Comments by "Jack Mac" (@TheEggmaniac) on "Celtic History Decoded" channel.

  1. Its the same in Britain, many children have blonde or light brown hair, but when they reach adulthood, their hair can sometimes change to brown or black. Also the term 'flaxen' has been traditionally used to describe children or people with that blonde to light brown hair. I only found out recently, why 'flaxen' was used to described that. It was because when the plant flax, is harvested and processed, the long fibres have the look of that light sandy brown / blonde colour. Peoples hair was often described as looking like it. The flax industry in the UK declined rapidly from the 1950s. So most people wont even know what that means now.
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  2. Yes before the 10th century, it wouldnt have been 'ancient England,' but I assume that author means the area that now makes up present day England. So has simplified it. It wouldnt have been southern Celtic Briton either, until about 500 BCE. Thats when Celtic culture reached Britain.
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  3.  @hakanliljeberg790  Im sure the eastern vikings did travel there. The eastern Vikings, who mainly came from what is today Sweden, travelled down many of the large rivers into what is today, eastern Europe and Russia. Down to the Black Sea. Infact their descents started many of the early states in these regions. They were called the Rus and gave their name to Russia and Belarus. Though Im sure blonde hair and blue eyes, which is common in those regions, didnt just come from these vikings. Ive read that these features were already well established there, before the arrival of the vikings.
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  4. Im sure the high incidence of red hair, which is found at its highest amounts in Ireland and Scotland, comes from the Beaker people. It not really connected directly to Celtic people. It predates the Celtic takeover. As its known now that although Britain and Ireland became culturally and linguistically Celtic, at some point around 800 to 500 BCE, there was no invasion and physical replacement by Celtic people, from the European continent. It was cultural takeover. So the genetics of the people in Britain and Ireland remained mostly the same, as it was with the arrival of the Beaker people, at least two thousand years earlier.
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  5. 'Aryan' is a very outdated term which was used by the Nazis. It was connected to racial categorisation. It originally referred to people who were Indo- Iranian. There was no invasion of Europe by Aryans or Indo Europeans. There were constant waves of migration of Indo European people into central and western Europe. The places they moved into were wilderness and relatively empty of people. Though its possible they killed males of the original inhabitants they came across, and took the women into their tribe.
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  6. How Celtic are the Celtic Nations today. Many academics have shown the people of Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not closely related to the Celts who came from Central Europe. Infact there is no evidence that the Irish, Scottish or Welsh people of the past, ever described themselves as Celts. This idea only came about in the 19th Century revival. When historians decided they should be classified as Celts. Obviously the people of these Nations, spoke a Celtic language. So they must have been heavily influenced by the Celts from the European mainland. Possibly a cultural take over, occurred sometime in first millennium BCE. An incoming cultural elite brought new technology with them and became the ruling classes in these Nations. Which would of included the whole of Britain at the time. There is no evidence of a great invasion by Celts from the continent. DNA analysis shows the people of Ireland Scotland and Wales to be more related to the previous migrants who moved up from Iberia, centuries before.
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  7. Genetically the Cornish are much more similar to the rest Of England than they are to other Celtic nations. As you pointed out. How Celtic or even Cornish is Cornwall these days? The 2021 census showed only 14% of the population of Cornwall considered their identity as Cornish, and another 1.6% selected Cornish in combination with one or more UK identities. Cornish people are a minority in Cornwall now. Cornwall has been inundated with people from elsewhere in recent years, mostly from other parts of England.
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  8. Ive aways found it fascinating and also a bit weird that so many people, in some parts of the world, like Britain and Ireland (96%), have this genetic mutation, that allows them to be able to digest milk, after the normal period of weaning in humans. Until relatively recently, all humans were lactose intolerant, as they didnt need to be able digest milk, after they were weaned as a baby. Generally by one year of age. But a mutation somewhere back in time gave people who could digest milk, after this age and as adults a evolutionary advantage. Lactose tolerance is highest in the world in Ireland , and second highest in the UK. As you point out this wasnt always the case. If you go back 4000/ 5000 years ago the natives were lactose intolerant. Lactose tolerance/ or persistence, seems to have been there since the arrival of the Bell Beaker and other people, who were pastoralists and farmers and were very reliant on the milk of animal like cows, goats, horses and sheep. Why is it so high in theses countries? Archaeologists have speculated that there must have been times of great starvation, when all crops and most animals had died, which lead humans in Ireland and Britain, to be extremely reliant, on the milk of the domestic animals, to keep them alive. Thus pushing the evolutionary pressure even more in favour of people who had this mutation for lactose tolerance/persistence. At these times if you didnt have that gene you were much more likely to die of starvation. There was nothing else to eat.
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  9. Im sure Cheddar man did have darker skin than modern northern Europeans. How dark exactly their skin was seems to be debatable. Modern humans had only recently moved into northern Europe from southern Europe and Asia. So their skin tone had yet to evolve under the pressure of living in an environment with much less sunlight. The advantages of individuals with a lighter skin coloured, were only starting have an effect on the gene pool. We dont really know what advantages there are from having paler eye pigmentation like blue or green, but most of the genetic analysis shows that these early northern European hunter gatherers had them. A misleading article was published a few years ago saying that direct descendants of Cheddar Man were found in England, and one of them lived very close to the same area that Cheddar man was found. Infact there have been no direct descendants of his detected in Britain. There are some people who are descended from the same generalised ethnic group of early hunter gatherers, that have been found. But they are descended from other hunter gatherers on the European mainland, like Luxembourg and Spain, that Cheddar Man was distantly related to. Interestingly they also seemed to have pale blue eyes. The fact that there are no known direct survivors of Cheddar man or close relatives of his, found in Britain, means all his descendants must have died out and been replaced by Indo European newcomers. Blue eyes were probably reintroduced from a different source, via people originating near the Black sea.
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  10. Theres a lot of place names around Edinburgh that originate from Brythonic. Another is Penicuik ( from Pen Y Cog ) a little town on the outskirts. I m told it means the hill of the cuckoo, and is almost the same in Welsh.
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  11. Good explanation of what can be complicated and confusing subject.
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  12. The Celtic connection with Portugal, is very tenuous these days. Its long time since Portugal and the rest of Iberia were Celtic. The Celtic language and culture there, died out nearly 1800 years ago, after the Roman invasion and colonisation. It would have been replaced even more, by other invaders after that, including the Islamic conquest, that lasted 700 years, in some places.
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  13. Im surprised you didnt mention the Norwegian viking influence on the all the islands off the west coast of Scotland. Also the far north of the Scottish mainland like, Caithness and Sutherland. These areas were largely colonised by the vikings. Most of the western isles of Scotland belonged to the King of Norway until 14th century, with some islands not becoming part of Scotland until the end of the 15th century. Usually they were bought by the Scottish crown or given to Scotland as part of a treaty. However there is a large Norwegian genetic legacy left in these islands. Which has been shown in other studies. Perhaps not in the one you mention.
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  14. Highlanders didnt come from Russia. Where do you get that idea from? Theres no genetic or historical evidence of that. Ive not heard of haplogroups called H1h. There are mitochondrial haplogroups starting with H1 ( very common in western Europe ), and there are Y chromosome Haplogroups starting with H1 ( mostly from south west Asia ), but none that end in 'h.'
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  15. So you were stoned at the time you took the test?
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  16.  @johndavidnew  It was just a wee joke bud. I really want to know what THC means?
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  17. Interesting video as always. I think you might be on to something about the amount of red heads in Udmurt. Though a lot of it is still quite speculative.
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  18. Its an interesting question. I dont really think the people of Scotland today are related to Scythians. I think this came from the idea in the bible that the Scythians were related to one of the lost tribes of Israel. In the middle ages it was seen as important and gave people, especially of royal descent, great prestige, to describe themselves as being descended from people who came from the holy land. The land or people that Jesus came from. People of the bible. When the declaration of Arbroath was written, it included a letter asking the pope for his recognition of the legitimacy of Robert the Bruce as the rightful heir to the Scottish throne, and Scotland to be recognised as an independent country. If the pope agreed to this, (which he did) then it was hard for anyone to disagree with it. To help put forward their point, and argue Scotlands case, a long list of kings in a line of descent was given, which went way back beyond the first king of Scotland , Kenneth MacAlpine. It names lots of supposed kings going back to a line of Scythian kings. I dont think there is any real evidence of these names being really connected to Scotland, or if these people really existed. This was done to show how legitimate, and also how holy the line was. It was meant to show the Scottish line of decent goes back to the holy land. Scotland was not the only country to do this at the time. Lots of other royal lines claimed to show descendants from the lost tribes of Israel, and other people in the holy land and bible. They did it to give them more legitimacy, and so their kings could say they were ordained by God.
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  19. Good video. Its amazing to think first inhabitants of Britain after the last ice age had a similar appearance to Cheddar man. Though these hunter gatherers were almost completely replaced by a wave of early farmers from the continent. Why did they disappear from the gene pool ? Nobody knows for sure, it could have been drought , starvation, a pandemic or the new arrivals killed them. These new arrivals would themselves be replaced by another wave of people from the continent, a couple of thousand years later, the Beaker people. It said that 10% of people in Britain are descended from Cheddar man, but this is a misunderstanding. In reality 10% of people in Britain, have some of the same gene markers, like mitochondrial DNA, that hunter gatherers like Cheddar Man and others had. Who were from different parts of Western Europe. They are not descended directly from him.
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  20.  @somedutchguy9184  I think that translates as flaxen blonde, in English.
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  21.  @19ate4  I dont have hate for anyone, Im not sure how you come to that conclusion. The term Aryan,' which I think you equate with Indo European, or even white Europeans, is no longer considered relevant or accurate in a discussion about movements of ancient people into Europe. Historians do not use the term Ayran to describe people who moved into Europe after the last ice age. They havent for a long time. You can call yourself what you want. I dont care. Who are 'we? by the way.' And what has the star of David and Jews got to do with anything, that this video is about? You seem confused.
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  22.  @АнтонПавлов-ц4з  Im not sure why you are posting that statement. What is the relevance of this to the video, or my comments? Its an ancient Indo European symbol used by many cultures. Its meaning and use varies in different cultures. The term 'Aryan' is no longer used by academics, as it has been misused and corrupted by Nazi Germany in the past. As was the swastika symbol, which the Nazis used to mean racial purity. Indo - European is the term used today to describe people originating thought to have originated somewhere in the north Indian sub continent.
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  23.  @hardywatkins7737  Yeah I would love to know what language the early bronze age people, of what is today Britain spoke. Fascinating subject. But the truth is nobody really knows. Its all just guess work. The Celtic languages came to Britain and Ireland sometime in the 1st or 2nd century BCE. The Celts of these lands did not generally write anything down. So anything they knew about the people there before them, is lost. There are legends, but they dont mention the language. Its been suggested that proto Celtic was spoken. But again no evidence of this. Its also possible some pre Celtic words might have been used by the people after the Celtic takeover. As you mention there are very few Celtic words that made it into English. So perhaps little was carried over. Im not sure if we will ever know.
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  24. I think you are talking about the epicanthic fold in the upper eye lid. Mostly found in people of East Asian decent but it is occasionally found in people from Northern Europe, like Scandinavia, UK and Ireland. The exact reason for why it exists is unknown, but it may have been a trait that protected the eye from strong winds or snow blindness in the past.
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  25. Interesting, Im Scottish and also I1. I dont think you can put digestive issues down to your Y chromosome haplogroup. As your haplogroup only makes up less than 1% of your genome. There is no known direct link with your Y haplogroup and digestive issues. You could have inherited the genes controlling your digestion from other ancestors, including the maternal side. Chromosome 1 and chromosome 6 are know to have the genes that mostly affect human tolerance to gluten. I think people generally put to much influence down to haplogroups. The Y chromosome haplogroup is only a marker, that shows where your direct male line may have originated, as it doesnt change over the generations. The Y chromosome doesnt really do much else, apart express what sex you are. But if cutting grains out of your diet helps, then I would carry on and dont question it. Ironically I have found out Im carrying two genetic markers ( not on the Y chromosome ) for gluten intolerance, but I dont seem to have been affected by them.
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  26. The Romans definitely knew about Hibernia. The Romans in Britannia traded with Hibernia. As the Romans were in Britain, for nearly 500 years, there would of been many times when they considered invading Ireland. However they basically didnt do it, because they didnt see enough to gained by an invasion. The Romans never conquered somewhere unless there were good resources to be taken, or strategic advances to it. Not long in to their conquest of Britannia, they decided not to waste any more time, resources or expense on conquering the northern tribes, in what is today, Scotland. They had made many incursions and subdued the southern part for a while, but eventually fell back behind Hadrian's Wall. Hoping that would keep them out of the empire. There was simply not enough to be gained by trying to conquer a land covered in dense forrest, with cold and wet weather, and a particularly unfriendly natives. Im sure the Romans had similar thoughts, when it came to Hibernia.
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  27. What actually is considered blonde hair seems to vary from one country to the next. Personally I would only call pale yellow coloured hair as blonde. Which is usually only found naturally in northern and eastern Europe. But Ive heard people from southern Europe describe people with light brown to brunette hair as being blonde. A lot children from northern Europe have blonde hair when they are children but darkens as they grown into adults.
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  28.  @andremedeiros2991  Celtic is a culture, not a genetic grouping.
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  29. Green eyes, big feet, hairy arse, super natural powers of smell, and can levitate at will.
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  30.  @damionkeeling3103  I didnt say the British Celtic speaking population came from Iberia. DNA analysis shows that people from Ireland, Scotland and Wales are largely related to earlier migrations of people from Iberia, possibly up through northern France. There is a large amount of Beaker people DNA in there. They were part of an earlier migration into Britain and Ireland. The populations in these islands are not related to the Celts who originated in Central Europe. The Celtic culture came to Britain and Ireland after 1000 BCE. But it didnt change the DNA of the inhabitants of these islands very much. I refer you to Professor Daniel Bradley's, Trinity College, Dublin, research on this from 2016, updated 2022.
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  31.  @vladimpaler4689  So what if the R1b haplogroup can be traced back to Mesopotamia! Its very commons in large parts of Europe, and is in fact the most common male haplogroup in most Western European countries. It doesnt mean every one in those countries are all 100% direct descendents from people of Mesopotamia or are the descendents of Scythians. Apart from the fact the Y chromosome haplogroup is only a very small part of humans DNA. The rest of their DNA can come from anywhere else and probably does. It only means they might have some common ancestor, on the male line in common way back in history. There is no other evidence of Irish or Scots having anything in common with Scythians. The Scots DNA is heavily influenced by all the other peoples that have made up Scotland in at least the last two thousand years, like the Vikings, Anglo Saxons, Normans and Picts.
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  32. What about the other island that appears on that first map? It seems to be called Demar. I think they were both myths as evidence of them, would have been found by now. It could be that sailors spotted other islands like Rockall, which is further north, or even one the Faroe Islands. If they had been mistaken in their navigation, and thought they were further south, closer to Ireland, they could have mistaken one those islands for Brasil
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  33. Interesting question. Most Scots have some idea of their name origin, if its connected to a clan. Though it really varies how much they are interested in their clan history and where it might have originated. The majority of Scots live in cities like Glasgow or Edinburgh now. Their ancestors probably moved to the cities, generations ago. So their contact with the areas their clans originated from are often lost. To be honest of lot of Scots dont spend too much time thinking about what clans they might have originated from. They just take it for granted they are Scottish and their ancestors were too. They re sure of their identity. But dont really know a great deal of the history nor care. Theyre too busy getting on with their lives. As I said this can vary. Some Scots have a greater knowledge of their clan history. Quite often the ones who claim they are descended from the lairds or clan chiefs. It seems people from US, Canada, Australia etc are often more knowledgeable or interested than Scots themselves.
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  34. Ive been there, and the outer wall, with the white quartz stones imbedded does look a bit inauthentically new looking. But apparently that is what the experts say it looked like at the time. The original construction had partially collapsed, but they found a layer of these stones surrounding it. I believe the interior chambers were still in place,and the same as they were originally. All the other stones are suppose to be in their original place. They only invite 60 ( in groups of 20 ) people, from a lottery of a requests of thousands to be there on the winter solstice, when the sun light on that day shines through the entrance passage and enters the inner chamber. Though obviously it was built thousands of years before the Celts were in Ireland.
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  35. Other animals have blues eyes, blonde hair etc, its doesn't mean that humans have inherited them from animals. Infact Im sure this mutation was not inherited from any earlier human hominds. The mutation for blue eyes has occurred separately many times in different animals including humans. Its just a lack of pigmentation or melanin in the iris. Which make the iris look blue in colour. Which may have an advantage over eyes with more melanin, in certain environments. It more likely an example of convergent evolution. Ive read it the mutation for blue eyes in modern humans may have occurred more than once in different locations.
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  36.  @user-vc8on7fm2o  Yes true, I wouldnt dispute that. Though I have heard southern European people describe someone as 'blonde,' when to me that person had light brown hair. Just pointing out that the definition of 'blonde' sometimes is subjective.
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  37. Im sure hazel eyes are caused by having some of the genes for blue eyes and some of the genes for brown eyes. Basically a mixture between the two. But as you say the environment may have an influence on how these genes are expressed, in individuals.
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  38.  @luisoliveira4672  The northern area of Gallaecia was less influenced by the Islamic conquest. Though interestingly, Portugal has the highest North African genetic admixture, at 11%, in the whole Iberian peninsular. With Galicia just slightly below that. I believe this is put down Gallaeccia accepting many Islamic refugees, from the reconquest of Iberian, by the Christian kingdoms. The culture in this area, like all others, of Iberia, had already been irrevocably changed, by the Roman conquest and occupation. The Celtic language of the area had died out long before. Once a language dies, the culture usually dies too. Of course the old Celtic words still exist in place names and some made there way into the Latin based language of the region.
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  39.  @useringeneral  ? I dont think you have understood my comment. I said that Galicia has the highest incidence of north African DNA compared to the rest of Iberia, with about 11%. I didnt say that north Africa / Moorish makes up most of the DNA in Iberia. Obviously the other 89% is made up of DNA from elsewhere. Celtic is a culture. Its not a single identifiable genetic group. Once the language has died, the culture dies too. There are definitely some words and place names in Iberia, that have Celtic origins. I said this in my other comments.
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  40.  @andremedeiros2991  I wouldnt say the English are a genetic group at all. They are are mixture of Germanic, Scandinavian, Celtic, French, and earlier people such as Beaker people. There is very little DNA found from Hallstatt Celts, in the insular Celts of Britain and Ireland. Britain and Ireland seemed to have become Celtic due to a cultural take over. There was no great invasion and replacement by central European Celts. Latin is not a brother language to Celtic languages. Its part of the Romance family of languages, which is a completely different branch of Indo European languages. Have you read Barry Cunliffe's theory that the Celtic culture may have actually started on the western Atlantic area of Europe and then spread west into the rest of Europe?
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  41.  @useringeneral  Ok I havent mentioned anything about north African/ middle eastern DNA, in countries outside of Iberia. So Im not sure why you are? Im not disputing that.
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  42.  @andremedeiros2991  I have great faith in scientific studies. As I mentioned in my previous comments, Celtic is culture, its not genetic cluster. Im sure people in Portugal and some parts of Spain, are partially descended from the Celts, who lived there about 2000 years ago. It doesnt mean they are Celtic now. As the Celtic culture has long since been replaced by other cultures. That was my whole point in my first comment.
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  43.  @useringeneral ? I know the moors came from north Africa. Youre not making any sense. I have no idea what your point is. I think you have misunderstood my comments
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  44.  @hardywatkins7737  Fair point about not putting Devonian on a census form. My point was that it doesnt seem many people living in Cornwall seem to identify as being Cornish particularly. The same question in Wales or Scotland would get a large majority of people saying they identified Welsh or Scottish and not British or anything else. The 2021 census in Wales shows 57.5 per cent of Wales' population indicated their sole national identity to be Welsh; a further 7.1 per cent indicated it to be both Welsh and British. The results for the 2022 census in Scotland have not been released yet, but Im sure they will be similar or possibly show greater numbers of people identifying as Scottish. Genetic studies like the one author has mentioned have shown that the other Celtic nations are not that closely similar. The presenter says this at 1.03. But each Celtic nation seems to show more distinctions from the general English population, apart from Cornwall which are more similar to the rest of England.
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  45.  @hardywatkins7737  The distinctions are the genetic differences that author refers to. I believe he is taking this from the Oxford University study, The People Of The British Isles, which had been ongoing since 2004. But you would have to check that with him. It shows that Cornish people are genetically closer to other English people than they are to other Celtic nations. But also shows them to be genetically distinct to Devonians. You ask an important question, what does make someone a Celt today? I think its mostly a cultural identification. You dont have to be from long line of people from that area. But you need to be brought up in a Celtic nation. Being Celtic is about the music, the history, the art and the language. Though you dont have to speak a Celtic language but having an understanding of it helps. Its about identifying with these cultural differences. To me there is something almost contrived about people speaking Cornish today. The language died out about 100 years and has been brought back. But some words have to be guessed at, as nobody knows how they were actually spoken. If that enhances their life and feeling of identity, then I wish them well. These days anyone can identify as what they want to. It would a good theme for another video from the author of this. What makes someone Celt? The people of the different parts of Britain do still have a common heritage and there are lots of similarities. Were probably still closer to each, than we are to any other nations. We have so much history in common.
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  46.  @Joanna-il2ur  Robert the Bruce's birthplace seems to be debateable . Some sources say Ayrshire, where his mothers family were from, or could be in Writtle, in England. But one thing that is known is that his father's family, the 'de Brus,' were Norman French in origin, and had land in England and Scotland. Like a lot of Norman/ French/ English noble families of that time.
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  47. There is a lowland Crichton clan I believe. Also previously spelt Creighton, Kreitton or other variations. Who had lands outside of Edinburgh or in the south west of Scotland. The name Sir Thurstan de Crechtune is mentioned in charters concerning the construction the Abby of Holyrood House, in Edinburgh, in 1128.
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  48.  @MrResearcher122  Just curious here, but how does the fact that someone has '19% DNA match for Ireland (mostly near Donegal), ' mean you definitely have the blood of of the O Neil dynasty in you? There are a lot of clans and people who come from Donegal, that are not descended from them. How do you come by this great generalisation?
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  49.  @АнтонПавлов-ц4з  So ? It doesnt mean it comes from Aryan, if thats what your getting at. It has various meanings. I believ one is lioness and another noble, amongst others.
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  50.  @АнтонПавлов-ц4з  I may also mean that, it doesnt nessarily have anything to with Aryan. You ve found a place name that has the first 2 letters the same. Proves nothing.
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