Article: British Mostly Descended From Basques, Not Celts Or Anglo-Saxons

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don't know if it's true, but it's an interesting article. basically, the celts, angles, jutes and saxons didn't leave a big genetic mark on britain, they were just a thin aristocratic crust on the basque (or quasi-basque) peasantry. kind of like the mongol invaders.

the myths of british ancestry
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=7817

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 23:37 (nineteen years ago)

Do you remember the time they discovered that some teacher living in the Cheddar Gorge was directly descended from the five thousand year old Cheddar Man? "I always knew my family had lived here for a while", he said.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 10:50 (nineteen years ago)

My favourite quote associated with that story - "It's not true to say we've always lived round here, I lived in Bristol for a while."

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 10:56 (nineteen years ago)

let's all go reclaim Bilbao for our own.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 10:59 (nineteen years ago)

There are some Basques in Wales or something.

I suppose I had better read the article.

My daughter is a British Basque.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 11:08 (nineteen years ago)

*basques*

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 11:09 (nineteen years ago)

Blah blah, Scottish are 30% Viking, blah blah blah.

― We Are The Village Green Psychogeographical Society (kate), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 11:14 (nineteen years ago)

babies in coming from basquets shockah
http://imagesource.allposters.com/images/pic/FIP/BY-23-C~Stork-Delivering-Baby-in-Basket-Posters.jpg

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 11:22 (nineteen years ago)

What a crap article.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 14:49 (nineteen years ago)

Why?

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 16:01 (nineteen years ago)

Doesn't seem very rigorous, and it's quite boring, and I don't think it's true. Not that that's very rigorous either.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 16:20 (nineteen years ago)

A lot of the research about gene pools remaining relatively static has been accepted for the last 10-15 years. The Basque thing felt a bit plucked out of the air.

― Dedicated to Jaggers Who Do Drive-Bys (noodle vague), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 16:22 (nineteen years ago)

right or wrong, if it helps undermine racialism i'm all for it.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 18:33 (nineteen years ago)

'Cause we wouldn't want to base anything on something as mundane as facts, now, would we Lysenko?

― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 18:38 (nineteen years ago)

"all for" the publication and discussion of the article, not "all for" it's verity, little dude.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 18:40 (nineteen years ago)

little dude?!

I, I'm stung by the pithy yet easy venom, the devastating accuracy, the deftness with which you found my achilles heel.

(Can't say why, exactly, but I think 'veracity' would have rung better.)

― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 18:52 (nineteen years ago)

If it helps to kill of the nauseating Irish romanticism you find all over the US, fine.

― geoff (gcannon), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 19:02 (nineteen years ago)

ps maybe we oughta start a rolling aldaily thread huh

― geoff (gcannon), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 19:03 (nineteen years ago)

I don't mind some Irish romanticism, it's the romanticisation of the Irish which is often dodgy. Was it O'Brien who referred to a certain class of person in America as 'professional Irishmen'?

― M. White (Miguelito), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 19:04 (nineteen years ago)

Joyce: "Stodge Arschmen"

― Aloe or with Our Wives (noodle vague), Thursday, 28 September 2006 06:26 (nineteen years ago)

The Basque thing just depends on the idea that everyone was speaking Basque-related languages before Indo-European ones came along, which is rather iffy - it's based purely on an absence of any better ideas. We were more likely, IMO, to have been speaking something like Pictish. Some people have indeed claimed that Pictish was related to Basque, but there is so little known Pictish surviving - and most of the Pictish words we do know are proper nouns - that there's no way to prove this either way.

The genetics stuff is probably right, though. A lot of British archaeology can be used to support the view that although leadership was affected by invasions, the underlying population didn't change much. The archaeology of Iron Age East Yorkshire is a particularly good example of this - I'll go into more detail later.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 28 September 2006 06:35 (nineteen years ago)

Was it O'Brien who referred to a certain class of person in America as 'professional Irishmen'?

i think you mean "bostonians"

― service comedy (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 28 September 2006 06:38 (nineteen years ago)

DENIS LEARY TO THREAD!

also -- i KNEW that there was a reason why i didn't understand what some of yous brits were saying 'cause Y'ALL WERE TALKING BASQUE YO.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 28 September 2006 06:43 (nineteen years ago)

we're all about the multiple x's

― Matt (Matt), Thursday, 28 September 2006 07:32 (nineteen years ago)

DENIS LEARY TO THREAD!

also, ed burns

― service comedy (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 28 September 2006 07:35 (nineteen years ago)

I see this as an opportunity for Athletic Bilbao to strengthen their squad.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 28 September 2006 07:56 (nineteen years ago)

did you see that article on f365 about them Mike? i didn't realise they'd been in the top flight forever but the jig looks to be finally up.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 28 September 2006 08:00 (nineteen years ago)

fucking squirrel_police.

― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Thursday, 28 September 2006 08:03 (nineteen years ago)

Not seen it, Steve. F365 doesn't seem to have a site search facility either. There's a good chapter on the Basque country in Morbo and Kurlansky's book is also interesting.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Thursday, 28 September 2006 08:10 (nineteen years ago)

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