, the spread of this prominent Indo-European linguistic cluster remains debated. Previous genomic investigations have focused on its arrival to specific regions: Britain, Iberia and Southwestern Germany. 

Here, we utilize new genomic data from Bronze and Iron Age Europe to investigate the population history of historically Celtic-speaking regions, and test different linguistic theories on the origins and early spread of the Celtic languages. We identify a widespread demographic impact of the Central European Urnfield Culture. We find ancestry associated with its Knovíz subgroup in the Carpathian Basin to have formed between 4 – 3.2 kyr BP, and subsequently expanded across much of Western Europe between 3.2 and 2.8 kyr BP. This ancestry further persisted into the Hallstatt Culture of France, Germany and Austria, impacting Britain by 2.8 kyr BP and Iberia by 2.5 kyr BP. 

These findings support models of an Eastern Central rather than a Western European center of spread for a major component of all the attested Celtic languages. Our study demonstrates, yet again, the power of ancient population genomics in addressing long-standing debates in historical linguistics.

Hugh McColl, et al., "Tracing the Spread of Celtic Languages using Ancient Genomics" bioRxiv (March 1, 2025). More commentary and analysis at Bernard's blog.