“The complexity of multidisciplinary research creates difficulties in offering simple explanations that are not simplistic, brief, and un[1]critical. This book is a very good stimulus for rethinking the Celts.” – Journal of Anthropological Research The Celtic languages and groups called Keltoi (i.e. ‘Celts’) emerge into our written records at the pre-Roman Iron Age. The impetus for this book is to explore from the perspectives of three disciplines—archaeology, genetics, and linguistics—the background in later European prehistory to these developments. There is a traditional scenario, according to which, Celtic speech and the associated group identity came in to being during the Early Iron Age in the north Alpine zone and then rapidly spread across central and western Europe. This idea of ‘Celtogenesis’ remains deeply entrenched in scholarly and popular thought. But it has become increasingly difficult to reconcile with recent discoveries pointing towards origins in the deeper past. It should no longer be taken for granted that Atlantic Europe during the 2nd and 3rd millennia BC were pre-Celtic or even pre-Indo-European. The explorations in Celtic from the West 3 are drawn together in this spirit, continuing two earlier volumes in the influential series. Table of Contents Introduction: John Koch & Barry Cunliffe Part I: Archaeology 1. Laure Salanova: Behind the Warriors: Bell Beakers and identities in Atlantic Europe (3rd millennium BC) 2. Stuart Needham: The Lost Cultures of the Halberd Bearers: a non-Beaker ideology in later third millennium Atlantic Europe 3. Catriona Gibson: Closed for Business or Cultural Change? Tracing the re-use and final blocking of megalithic tombs during the Beaker period 4. Simon Timberlake: Copper mining, prospection and the Beaker phenomenon in Wales — the significance of the Banc Tynddol gold disc 5. Kerri Cleary: Burial practices in Ireland during the late third millennium BC—connecting new ideologies with local expressions. 6. Dirk Brandherm: Stelae, funerary practice, and group identities in the Bronze and Iron Ages of SW Iberia: a moyenne durée perspective 7. William O’Brien: Language Shift and Political Context in Late Bronze Age Ireland: some implications of hillfort chronology 8. Peter Bray: Metal, Metalwork, and Specialisation: the chemical composition of British Bronze Age swords in context 9. Raimund Karl: Emerging Settlement Monumentality in North Wales during the Late Bronze and Iron Age: the case of Meillionydd 10. Adam Gwilt, Mark Lodwick, Jody Deacon, Nicholas Wells, Richard Madgwick, and Tim Young: Ephemeral Abundance at Llanmaes: Exploring the residues and resonances of an Earliest Iron Age midden and its associated archaeological context in the Vale of Glamorgan Part II: Genetics 11. Bruce J. Winney and Walter F. Bodmer: The Genetic Structure of the British Populations and their Surnames 12. Maria Pala, Pedro Soares, and Martin B. Richards: Archaeogenetic and palaeogenetic evidence for Metal Age mobility in Europe Part III: Linguistics 13. J. P. Mallory: Archaeology and Language Shift in Atlantic Europe 14. Steve Hewitt: The Question of a Hamito-Semitic Substratum in Insular Celtic and Celtic from the West 15. John T. Koch: Phoenicians in the West and the Break-up of the Atlantic Bronze Age and Proto-Celtic 16. Fernando Fernández Palacios: Ancient Personal Names in the Iberian Peninsula and Parallels in Celtic Inscribed Artefacts from Early Medieval Britain and Ireland 17. Peter Schrijver: Sound Change, the Italo-Celtic Linguistic Unity, and the Italian Homeland of Celtic 18. Theo Vennemann: Celtic as Vasconized Indo-European? Three structural arguments General Index "Given the debate over the genetic impact of eastern peoples and how western data does, or does not, fit into the wider pattern, these detailed studies will be crucial in comparing and contrasting the differing evidence of genetic and cultural data." The Archaeological Journal “The complexity of multidisciplinary research creates difficulties in offering simple explanations that are not simplistic, brief, and un[1]critical. This book is a very good stimulus for rethinking the Celts.” Journal of Anthropological Research Barry Cunliffe was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2007. He has worked on many of the iconic British excavations including Fishbourne Roman Palace, Danebury Hillfort and Hengistbury Head. He is an authority on the Iron Age and the Celts, and the author of many scholarly and popular publications including The Oxford Illustrated History of Prehistoric Europe, Britain Begins, and The Celts, A Very Short Introduction.