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Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

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National Geographic and Celts
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gorseddphungus
185 posts

we are all 'basque'
Mar 12, 2006, 14:58
"I find it interesting that there are examples that are EXACTLY the sme as British RA . Despite similarities between RA in British regions there are no examples of an exact copy of motifs"

"It is the very ubiquity of very similar motifs world wide that destroys the diffusion /invasion argument that is often heard in RA studies .That is not to say that there were no exchange or invasions , just that it is not the full explanation ."

that's exactly what i believe and i am saying elsewhere.

rock art is universal but then the code used is applied following cultural reasons. one more example, Galician rock art (=Northumbrian rock art) is used in a certain area of Galicia and only on specific places of the countryside (as a 'gateway' to the highlands and always high above the valleys, often just off ancient cattle trackways) and what's more, it is completely different from megalithic art (the painted slabs that decorate Galician dolmens), which in itself has more of a Brittany/Eire connection, although in this case it is far more indigenous than the similarities in rock art between Galicia and Britain. AND dates are beginning to prove that cup and rings (rock art) began to be created in the late neolithic, therefore contemporary with megalithic art (the one used in graves).

As for migrations, you know the way that archaeology is seen by the public as one-dimensional sometimes even by archaeologists. Usually the public consider places as Celtic supposing that huge populations moved and replaced earlier ones. Let's take celtic art for instance. you find it all over europe and yet even the irish are genetically NOT celtic (if we follow one side of the studies). As you say, migrations ARE possible. I would add that WHOLE replacements of population are virtually impossible - affirmations you tend to hear everywhere like, say, the irish or the welsh are not related to the basques because the basques are not IE (and they stand alone in europe genetically speaking) would imply that the whole of ireland was replaced by incoming IE migrations. Thus, all of Europe retains a Paleolithic (=Basque) sub-stratum in some places it has been definitely more altered than others. The more isolated places like the Basque lands, the Welsh mountains or Western Ireland must have definitely retained that pre-IE stock, which is STILL the one that EVERYONE in Europe still possess. Most likely a few warriors arrived and imposed themselves and their language on the vast majority like they did later on in the dark ages (goths in iberia or normans in britain) but the peasant can still be traced back to paleolithic times.
In reply to:
Re: Rock art (tiompan)		 Replies:
Baku (gorseddphungus)
Re: we are all 'basque' (tiompan)
Re: we are all 'basque' (PeterH)
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