Comments by "Iain Mc" (@iainmc9859) on "Celtic History Decoded" channel.

  1. I think they'd simply leaned a stiff lesson in Caledonia. If it ain't got towns it ain't going to pay taxes. Britannia was already holding down more Roman military manpower than any other province. The Empire, being generally pragmatic, simply decided invading Hibernia would have required more effort than it was worth ... there's advantages to being the last landmass before you disappear off the edge of the world.
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  2. Thanks for all this research. You are doing an incredible job. It just proves that it is early days for DNA studies and as soon as we stick a label on any 'culture' we discover there's far more admixture than our tidy minds would like to make of it. I'm sure I've see that Yamnaya guy sitting in the Clutha Bar down the Broomielaw of a Friday night 😁
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  3. I think the lack of research on hazel eyes is simply because they are defined by what they are not (blue, grey, green, brown) rather than what they are. They also have a greater ability to look different in different levels of light due to iris size; so they are just more difficult to nail down. To be honest I think the difference between amber and hazel is just semantic rather than melanin relative.
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  4. I know that the traditional reason given for Breton 'Celticness' is the Saxon advance westward through, what is now, England, but I think it is no coincidence that Brittany is the furthest peninsular from the Frankish advance through northern Gaul; however I'm still with Groundskeeper Willie's opinion on our Gallic cousins.
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  5. I've heard that the haplogroup R1D2 tends to result in a rather stunted appearance with three legs and a high pitched voice😊
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  6. Its no surprise that such a multi-ethnic empire didn't leave a particularly strong ethnic trace in any of its provinces. The two particular place names that I think may be linked to the Roman Empire in our neck of the woods are Dumfries (Fort of the Frisians - Roman Germanic Auxiliary troops) and I suspect Loch Humphrey may be connected as well, as Humphrey meaning Hun friend (lets keep football aside for the moment) might also link to Roman Auxiliaries, it being basically on the western end of the Antonine Wall. Its rather pleasing, as I live in the territory of the Meaetae, that we sent Septimius Severus packing, only for him to retreat south and die in York.
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  7. Mother deep brown eyes, Father pale blue/grey eyes, Great-grandfather Hazel eyes (according to his Army records) Me lighter in summer, darker in winter, grey/blue/green/hazel/brown - what I proudly describe as 'spilt diesel in a muddy puddle' eyes. Its difficult to define the colour of people's eyes. I'd say many people of that most far travelled section of world population, colonisation and emigration north-west Europeans, have the least definable eye colours, despite what might be recorded on a passport. We certainly have the most variation.
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  8. So half the Campbells could be illegitimate. I'm really surprised ... only half ??? 😊😅😂
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  9.  @Kanasubigi896  You got there just before me. Its biome related, not temperature dependent.
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  10. Loathed though I am to vaguely half agree with Roman propaganda I think the Ninth survived but got such a gubbing during Agricola's Invasion of Caledonia that it was pulled back to York and the second Brigantian revolt further thinned them out (Yorkshiremen are revolting). The remnants then being sent to the Rhine frontier to rest and recruit. Once that frontier had been stabalised they were sent to the Middle East where they got a severe case of sunburn and effectively ceased to exist. They were an elite Legion but attrition eventually bled them out. Did you know that much of the Eagle of the Ninth TV series was filmed just north of Fintry because there were a lack of power lines there in the late 70's, including a partial rebuild of a wooden Roman fort.
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  11. I think, as you stated, its important to emphasise that anthropological ethno-DNA science is in its infancy, as we are as yet making very general interpretations based on statistically insignificant numbers of examples. One of the big unanswered questions of the prehistoric period is 'Where did all the bodies go ?' There's a lot of people that respond to archaic history channels thinking they've got some sort of definitive ethnic/cultural bloodline from a swab test by companies that give wooly nebulous definitions of an individuals ancestry, without clarifying historical timescales, or that some DNA hangs around for a long time, whereas some 'washes' away fairly quickly even between living descendants and we don't know why. We all carry around bits of junk DNA that is totally recessive and will never effect our bodies, even down to the bacterial level. Some people (not all) read absolutes into these nebulous results because the numbers add up to 100% (lies, damned lies and statistics). We all know where genetic absolutes lead.
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  12. Ahh Stirling, the location of a terribly famous battle ... and a famously terrible football team.
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  13. You can feel your passion running through this one. I'd push the anti-Gaelic culture element even further back in history. All the Stewart kings were consistently paranoid about their northern 'subjects'; in fact probably all Scottish kings, post Macbeth, were intent on weakening Gaelic culture in Scotland. Of course as soon as the Crown went south it became worse as the ability of Scotland to influence any decisions made in London effectively disappeared ... to this day. I think its important to mention here that the Highland Clearances were not a unique or even a new concept. The same thing had happened in England/Wales since the C16th with the Agricultural Revolution/s and Enclosure Acts that denied common property rights to land and forced migration to towns, cities and the colonies. I don't think greed is cultural, racist or religionist. Its just the acquisition of as much wealth/power into as few hands as possible.
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  14. I once knew a half northern Italian and half Swiss girl. 4 feet 11 inches of pure uncompromising attitude. A real 'Boudicca'. I nearly got into a fight with the 80's band 'The Christians' because they pushed in front of her in a chip shop cue late at night .... big mistake ... they apologised.
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  15.  @minadoro  The Romans called it Cisalpine Gaul (Gaul this side of the Alps).
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  16. Yeah, yeah, yeah ..... the Romans won a glorious victory (so says the General's son-in-law) and then like all victorious armies chose to retreat. Would still like to see a statue of Calgacus outside the Scottish Parliament one day though, just to remind others that Empires have their twilight. Celtica gu Brath !
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  17. Here's one you can have for nothing ... the areas of the world with the greatest resources (oil/coal/food etc) have the greatest variation in eye colour over time.
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  18. Now you really have opened a whole can of worms. This Agriculturalist/Pastoralist origin of (Proto) Indo-European has been a big bone of contention for philologists for decades and oddly enough the DNA evidence is still patchy enough to not give a definitive answer to which group had the greatest westward influence of genetics, culture and language. You did refer to something in passing that does absolutely fascinate me. The vast genetic replacement of over 90% of the, probably very sparse, population of Western Hunter Gathers by the incoming Indo-Europeanish peoples. Evidenced by other large scale population replacements, North and South America for example, are we actually looking at the most successful genocide in European pre-history or the introduction of a virus that only affected the WHG population. Simple removal of the WHG males from the gene pool wouldn't give such an overwhelming result. In the Orkney and Shetland Isles the matriarchal Celtic gene is still strong there. The Celtic woman were not removed from the gene pool, just the men. We basically have just as much Neanderthal DNA in us as WHG. What happened to them, as far as I know nobody is doing any academic research on this ???
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  19. I would tend to agree and of course this tribalistic viewpoint of history still causes major wars in the modern day ... however, and its a pretty big however, in Britain the DNA evidence is fairly clear, even to this day, that populations did not move much up to and including the 19th C. The descendants of those northern British tribes are still living in and around the geographical locations of their ancient ancestors. This isn't to back up some sort of 'racial purity' rubbish, as we are all an admixture of people from various parts of the world. The Roman Empire brought many people into Britain that wouldn't have been there without it ... but they didn't leave a significant DNA marker behind them; there were never enough of them to do so. Whereas you can find distinct Scandinavian, Germanic, 'P' Celtic (British) and 'Q' Celtic (Irish/Scots) DNA marker areas in the British Isles.
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  20. He was conveniently late to every battle in the Jacobite Risings he turned up to so my guess is he was timing his appearance to benefit his clan. His lands adjoined Campbell lands, who were largely (not all) supporting the Hanoverians, so I don't really blame him for being cagey. Rob Roy is supposed to have hidden behind our village Oak and awaited the passing of Graham of Killearn one morning, who had been one of the accusers of Rob Roy's youngest son (Robin) in the abduction and forced marriage of a local girl. Rob Roy stepped out from behind the tree and promptly slew the man before heading swiftly north, only to find out the man he killed he'd misidentified and he was completely innocent; so he's not the gallant hero hereabouts.
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  21. Can't remember where I picked this wee gem from but I definitely remember a history of genetics book stating there were almost no skeletal examples of arthritis in Britain before the Viking settlements. There does seem to be a definite link between Viking ancestry and a condition named 'Depuytren Contracture', which causes the fingers of the hand to contract towards the palm.
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  22. Putting aside all the accretions over time of multiple authors, past and present, and the claims that he was this or that historical person from this or that area of Britain; none of which hold up to professional peer scrutiny, it leads us back to the one one line 'though he was no Arthur' from a praise poem. that may have been composed by a bard named Aneurin. Not much to hang a legend on. However, somebody famed for being a great warrior, was known as Arthur (or something like it) for the comparison to be made. Its a pity all that oral history wasn't written down, but that was not the way of the bard.
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  23. Wales is from the Anglo-Saxon word for 'foreigner'. It doesn't fit your hypothesis.
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  24.  @veronicalogotheti1162  Genetic theory has been around for a lot longer than that but unravelling the human genome is relatively new and the number of ancient bodies found is still infinitesimally small and good DNA from them is still not large, although getting scientifically better.
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  25.  @backintimealwyn5736  Amazingly it was the US that stopped the corsair trade in slavery. The newly formed USA couldn't afford to pay off the corsairs and as they were so far away from North Africa they couldn't maintain naval patrols to protect US trading vessels ... so they simple sent every warship they had to Algiers and bombarded it, boarding and scuttling every ship they found. Crude but effective. Both the British and French paid the corsairs to leave their ships alone and only target the other side. The corsairs just took the money from both sides and carried on as normal. In terms of eye colour taking slaves would definitely bring variable eye colours in but as North Africa has had migration in and out of Europe for millennia then its probably had variable eye colour for millennia as well.
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  26.  @bugzyhardrada3168  I'm fine with people having faith but when they keep parking their bus in the parking space reserved for scientists it kinda gets on your nerves.
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  27. General response to all previous responses from initial comment. 'Celtic', although I self-identify as a Celt myself, just isn't a term we can hammer down to one thing or another, is it linguistic (not entirely), is it cultural (not entirely), is it genetic (not entirely), is it time period specific (not entirely), is it geographic (not entirely). Do we exist ... well yeah, sort of ... or are we a classical author's misrepresentation of just 'not Greek or Roman'. It might explain why 'Celtic Art' often looks like an existential crisis; where did we start, where are we going, where are we now ... on your feet for 'Strip the Willow' and get the next round of drinks in ?
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  28.  @mariiris1403  Sorry I confused my terminology, which is as close to 'I got the words wrong' as I'm probably going to admit to. Of course there is a difference between DNA and chromosomal inheritance. What I was trying to say was as all mtDNA only passes through the female line, ie male grandchildren do not inherit their paternal grandmothers mtDNA, only their maternal grandmothers, and they themselves do not pass that on to their offspring, then female genetic inheritence is lost. I hope that makes it clearer. If not please note I'm not a geneticist and my only science qualification is in Geology, which means I can probably tell you what your great grandmothers grave stone is made of, useful hey 🤷‍♂
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  29. Canada, Scotland on Steroids ... and maple syrup !
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  30. Interested in your 4th point specifically. The evidence of Neolithic plagues. I'd be interested in reading the published scientific papers or journal if they're publicly accessible.
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  31. Homo Sapiens (modern humans) came out of Africa, that was long long before the topic of this video.
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  32. Keep hydrated with Dupretayn's, it seems to be a contributing factor.
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  33. The eating carrots to see in the dark is a British WWII disinformation/propaganda project. The government got night fighter pilots to extol eating carrots to be able to see better in the dark and shoot down German aircraft. The object of this was two fold, to encourage people to eat carrots, which we had plenty of (we had limited un-rationed snack items) and most importantly to cover up the fact that we had a good radar system that could spot German aircraft at night. The advertising campaign didn't last that long but it left a mark on the British psyche that remains to this day. Unfortunately the truth is you'd have to eat so many carrots you'd turn orange before it had any real effect on your eyesight. The boring answer to better eyesight is a balanced diet and staying hydrated ... and not getting old !
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  34. I was disappointed to find out recently that the Newgrange monument (the outside bit) is an early C20th reconstruction with almost no archaeological basis whatsoever; rather like Arthur Evans re-imagining of Knossos. Ever thought Knossos looked quite Art Deco, answer - Art Deco came first.
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  35. Remember that a lot of people can't tell the difference between genetics, religion and nationality; that's a minefield you don't want to enter ... same goes with Judaism or Christianity for that matter. You did put it in context but you really have to repeatedly emphasise the difference ... there's no religious gene ! Although R1bs seem to be the quintessential western Celtic gene I'm actually with Barry Cunliffe on his Atlantic Realm hypothesis. I'm quite open to be corrected but there seems to be a north of the Alps flow towards Britain but also a flow from North Africa early on up the Atlantic coast and into Britain, this neatly explains the North Africa/Western Iberian genetic overlap, that was genetically subsumed in Britain by Beaker People immigration. As somebody else pointed out North Africa was part of the Phoenician/Carthaginian Empire for centuries as well, who were more than willing to sail beyond the 'Pillars of Hercules' to trade for tin. Question - is there a link between North African/Western Iberian and Neolithic British DNA ?
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  36. Thanks for pursuing this issue of early genetic replacement. I'm with the proto-Celtic theory here, in terms of DNA, regarding BB people. The rest, for me. is cultural (technology and art) development rather than much migration. Same probably holds true for the Anglo-Saxon incursions except in eastern England where it seems to be a genetic replacement. Interesting that someone else is edging towards a viral plague theory.
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  37. As far as I know there is a high prevalence of R1b in early (medieval and earlier) Irish genes, with a later overlay of Norse, then Anglo-Irish.
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  38. What's your first source in a 'Celtic' language describing their language/kingdom/culture as being Celtic? As much as I call myself a Celt, and am proud of it, the only literary sources in the Ancient period are not written by native Celtic speakers. By the time we are in the Dark Ages (post Romans buggering off, pre-unified Kingdom of Scotland) people writing in Celtic languages are describing themselves or their neighbours as being Erse, Scots, Dalriadans, Picts, Cymric, British, Kernow or Sasunn Relying on secondary sources (Greek and Roman) for what Celtic speaking people called themselves is hanging your cultural coat on a shoogly peg.
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  39. Its the shamrock (Clover). Its just a very common plant in Ireland (and in Britain). There is a story that St. Patrick explained the Trinity as being like the shamrock, Father, Son and Holy Spirit but all are unified as the one God. The story is probably made up ... but sometimes fiction is better than truth.
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  40. Its a quirk of genetic science but I always find it frustrating that mtDNA only passes through the maternal line after the second generation and is so limited in variety compared to Y-chromosomes. Imagine how much more we would know about female migration if that limitation was gone. I guess that as we already can't cope with making much sense of convoluted male DNA migration it might save us from a further headache.
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  41. Yeap, more Bible bashers and racists turning up to the party. You put out a vlog about how diverse the British Isles are genetically and all they see is a reflection of their own beliefs. I'm still fascinated by the lack of WHG genes remaining, agree that Britain was probably very sparsely populated before the Anatolian farmers turned up; although I'm hedging my bets and stating that genetics does not denote lifestyle and the R1b's could have turned to a semi-hunter-gatherer lifestyle in Europe as well. I'm not convinced of a genetic cowboys versus sod-buster scenario. Romans - just so genetically diverse across the Empire that finding a genetic fingerprint in Britain is nigh impossible. Roman soldiers were not officially allowed wives for the first couple of centuries of the Empire, but I can't see that 'local marriages' or more temporary relationships didn't happen; we've probably all got a bit of Parthian merchant or North African cavalryman knocking about our back catalogue ... even for those claiming purely 'British' ancestry !
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  42.  @thomaslacornette1282  I saw something recently that basically explained that you only really carry traces of your last ten generations of specific ancestors. After that its just generic haplogroups. Described as genetic 'rinsing'. Personally, as I've said, any 'absolutes' in terms of culture, genetics, nationality (I've avoided the word 'race' throughout) are just people seeking simplistic models to adhere to. We are a unknown mixture of antecedents ... and to fool yourself otherwise is not just intellectually futile but can be dangerous.
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  43. You'll be telling us Germans are a pure Aryan race next 😐
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  44. Its an impressive site and I can see what the Irish were trying to do. Unfortunately the archaeologist Michael J. O'Kelly essentially decided to 'rebuild' the outside in the 1960's; thus buggering up the chance for later archaeologist to study the site properly. A 'Schliemannlike' combination of enthusiasm, showmanship and ego. There's also elements of Ireland, that was in a financial mess in the early'60's losing its population to abroad (Britain), trying to prove it was a great civilisation to the world. Not to say that I wouldn't visit it given the chance. I'd just look at it with different eyes given its recent history.  @TheEggmaniac ​
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  45. Naargh, I reckon the MacGregors were just pissed off about the price of an ice cream in the Luss giftshop.
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  46.  @cattymajiv  I think I'd largely agree with you, however eyes rarely, in people who have Indo-European (I realise that this is an ethno-language term) extraction have eyes of a singular colour, even though they are called blue or brown. I think the point I was trying to make, maybe unclearly, was we generalize with our language regarding eye colour and just go with the predominant colour. Nothing wrong with grey eyes. My father had grey eyes, or was it just the dreich Scottish skies reflecting in them 😁
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  47. I know how to ensure that gingas with blue eyes definately don't die out. Put them all together in Falkirk and then build a very high wall around it, problem solved .... Mind you, the Romans did that twice and it didn't really work. I guess we'll just have to live with it 🤣
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  48. You must finally be a real Youtuber, you're getting comments from the racists and the bible bashers. That's the problem with history, genetics and culture ... somebody always wants to twist it into 'We are the Chosen People', rather than 'its amazing how diverse and multi-layered we are'.
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  49. You hit perfection and stopped growing 😉
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  50.  @lisasuhr6433  I trained in and taught European Martial Arts as well as doing a bit of Aikido. Unfortunately I had the sort of job where being able to send somebody quickly to the floor was a prerequisite (as a last resort of course !) Height and reach are no longer an advantage when you get a foot closer. I now avoid anything that looks like its could turn nasty. I only meet people I want to meet, which is far more civilized. 🙏🏻
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