Clonycavan Man

[1798]

Clonycavan man was one of a number of bog bodies that were found in Ireland. He is estimated to have lived 2300 ybp. Irish TV had a documentary named "The Story of Ireland". The remains of Clonycavan man were on show and a historian pointed to the fact that he hadn't the dna of the Celts!!!It was obvious that someone had tested the remains. This is the first time that anyone had ever talked about these bodies being tested. The scientists only tell us ordinary folk what they want us to know.

[Frederator]

That's interesting. I'll have to scour Youtube, the RTE site and the iPod store to see if that show's available on line.

Did they say whether it was autosomal, Y or X DNA they were talking about?

I have some real doubts, for various reasons, that scientists are able to say with much certainty, what may or may not constitute "Celtic" DNA.

Clonycavan man was one of a number of bog bodies that were found in Ireland. He is estimated to have lived 2300 ybp. Irish TV had a documentary named "The Story of Ireland". The remains of Clonycavan man were on show and a historian pointed to the fact that he hadn't the dna of the Celts!!!It was obvious that someone had tested the remains. This is the first time that anyone had ever talked about these bodies being tested. The scientists only tell us ordinary folk what they want us to know.

[1798]

That's interesting. I'll have to scour Youtube, the RTE site and the iPod store to see if that show's available on line.

Did they say whether it was autosomal, Y or X DNA they were talking about?

I have some real doubts, for various reasons, that scientists are able to say with much certainty, what may or may not constitute "Celtic" DNA.

They didn't say.It was just a comment made in the program.You can check the rte.ie website and find out about the five part series.I agree with you about the Celtic issue.

[JohnG]

scholar.google.com

You can find out more if you search on Google Scholar. the link is scholar.google.com

This search includes scientific papers. Search for clonycavan and you will find a page of links on the show and popular books and then you get the scientific papers.

Some scientific papers I can read just fine. Others are harder. Often I start and read the abstract at the beginning which is a summary and often in plain language, look at the charts and tables and read the conclusions. If you do this in a given field fairly soon more makes sense.

[rewarren]

Bog preservation destroys DNA

I corresponded with one of the scientists working with bog bodies a few years ago. At that time, they believed that the preservation process effectively destroyed DNA. Maybe there have been techniques developed to recover DNA since that time, but I'd be skeptical until I knew the details.

[1798]

Tara

The skeleton of a 14 year old Bronze age boy was found at Tara and a stone bead necklace was found alongside him.This type of stone can only be found in Yorkshire.He may have been a visitor and someone of high status.
Can the scientists get ydna from these finds? Does anyone know?

[rohadj]

Actually the Celts did not originate in Ireland. They first appeared in what is now Southern Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. From there they spread both west and east. They probably appeared in Ireland as invaders who subdued the 'original Irish' and then established themselves as a warrior class.

Although the word 'Celtic' is commonly used to denote native Irish, but there is actually no such ethnic group, but Ireland is a hodge-podge of different invading groups. There may have been several prehistorical waves, forming what I call the 'original Irish', then came the Celts, then the Norwegian Vikings, the Norman/Flemish invaders, the 'Old English', the 'New English', the 'Scots-Irish' etc. etc.

David

[1798]

Actually the Celts did not originate in Ireland. They first appeared in what is now Southern Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. From there they spread both west and east. They probably appeared in Ireland as invaders who subdued the 'original Irish' and then established themselves as a warrior class.

Although the word 'Celtic' is commonly used to denote native Irish, but there is actually no such ethnic group, but Ireland is a hodge-podge of different invading groups. There may have been several prehistorical waves, forming what I call the 'original Irish', then came the Celts, then the Norwegian Vikings, the Norman/Flemish invaders, the 'Old English', the 'New English', the 'Scots-Irish' etc. etc.

David

Hello Dave
I dont agree with the Irish are a hodge-podge mixture of invading groups. The majority of Irish people today are descended from the original Irish. The Invaders wouldnt have left much dna unless they took their women with them.
Most of the Scots-Irish are said to be descended from the Irish who colonised Scotland. When they came here 400 years ago they spoke Gaelic just like the native Irish.The top hundred names in the County where I live are Gaelic surnames. The Irish must have liked the Celts.