Proofs

"Selection of carvings from
the Castro de Santa Trega" 
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/> 16 March 2019.

Dr. Hans J. Holm is a world-renowned linguist and archeologist. He has been working on the origins of the proto-Indo-European language [PIE] for years. In his work "The New Arboretum of Indo-European Trees," Dr. Holm stated "When researching the Indo-European language, the resulting phylogeny should completely and without contradiction be transformable into real geography." And, that's my intention.

    Holm, J.J.G., "The New Arboretum of Indo-European Trees," no date <http://www.hjholm.de/Holm%20Arbo%20old.pdf> 15 July 2015.

Imagine a group of folks, who are kind of related, migrating together on a bus. Periodically, the bus stops and folks get off. Then, the bus continues on to further destinations. As this is a journey, extended over millennia, the language and culture and even the people themselves change over time. Thus, the first people to get off the bus are most different from the folks who were last to get off.

Why is this important?
-Haplogroup R is the farthest haplogroup down the yDNA tree from the original Haplogroup A back in Africa.
-The peoples with downstream genetic marker R-DF27 marker physically traveled farther from the origin point for Haplogroup R, Point PQR on the Central Asian Steppe, than any of their Indo-European cousins, settling in the extreme southwest of the European continent.
-Dr. Holm's research indicates that the Indian language family of the Indian subcontinent is most closely related to proto-Indo-European.
-Originally, our people of the Red Headed Tribe spoke the Q-Celt, Goidelic, Gaelic language. Gaelic is not the furthest language split from proto-Indo-European. But, the Northern language family which includes German is the furthest. And, our modern English is a derivative of the German language family.
-Thus, we have to look at the movement of peoples and the changes in their languages and overlay one on top of the other to develop a lineage of our ancestors through place and time.

My assertions are based on the evolution of downstream genetic markers for Haplogroup R and the evolution of the proto Indo-European language family [PIE].
-From genetic matches in current populations, we can affix a group of people to a place.
-From the many branchings of the Indo-European language, we can affix a group of people to a specific time on the timeline of human history.

1. The Red-Haired Tocharians

a. Headline: Red-headed, Bronze Age mummies with Caucasian features found in western China.
-The Tarim Basin is the western-most corner of modern China. But, the Tarim was on the Silk Road, the crossroad of the world: east to west and west to east.
-So, what are tall red-headed Caucasians doing living there from pre-history until the Middle Ages?

According to radiocarbon dating analysis (C14 method), the mummies can be dated to approximately 3800 years ago. In other words, Caucasian people lived in the area over a thousand years before the Lou-lan Kingdom appeared in Han history books.

    "Hedin, the Man Who Solved the Mystery of the Wandering Lake: Lop Nor and Lou-lan" <http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/rarebook/06/index.html.en> 11 January 2021.

Between 2009–2015, the remains of 92 individuals found at the Xiaohe Tomb complex were analyzed for Y-DNA and mtDNA markers. Genetic analyses of the mummies showed that the maternal lineages of the Xiaohe people originated from both East Asia and West Eurasia, whereas the paternal lineages all originated from West Eurasia.*

*Note, this is consistent with Replacement Theory:
-Males migrating into a new location tend to replace the previous male population.
-These migrants brought some of their female companions with them.
-And, they took wives from the local female population.

Mitochondrial DNA analysis showed that maternal lineages carried by the people at Xiaohe included mtDNA haplogroups H, K, U5, U7, U2e, T, R, which are now most common in West Eurasia. Also found were haplogroups common in modern populations from East Asia: B5, D, G2a. Haplogroups now common in Central Asian or Siberian populations included: C4 and C5. Haplogroups later regarded as typically South Asian included M5 and M.

Of the paternal lines of male remains surveyed nearly all – 11 out of 12, or around 92% – belonged to Y-DNA haplogroup R1a1, which are now most common in West Eurasia; the other belonged to the exceptionally rare paragroup K (M9).** The R1a1 lineage suggests a proximity of this population with groups related to the Andronovo culture, i.e. early Indo-Europeans.

**On the ISOGG yDNA tree, the entire R haplogroup descends from paragroup K. Thus, that one individual carried the genetic marker for the earlier ancestors from about 42,000 BCE.

    "Tarim Mummies" <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_mummies> 11 January 2021.

M9
M526
  K
drop LT, NO, S from O, & M
 42,000 BCE Settled on the Steppes in what would become Uzbekistan vicinity the Aral Sea.
-The rare Haplogroup K (now T) was passed down through few individuals which included Thomas Jefferson.
-Some descendants of Haplogroup K are now grouped in the new Haplogroup T.
-Additionally, red hair and blue eyes were the constant.
-So, being Rh negative isn't stranger than having blue eyes or red hair.

Blood Types, The Stanford Department of  Genetics <https://genetics.thetech.org/ask/ask381> 20 June 2018.

b. R1a Hunter-gatherers split c. 25,000 BCE from the predominant R1b clade on the Central Asian Steppe, north of modern-day Iran.

M173
P231
  R1
drop R1a
 25,000 BCE Haplogroup R1 also split on the Steppes.
(R1a migrated northwest, eventually reaching eastern Europe and the Baltic Sea.)

c. Their descendants patrolled the Central Asian and Pontic-Caspian steppes for millennia before their intermingling with descendants of R1b produced the proto-Indo-European language. [25,000 - 5,000 =  20,000 years]

 

PIE: the Proto-Indo-European Language

Descendants of R1b [R-M343]

1.

c. 5,000 BCE
PIE emerged from R1b descendants intermingling with R1a foragers and herders, resulting in a new lingua Franca.
Who: R-M269
When: Late Neolithic Period
(6,500 to 4,500 BCE)
Where:
the Pontic-Caspian Steppe north of the Black Sea.

d. The Tocharians were a Caucasian people who spoke the Tocharian language of the  Anatolian-Tocharian branch of the Indo-European language.

[Marker .86] [c. 3,160 BCE] Almost immediately, in the vicinity of the Bosporus Strait, the South-southeast branch split:-The Iranian-Indian branch continued their migration east through Anatolia and Asia Minor en route to Persia.
-The Anatolian-Tocharian branch continued east, further into the Anatolian Peninsula. (Indo-European)

[We] are effectively left with two main language groups in the Tarim Basin that might be associated with at least some of the Tarim mummies of the Bronze Age and Iron Age: Khotanese Saka (or any other remnant of the Scythians of the Eurasian steppe) and Tocharian. Of course, totally different languages may have been spoken by these populations, especially if they were derived from native Neolithic groups, whose languages did not survive into the historical record. . .

The other major language group in the Tarim Basin is Tocharian, which is subdivided into two languages: Tocharian A, found in documents near Turfan and Qarashähär, and Tocharian B, found mainly around Kucha in the west but also in the same territory as Tocharian A. The documents, dating from the 6th to the 8th centuries CE, suggest that Tocharian A was by that time probably a dead liturgical language, while Tocharian B was still very much in use. In addition to Tocharian, administrative texts have been discovered in Prakrit, an Indian language from the territory of Krorän; these documents contain many proper names and items of vocabulary that would appear to be borrowed from a form of Tocharian (sometimes known as Tocharian C) spoken by the native population. The Kroränian documents date to ca. 300 CE and provide our earliest evidence for the use of Tocharian. For our purposes here, it is also very important to note that the earliest evidence for the mummified remains of “westerners” in the Tarim Basin is found in cemeteries at Xiaohe (Small River) and Qäwrighul, both of which are located in the same region as Tocharian C. . .

Two important features about Tocharian make it stand out among all the languages of the Tarim Basin. The first is that it has no outliers: no evidence of an outside source such as that which can be found for any of the Iranian, Turkish, Chinese, or Tibetan documents. Tocharian is only known in the Tarim Basin. Second, although the Tocharian languages belong to the great Indo-European family of languages, they are not closely related to the only other group of Indo-European languages in greater Asia: the Indo-Iranian languages.

    "Bronze Age Languages of the Tarim Basin," <https://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/> 11 January 2021.

Using my methodology, what can we explain?
-Red-Haired R1a split from R1b c. 25,000 BCE north of modern-day Iran.
-The Tocharian language split from the Anatolian language family c. 3,160 BCE in Anatolia.
-Did some of the R1a hunter-gatherers continue to migrate amongst their R1b pastoralist cousins? Did they drag up their kith and kin, wandering east on a most ancient path which would become the Silk Road, settling in the Tarim Basin.
-Others might postulate a migration route directly from the Pontic Steppe to the Tarim Basin. But, no. The Silk Road ran south of the Caspian Sea and across the north of modern-day Iran.
-Thus, we have Red-Haired, ethnic Indo-Europeans who spoke an Indo-European derivative language living in central Asia. Those R1a hunter-gatherers got around.

2. The Red-Haired Assyrians

The Assyrian people of northern Iraq are noted for their Red Hair. And, they stand out amongst the other peoples of the region.
-The Red Haired Assyrians are descendants from Haplogroup R.
-But, they do not speak an Indo-European language.
-From the previous analogy, the Assyrians got off the bus before emergence of the proto-Indo-European language.

The forefathers of the Celts migrated through the lands which would become Assyria in northern, modern-day Iraq c. 17,000 BCE.
-Genetic marker R1b (R-M343) emerged c. 22,000-17,000 BCE south of the Caspian Sea in Persia.
-Genetic marker R-L278 migrated c. 17,000 BCE. to the Tigris River Valley. They and their descendants passed the last Ice Age in the Tigris River Valley Refugium.
-While there R-L754 emerged before 10,000 BCE. R-L388 emerged c. 10,000. And, farming began in the Tigris River Valley.

According to a 2011 study by Lashgary et al., R1b has been measured at 40% among Assyrians in Iran making it [the] major haplogroup among Iranian Assyrians.

Lashgary, Khodadadi, Singh, et al. (2011). "Y chromosome diversity among the Iranian religious groups: A reservoir of genetic variation."

    Annals of Human Biology <www.researchgate.net/publication/49843898> 1 February 2020.

PIE, the proto-Indo-European language, emerged from descendants of R1b herders intermingling with R1a foragers, resulting in a new lingua Franca. [From Holm, op. cit., Marker 1.0] [c. 5,000 BCE]
-But, the Assyrian people had split from the Indo-European family approximately 12,000 years before the emergence of the proto-Indo-European language. [17,000 BCE - 5,000 BCE = 12,000 years]
-Later, they acquired Akkadian from the other peoples of the region.
-Akkadian, the extinct Assyrian language from the third millennium BCE, was an Eastern Semitic language.
-Thus, we have a Red-Headed, ethnic Indo-European people who do not speak an Indo-European language because they got off the bus before emergence of the Indo-European languages.

 3. The Armenians

Haplogroup R1b is the predominant yDNA haplogroup in Armenia.

R1b1a2a [R-L23] represents the largest haplogroup for Armenians in general and project members in particular. It has been estimated to be 8,000 years old. According to Vince Vizachero who runs the haplogroup R-ht35 Project: " From prior analysis, it appears that R1b1a2a [old format] moved north and west into Europe quite rapidly. And the data we are seeing in our project are consistent with that: the oldest forms of R1b1a2a are found at high frequency in the "homeland" of SW Asia and places with the most contact with that region. The closer we get to NW Europe, the more we observe the youngest, derived forms of R1b1a2a. The current distribution of this haplogroup shows a heavy concentration in Western Europe (from the Northern part of the Iberian peninsula to Ireland and England via France and Belgium). . . .

    "Armenian DNA Project," <https://www.familytreedna.com/groups> 13 January 2021.

From the descent of R-L23, we learn that the Indo-European forefathers of the Armenians migrated west, out of the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, then south to the Bosporus. Some of their descendants continued south to the Greek Peninsula, and some headed east across Anatolia to the Trans-Caucasus.

L23   R1b1a1a2a

4,200-2,800 BCE

Copper/ Bronze Age
Spoke the proto-Indo-European language.

Northern Branch:
c. 4,000
Spoke a language of the Northwest branch of the Indo-European language.
c. 3,280 the Northwest branch of the Indo-European language splits into the Celt-Italic language.
-Migrated west to the Danube Valley.

Southern Branch:
c. 4,000 Spoke a language of the Southeast branch of the Indo-European language.
-Migrated west then south to the Bosporus.
-Some descendants went further south to Greece.
-Some descendants went east across Anatolia to Armenia.

Conveniently, Armenians speak Armenian whose lineage starts with the proto-Indo-European language.

[Marker 1.0 c. 4,000 BCE] In the vicinity of the Danube River Delta, the proto-Indo-European group spit:
-The Northwest branch migrated west up the Danube River and the climb into Western Europe.
-The Southeast branch migrated south to the Bosporus Strait.

And, the Armenian language descends from the Balkan language family.
-Philologists have postulated that the mother language of Armenian and Greek spread west across Anatolia to the Balkans.
-Well, no. The Balkan language group was already in Europe before Armenian headed east to the Caucasus c. 2,330 BCE. [From Holm, op. cit., Marker .72]

[Marker .72] [c. 2330 BCE] Having sojourned in the vicinity of the Bosporus Strait, the Balkan branch split:
-Albanian went west to Albania.
-Greek went south to Greece.
-Armenian followed the Iranian-Indian
branch east across the Bosporus into Anatolia and Asia Minor en route to the Trans-Caucasus.

Again from the previous analogy, the Armenians got off the bus after the Assyrians c. 10,000 BCE. The bus continued north through the Gates of the Caucasus to the Pontic Steppe. Years later, the peoples on the bus had a major split where one group circled west around the Black Sea, crossing the Bosporus heading east en route to the Caucasus Mountains. We have two scenarios:
-A people of the Pontic-Caspian Steppe migrated west then south then east, taking their Armenian language with them.
-After seven and one-half millennia, peoples who spoke a daughter Indo-European language migrated back south through the Caucasus and married up with the original Indo-European peoples of the Trans-Caucasus. [10,000 - 2,330 = 7,670 years]
-Both are plausible.

 4. The Greeks

Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world, "the face that launched a thousand ships," was a red-headed Mycenaean Greek. 

The autochthonous Greeks were from "the North," west of the Black Sea. Their descendants were the Trojans and the Mycenaean Greeks. (I postulate that the Hittites were their cousins.)

The Anatolian branch is often considered the earliest to have split from the Proto-Indo-European language, from a stage referred to either as Indo-Hittite or "Archaic PIE" typically a date in the mid-4th millennium&n BC is assumed. Under the Kurgan hypothesis, there are two possibilities for how the early Anatolian speakers could have reached Anatolia: from the north via the Caucasus, and from the west, via the Balkans, the latter of which is considered somewhat more likely by Mallory (1989), Steiner (1990) and Anthony (2007).

    Anatolian Languages <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatolian_languages>  4 January 2020.

These Greeks from pre-history butted up against the Minoans of Crete who were themselves descendants of some civilization of the Levant and perhaps Mesopotamia.

12. From about 4,200 to 2,800 BCE, R1b1a1a2a [L23] migrated west into the Danube River Valley during the the Copper/ Bronze Age. Here, the proto-Indo-European language split.
-Some descendants of R-L23 headed up the Danube River Valley. They spoke a language of the Northwest branch of the Indo-European language. Around 3,280 BCE the Northwest branch of the Indo-European language splits into the Celt-Italic language.
-Other descendants of R-L23 went south to the Greek Peninsula and south-east to Anatolia. They spoke a language of the Southeast branch of the Indo-European language. Later, the Southeast branch of the Indo-European language splits into the Balkan language family from which we get Greek and Armenian

The early Greeks were literate, probably borrowing Linear B from the Minoans. But with the Bronze Age Collapse, the Aegean World descended into "darkness." The oral traditions attributed to Homer are believed to go back to 900 BCE. And, they were written down about 700 BCE when Classical Greeks returned to literacy; this time with a version of the Phoenician alphabet.

In Homer's Iliad, we learn that the Mycenaean's launched their ships across the Aegean to the coast of Anatolia at Troy. Among them was a ship full of Myrmidons, the soldiers of Achilles. Achilles was from "the North," thought by the Classic Greeks to have been from Thessaly. And, the Myrmidons were from further north.

Achilles was described by Leo the Deacon (born ca. 950) not as Hellene, but as Scythian, while according to the Byzantine author John Malalas, his army was made up of a tribe previously known as Myrmidons and known now as Bulgars.

    "Myrmidons" <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmidons> 4 January 2020.

I for one, believe that the Fall of Troy VI (c. 1250 BCE) was an opening act in the Bronze Age Collapse (c. 1177 BCE) and destruction of the Mycenaean Culture. There is a relief on the walls of the Temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu. The scene depicts the massive sea battle when Egypt defeated the Sea Peoples (c. 1175 BCE), providing the names of a dozen invading peoples. Those are some. But, I believe the Myrmidons were the avant garde of many, many Indo-European peoples from the North who were bent on pillaging the civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean. In effect, the Mycenaean's carried within their armada the seeds of their own destruction.

At the end of Homer's Odyssey, we see Ulysses carrying a ship's oar over his shoulder. He was instructed by the wraith of the dead, blind, clairvoyant Tiresias to venture north (to Scythia?) to find "a land that knows nothing of the sea." And there, make sacrifice to Poseidon in order to end his Odyssey. From this passage, we can conjecture that the Greeks had a memory of the ancestral homeland, somewhere far to the north, where the peoples are so far removed from the Greek maritime heritage that they would not recognize a ship's oar.

 5. The Amesbury Archer

For me, the Amesbury Archer, found in 2002, may be the most significant archeological find of this century. From his burial near Stonehenge, we learn about the migration of persons from central Europe to Britain at the very beginning of the European Bronze Age. My fascination with the finds has compelled me to learn about the early inhabitants of Britain: their genotype, their phenotype, their material culture, and their technology.

Most of us who descend from western European stock are related to a bunch of red heads. There are red-headed Germans and Dutch, English, Scot, and Irish. Is there a significant population of red-headed Iberians? My contention is that they all descend from the same people who spoke a version of an Indo-European Language. Recent Ancient DNA research informs that we, Western Europeans, descend from three distinct ancient peoples: Mesolithic Hunter-Gatherers, Neolithic Farmers, and Pastoralists from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe. (Check your Ancestry results to find out what your percentiles are.)

a. Mesolithic Britain (very Brief and very General)

Much of the following is excepted from Genetic History of Europe <https://en.wikipedia.org/> 4 January 2020.

Britain was inhabited by genus Homo since 800,000 years ago but was depopulated during the last Ice Age. Since the beginning of the current Holocene Epoch, anatomically modern humans [AMH], returned. Rising from their refugia in southern France and northern Iberia, Western Hunter-Gatherers [WHG] ventured north across the land bridge to what would become the British Isles, bringing Mesolithic technology with them c. 8,000 BCE. And, they lived the Hunter-Gatherer lifestyle.

These modern humans reportedly descended from y haplogroups I and C. Haplogroup I is a newer haplogroup originating in Europe and found in modern Switzerland. But, Haplogroup C is ancient. Cro-Magnon Man may have been the relic of very early migrants out of northern Africa who crossed into Iberia c. 100,000 BCE. There is a persistent Chinese myth that the modern Chinese evolved along an independent line from whichever hominin the rest of us descend. However, recent yDNA studies prove that all non sub-Saharan Africans--that includes us--descend from Haplogroup C.

Modern research in Ancient DNA informs that Mesolithic Britains were tall--6 foot--and had dark skin and blue eyes. Their yDNA was almost entirely replaced by the incoming Neolithic farmers. But, we know that their DNA still exists in us, we who have blue eyes.

b. Neolithic Britain (very Brief and very General)

Much of the following is excepted from Genetic History of Europe <https://en.wikipedia.org/> 4 January 2022.

Archeologists Mick Aston and Francis Pryor (Time Team,  BBC 4, 1994-2013) have stated that the Neolithic Revolution was the most significant event in modern human history. After extensive research, I now agree. Britain in the Mesolithic was the primordial forest. Then Early European Farmers [EEF] from the Levant, Anatolia, and very southern Europe appeared in Britain c. 4,000 BCE. Reportedly, they descend from y haplogroup E1b. Through deforestation, establishment of land boundaries, and building settlements, for the first time in human history, they physically changed the landscape.

Modern research in Ancient DNA informs that Neolithic Britains were not tall--5' 5'--and had a fairer skin complexion and dark eyes. Their yDNA was replaced by upwards of 90%.

But by the end of the Beaker period the population [of Britain] had completely homogenised, and it seems that the Neolithic peoples of Britain – the ones who built Stonehenge, traversed the Sweet Track, and settled Skara Brae – had all but disappeared.

    Current Archaeology dtd 5 April 2018 <https://archaeology.co.uk/> 3 January 2022

Again, their DNA still exists in us, we who have a fair skin complexion.

c. The Amesbury Archer

Much of the following is excepted from Smithsonian Magazine <https://www.smithsonianmag.com/> 4 January 2022.

In 2002 near Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, a construction crew was working on the cite for a new school. As the immediate area of Stonehenge is noted for extensive historical finds, Wessex Archaeology was on hand. Thank you, Uncle Phil Harding. What they found was the grave of an adult male from the very beginning of the Bronze Age in Britain. Dating back about 4,300 years, this is one of the first proven burials of a member of our tribe in England.

Open for discussion:
-The Boscombe Bowmen were buried in relatively close proximity to the Amesbury Archer.
-But, the younger persons in their grave would have been of the same age as the Amesbury Archer.
-Isotopes in their teeth indicate they may have been from Wales.
-Archeologists have postulated that the Boscombe Bowmen were the actual people who transported the Blue Stones from the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire, Wales, to Stonehenge.
-The Boscombe Bowmen carry my R-DF27 downstream marker.
-Oops. My cousins were in Wales 1,300 years earlier than thought.
-It's perfectly reasonable that some R-DF27 males hung out with their R-L21 cousins as they traveled through Gaul to Brittany to Ireland and then Wales, only to be buried in Wiltshire, England.
-Prehistoric folks got around a lot more than we realize.

What do we learn from the Amesbury Archer's grave?
-The Archer, himself, was tall and about 35 to 45 years old.
-Analysis of his teeth proves he was born near the Alps in southern Germany.
-The Archer was buried with a male "Companion." Analysis has failed to return a reliable yDNA sample from the Archer. But, the Companion's yDNA proves his downstream marker was R-L21, the predominant marker of all the Breton Celts.

13. From 2,800 to 2,500 BCE, R1b1a1a2a1 [L51] migrated up the Danube River Valley to the vicinity of the Hungarian Plain and the Austrian Alps where they settled. This was the early Bronze Age where they developed new technologies. Here, they spoke a Proto-Celt-Italic language.

The peoples of L51 are cited as factors of the Unetice Culture (2,300 to 1,700 BCE) of Central Europe. It is absolutely reasonable to conclude that the descendents of L51, who did not continue the mass migration west, were part of that culture.

Anthropologists have suggested that the descendants of M269 were the factors of the subsequent Hallstatt Culture (1,200 to 500 BCE) of Austria. But this branch of M269 passed through Austria almost 2,000 years before the estimated time of the Hallstatt Culture.

14. In about 2,500 BCE, R1b1a1a2a1a [L11] migrated north and settled in the Black Forest on the Danube River (vic Regensburg) southwest toward Freiberg in what is now southern Germany.

At this point there was a major split in not only the subclades of L11 but also in culture and language. Whether or not L11 was part of the the Hallstatt Culture of Bronze Age Austria, we the descendants of L11 possessed some Hallstatt influence and Bronze Age technology. From southern Germany and France, we took these skills and new branches of the Indo-European language to dispersed locations in western Europe.

15a. R1b1a1a2a1a1 [U106]:
The Germanic branch are the forefathers of the Saxon Invaders to England. They emerged from L11 in about 2,300 BCE and spread north and northwest from southern Germany to Saxony, the Netherlands, and across the Baltic Sea to what would become Norway. They spoke proto-German.

15b. R1b1a1a2a1a2 [P312]:
The Gauls aka the Proto Celts migrated west across the Rhine River Valley and settled in Gaul (France) in about 2,300 BCE. They are the forefathers of all Gaelic peoples. They spoke the proto-Celtic language which had just split from Celt-Italic.
Their descendants split into at least six individual branches, migrating to Gallaecia on the Iberian Peninsula, over the Alps into northern Italy, from Calais to Britain and across the Irish Sea to Ireland, and up the Jutland Peninsula and across the Baltic Sea to Scandinavia.

The grave goods included:
-5 Beaker pots; the Archer was of the Bell Beaker Complex
-3 Copper knives; the Archer brought metal goods to England
-2 Gold hair ornaments; the Archer was a person of wealth and most likely high prestige
-Several stone arrow heads and two stone wrist guards; he may have actually been an archer
-A black Cushion Stone; the Archer brought the technology of metallurgy to England

With the technology to produce a "sword from the stone," the Archer may have been considered a wizard or a shaman. From his skeleton, we learn that the Archer had had a bad leg for a long time. Did this older and possibly wiser man crutch from the Danube Valley all the way to Stonehenge to view the great Neolithic site? Undoubtedly, the Archer was a pilgrim. Some have postulated that he may have traveled to Stonehenge for the healing powers of the Blue Stones. Considering the wealth of grave goods, a noted historian has postulated that the Archer was the world's first operator of a souvenir shop in front of a tourist cite.

The Amesbury Archer and his brethren brought more than just material culture to England. These prehistoric migrants from the Pontic Steppe brought a revolution:
-Indo-European Language; the languages most Europeans speak
-Bronze Age technology; metallurgy and a new way of tool making
-The horse and cart; rapid transit and the ability to transport personal goods
-The Pastoralist lifestyle; herding and transporting food stuffs on the hoof
-Lactose tolerance (maybe); the genetic variant which allows adults to consume dairy products

It is not just new material culture that seems to have spread so effectively across Europe. Presumably these artefacts were also accompanied by a set of practices, beliefs, and other intangible aspects of culture that cannot be elucidated through the archaeological record. It is this assumption that makes the Bell Beaker period so significant: the development of the Complex marks the first time archaeologically that we can see such large-scale cultural diffusion.

    Current Archaeology dtd 5 April 2018 <https://archaeology.co.uk/> 3 January 2022

For me, the Amesbury Archer represents the first modern Breton, the first British Celt.

6. Me

Through yDNA analysis, I was the first proof of my assertions.
-I am Caucasian and male.
-I don't have Red Hair; but, my father did. I have light brown/ blond/ red and now gray hair and blue/ violet eyes. I was a toe-head as a child. I appear to be a descendant of the Scot-Irish. And, I am.
-Family oral history states "We was from Wales." And, we were.
-But, I have the A Negative blood-type and R-DF27 as my downstream genetic marker.

R1b#6.1A (P312+ > DF27+) - "Gallo-Iberian" R1b - England / Wales
420 49497 Walden Lewis, b. 1774 VA & d. 1843 MS Wales R-DF27

                        Lewis Surname DNA Project <https://www.familytreedna.com/public/LEWISSurnameDNAProject> 31 Dec 2020.

Full Disclosure: Comparing the different blood types passed down to myself and my siblings, it is apparent that my father had Rh Positive and my mother had Rh Negative. As the highest rate for Rh negative is found in Gascony, France, and northern Iberia, particularly in the lands of the Basque, this indicates that my maternal lineage also has a connection in the distant past to the homeland of the Gascon/Gallo-Iberian Celts.

I knew I was yDNA Haplogroup R. But, my most recent test produced R-DF27 as my downstream marker. I am an Iberian Celt. Surprise! How did the descendants of Iberian Celts get to Wales? Thus, this ongoing project.
-R-DF27 is the downstream genetic marker for descendants of the Celts who first settled in Gascony, France, the Pyrenees, and Asturias and Galicia, Spain.
-Fifteen percent of persons worldwide have the Negative Rh factor.
-Gascony, France, the Pyrenees, and Asturias and Galicia, Spain, comprise the locale with the highest concentration of the A blood-type and the Rh Negative factor.
-A number of modern Galicians speak the Galician language. This is not a Celt derivative language, but a Latin derivative language. However, there are hints of German and old Celt. The original Gallaecians spoke Gaelic/Q-Celt.
-How did a Gaelic speaking Gallaecian get from northern Iberian to Wales? When we invaded Ireland post 1,000 BCE by boat, we took the Gaelic language with us.
-And, Wales was the next stop.

4. On to the details. [NEXT]

CE Lewis
Davenport IA
revised addition 2/2020

Caveat

This site is provided for reference only. Except where specifically cited, information contained is conjecture and should not be considered as fact.
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