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Re: Scotland's origins

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tjj T
tjj Nov 6, 2012 20:18:49
Replying to thesweetcheat

thesweetcheat wrote:
thesweetcheat wrote:
Tiompan, Wideford, I've been reading Alastair Moffat's "Before Scotland". Any agenda I should be aware of (on the writer's part)? It's very interesting but as it's covering ground I'm not previously familiar with, it's easy to accept what's written. He does reference the Oppenheimer research too.
I've started this in a new thread so as not to upset anyone by being "off topic" (see Humans v Neanderthals thread).

By the way, I see this as legitimately in TMA's remit, the book referred to starts in the Paleolithc and in any case Scotland was effectively prehistoric (i.e. no written records) in the Pictish period too.

If anyone would like to carry on the discussion about Scots/Picts/Celts etc. please feel free to do so here. I for one am interested.

I haven't come across that book (yet) but someone mentioned Dalriada recently - just googled it and came up with http://www.rampantscotland.com/know/blknow_dalriada.htm

I can't remember where I saw the map but I'm sure that the Western Isles, the west coast of Scotland and northern Ireland were once one nation - going back to the seas being the highways again. I'm guessing what you are talking about is where the people who settled on those islands and coastal areas originated from. I'd love to know because they would have been the builders of Brodgar and Callanish.

T tiompan
tiompan Nov 6, 2012 20:27:42
Replying to tjj

tjj wrote:
thesweetcheat wrote:
thesweetcheat wrote:
Tiompan, Wideford, I've been reading Alastair Moffat's "Before Scotland". Any agenda I should be aware of (on the writer's part)? It's very interesting but as it's covering ground I'm not previously familiar with, it's easy to accept what's written. He does reference the Oppenheimer research too.
I've started this in a new thread so as not to upset anyone by being "off topic" (see Humans v Neanderthals thread).

By the way, I see this as legitimately in TMA's remit, the book referred to starts in the Paleolithc and in any case Scotland was effectively prehistoric (i.e. no written records) in the Pictish period too.

If anyone would like to carry on the discussion about Scots/Picts/Celts etc. please feel free to do so here. I for one am interested.

I haven't come across that book (yet) but someone mentioned Dalriada recently - just googled it and came up with http://www.rampantscotland.com/know/blknow_dalriada.htm

I can't remember where I saw the map but I'm sure that the Western Isles, the west coast of Scotland and northern Ireland were once one nation - going back to the seas being the highways again. I'm guessing what you are talking about is where the people who settled on those islands and coastal areas originated from. I'd love to know because they would have been the builders of Brodgar and Callanish.

Stick in Dumfries and Galloway , Isle of Man , Coastal Cumbria and Wales , all centred on the Irish Sea .

T thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat Nov 6, 2012 20:57:03
Replying to tjj

tjj wrote:
... I'm sure that the Western Isles, the west coast of Scotland and northern Ireland were once one nation - going back to the seas being the highways again. I'm guessing what you are talking about is where the people who settled on those islands and coastal areas originated from. I'd love to know because they would have been the builders of Brodgar and Callanish.
Yes, some of this is covered in another of Alastair Moffat's books that I've just finished (The Sea Kingdoms), which talks about the sea as the principal highway throughout the Western seaboard of Britain. There's a great bit about an early Irish priest/saint (St Brendan) who supposedly travelled extensively in very basic boats (curraghs) and it's perfectly possible/plausible he had reached the north Americas - at least Greenland - before the Vikings did. That book is a bit disjointed (and is paper-thin on Cornwall) but is still a very thought-provoking read.

http://homepage.eircom.net/~odyssey/Quotes/History/PreHistory.html#BrendanVoyage

I'm very interested in the genetics work that Tiompan has mentioned earlier, although any reading seems to be fraught with a short half-life. :o)