Celtic Britain (650 BCE to 70 CE)

"Selection of carvings from the Castro de Santa Trega"  <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/> 16 March 2019.

I. On to Britain

This research has relied on yDNA evidence, archaeology, and evolution of the Indo-European language to trace the Red-Headed Tribe from the Central Asian Steppe, across Europe to Gallaecia, then Ireland, and now Britain. We learn that we, the families who descend from the Lewis family of Virginia, carry the genes of the Milesians, the Celtic Invaders of Ireland post 1,000 BCE. We are the pirates and raiders as described in the Brythonic Welsh language.

Our Gascon-Iberian/ Gaelic Celt ancestors, living in Ireland, migrated to or invaded western Wales, England east of the River Dee, and the Argyll Peninsula of Scotland. And, those migrants/ invaders carried their yDNA markers for SNP R-DF27 with them.

We are the interlopers who draped Ireland and Britain with an overlay of Q-Celtic language, art,  and culture before and after the Roman Invasion of Britain. And we, their descendants, can stand amongst the current peoples of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales and claim our our Celtic heritage. The Kingdoms of Wales

Now, we have come to the point where we leave behind archeology, and we can begin with actual histories.

II. The Second Celtic Wave to Britain

The ethnic Celts who inhabited pre-Roman Britain were by no means the first British peoples. Archaeological excavations indicate that a modern people, who had ritualistic burials which included dogs, inhabited the British Isles before the increase of the last Ice Age. But, their final fate is unknown.

After the last Ice Age, modern man followed the retreating Ice Shield to re-inhabit western Europe. And by 2,100 BCE, our Celtic cousins (R-L21) crossed over to Britain from the Continent. Our cousins have been described as the "First Celtic Wave."

[T]here is a formidable array of modern scholarship. . .together with a number of Continental scholars, all assert the first Celtic invaders of these islands were, in fact Brythonic. Ireland, they assert, was directly colonized by Celts, Goidelic Celts, from Gaul.

    Ceredigion - Journal of the Cardiganshire Antiquarian Society, "The Corbalengi Stone," v. 4 #1 <https://ceredigionhistory.wales/>  13 July 2019.

The name applied to the people of this First Wave is the Celto-Ligurians. Celto-Ligurian seems most obscure. I agree that the greater Celtic people (R-P312) originated in Gaul. I have no problem believing that their descendants (R-U152) migrated south to Liguria in northern Italy; as some version of the Celtic language went with them.

But, how did the Ligurians migrate back over the Alps and through Gaul to beat their Celtic cousins across the Channel to Britain? Even a casual examination of the topography makes this proposal ludicrous. Therefore, our Celtic cousins (R-L21) were the siblings, not the descendants, of these obscure Celto-Ligurians. And, our Celtic cousins were the "First Celtic Wave."

When was the "Second Celtic Wave" where our Gael/ Irish tribe migrated across the Irish Sea to Britain? It couldn't have been before 1,000 BCE.

[Post 800 BCE] The territory occupied by the Celtic Ordovices tribe in Wales, where tribal boundaries are more uncertain than in England, is subject to some debate. They are generally agreed to have been situated in the southern part of the modern county of Gwynedd and in central Wales throughout much of Powys. They were neighboured to the north by the Deceangli and Gangani, to the east by the Cornovii, to the south by the Silures, and to the south-west by the Demetae. . . The Ordovices were located in the mountains, isolated, and they probably developed their own quirks of pronunciation.

They were a hard-fighting bunch who were almost wiped out by the Romans before they were subdued. They seemed not to have had a central tribal capital but instead lived in small independent farmsteads which were fortified against attack. Their lands were littered with hill forts that were also strongly defended, but one of their largest centres was Brannogenium, modern Leintwardine in the county of Hereford & Worcester. The site was made up of several camps and forts and may have served in part as a tribal capital of sorts or as a defendable market place.

Research Note: "The site" fits the definition of an oppidum as described at Castro de Santa Trega, Gallaecia, Spain.

Of the tribe's many hill forts, those in the west, close to the mountain summit of Cadair Berwyn (and to Bala Lake) included Craig Rhiwarth in the Tanat Valley, while Dinas Emrys, close to Mount Snowdon, was also theirs. In the east, closer to the Cornovii (and probably situated specifically for that reason) were Caer Drwyn, Caer Euni, Castell Dinas Bran, and Moel y Gaer (modern Llantisilio). All were located in the valley of the Deva [River Dee], close enough to strike out against the Cornovii at Old Oswesty (Caer Ogyrfan).

[c. 350 BCE] It is estimated that the second wave of Celtic migrants settles in western Britain (including Wales) around this time, replacing or absorbing the previous Celto-Ligurian peoples of the Bronze Age. These second wave settlers include the Ordovices, as well as the settlers of the Lleyn Peninsula and north Wales, an unknown and unnamed neighbouring people who may bear some relation to the Ordovices.

Research Note: The Gangani Tribe of Munster, Ireland, are the same people as the Gangani Tribe of the Lýn Peninsula, Wales.

    Ordovices (Britons) <https://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsBritain/> 27 June 2019.

Meirionnydd, Meredydd, and Merionethshire:

Merionnydd (Merion with ydd as a Welsh suffix "of land"), literally 'land adjoined to Meirion, was a sub-kingdom of Gwenydd (sp), founded according to legend (derived from the Latin name Merianus), a grandson of Ciedda. [And, thus a descendant of Coel Hen]. . .The ancient name of the cantref was Cantref Orddwy (or the cantref of the Ordovices.) The familiar name coming from Meiron's kingdom.

    "Meirionnydd" <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meirionnydd> 18 May 2019.

I postulate that the Red-Headed Tribe of pre-Roman Conquest and, subsequently, the family of Coel Hen of post-Roman Conquest came from and eventually returned to the lands of the Ordovices.

The Ordovices were a prehistoric Welsh people who inhabited the Snowden Mountain spine and the Llýn Peninsula as early as 800 BCE when there is evidence that social organization broke down and hill forts began to appear.
-By 650 BCE, Iron Age axes and extensive hill forts (oppida) are found in northern Wales.
-Characteristic of the Castro culture of Gallaecia, Spain, were Iron Age technology and construction of oppida from which our tribe dominated the local populace.
-Does this mark the date when our Gaels migrated out of Ireland to occupy the hills of northern Wales?

The Ordovices are first recorded in Roman history in the 50s CE as a Breton tribe who inhabited the north of Wales, situated between the Silures to the south and the Deciangli to the north.
-The Ordovices are one of the few Breton tribes who resisted Roman occupation.
-They inherited Caratacus "of the Catuvellauni" as their war chief after he was defeated in 43 CE at the Battle of the River Medway. And, the Catuvellauni are said to be the cousins of the Ordovices; as both descend from Beli Mawr, the ancient ancestor.
-In 50 CE, after waging a guerilla campaign against the Roman occupiers, the Ordovices under Caratacus were soundly defeated at the Battle of Caer Caradoc.
-In the 70s CE, the Ordovices rebelled again against Roman occupation. According to Tacitus, Agricola nearly exterminated the entire tribe. Caesaque prope universa gente. (With almost the whole tribe having been cut down.)

    "Ordovices" <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordovices> 27 June 2019.

Did the survivors of the Roman extermination campaign against the Ordovices escape beyond Roman control into lowland Scotland?

The Caledonians, like many Celtic tribes in Britain, were hillfort builders and farmers who defeated and were defeated by the Romans on several occasions. The Romans never fully occupied Caledonia, though several attempts were made. . .

[T]he Caledonians would have been Pictish tribes speaking a language closely related to Common Brittonic, or a branch of it augmented by fugitive Brythonic resistance fighters fleeing from Britannia. The Caledonian tribe, after which the historical Caledonian Confederacy is named, may have been joined in conflict with Rome by tribes in northern central Scotland by this time. . . The Romans reached an accommodation with Brythonic tribes such as the Votadini as effective buffer states.

    Caledonians <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caledonians> 2 July 2019.

Were we part of the Caledonian Confederacy who harassed the Romans between the Hadrian and Antonine Walls until the Romans finally abandoned Britain? Of note, there is archeological evidence that there was a remnant of the Ordovices who survived the Roman occupation and returned to Wales by the Middle Ages.

III. The Ancient Tribe of Lewis

Here, we come to an exceptional change of perspective where we leave behind Anthropology and pursue History. We leave behind the Red-Headed Tribe--the other members are out there, somewhere, as proven by yDNA--and become the Lewis/ Lewes/ Lewys Tribe of Wales.

The earliest histories state that our tribe was in Britain by the 2nd Century BCE. And, Beli Mawr (the Great) was the ancient ancestor. We know that we survived the Roman occupation. But, at least one branch of our tribe did not.

[There was] another family said to have descended from Beli Mawr: the senior line which ruled the Catuvellauni tribe during the invasions of both Julius Caesar and Claudius.  That branch became extinct in the male line early in the second century AD. . .It included Tecfan (Taciovanus), Cynfelyn (Cunobelinus) and Caradog (Caraticus), men familiar from Roman histories.  The Welsh trace their ancestry [from Cunedda through Coel Hen] to a younger son of Lludd called Afallach, a man who relocated to another part of the isle of Britain* probably by marrying a princess from another tribe. . . It is not known where the early men. . .made their homes. . .

Our branch of the tribe became the "Men of the North" whose descendants would once again populate Wales.

[By] the time Rome left Britain in the early 5th century, two branches were seated in the far north (Cunedda and Coel Hen) and two in what is now Powys (Gwrtheyrn aka Vortigern and Cadell).  Cunedda relocated to Gwynedd where his family had intermarried with men descended from Llyr Llediath and he was the founder of the First Royal Dynasty of Gwynedd.  Men descended from Coel Hen were called "The Men of The North" and they did not migrate to Wales until the Saxons forced them from their lands in the 7th century.  A man of that line [Merfyn Frych ap Gwriad, who descended from Coel Hen through Llywarch Hen] founded the Second Royal Dynasty of Gwynedd in the 9th century.

    Ancient Wales Studies, "Beli Mawr and Llyr Llediath in Welsh Pedigrees" <http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id145.html> 8 July 2019.

Both of the two previous paragraphs are illustrative. Reportedly, Afallach son of Ludd married a foreign princess and relocated to another part of Britain. From this line we find Cunedda who was from Manaw Gododdin, the Old North. Children of the Lewis Line who were born after the Roman Invasion of 43 CE would have been born in Manaw Gododdin; as the Lewis tribe escaped to safety before the Romans exterminated the majority of the Ordovices.

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