[Aireacha] Were There Celts In China?

[jerrykelly at att.net]

A chairde,

Tá alt beag thíos a scríobhas as Sacsbhéarla do mo jab (.i. ag múineadh Sacsbhéarlach dosna Sínigh).  /  Below is a small article which I wrote in English for my job (i.e., teaching English to the Chinese).  

LGDG, - G  

WERE THERE CELTS IN CHINA?
 
The impressive new Xinjiang Museum in Urumqi has on display ancient red-haired and blond-haired mummies of European appearance and European DNA.  Hundreds of these mummies have been found in the Taklamakan desert in the Xinjiang Province of western China.  They date from about 2000 B.C. to about the time of Christ.  
 
Because of the mummies’ hair color, clothing, styles of decoration, burial practices, and DNA, initial news reports speculated that they might have been ancient Celts like the Irish and Welsh.  
 
This is not likely, however.  Substantial fragments of what scholars believe to be later forms of their language, called ‘Tocharian A and B,’ have been found and translated.  Tocharian A and B are closely related not just to Celtic, but also to the other western European language families of Italic, Germanic, and Greek.
 
By about 300 B.C., Celtic-speaking peoples inhabited most of Europe, from Ireland in the west to the Ukraine in the east.  Celts sacked ancient Rome, burned the shrine at Delphi, settled central Turkey, and battled Caesar.  Some Irish, Manx, Scots, Welsh, Cornish, and Bretons still speak their own Celtic languages in addition to English or French.  Irish and Welsh are apparently developing momentum.  But it should be kept in mind that the Celtic languages are as different from English and French as Chinese is from Japanese and Malay.   
 
Traditionally, most historians have dated the rise of the Celtic languages to about 800 B.C.   DNA testing has recently raised the possibility that the Celtic languages may have spread across Europe much earlier, by about 3000 B.C.   An earlier development of Celtic could account for an eastern branch in Xinjiang by 2000 B.C.
 
But the fact remains that scholars already believe they have correctly identified the languages spoken by these redheads and blonds in Xinjiang.  Tocharian is not Celtic, even though it is closely related, and even though the Tocharians and the Celts shared DNA, physical appearance, and certain customs.
 
 
Copyright © 2007 by Gearóid Ó Ceallaigh
 
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