Book Review: "Origins of the British" by Stephen Oppenheimer

 

Author: Stephen Oppenheimer, 628 pages, 

Publisher: Constable &Robinson Ltd.

ISBN: 978-1-84529-482-3

 

Oppenheimer takes a fairly academic approach to the business of the origins of the people who populated Britain.  He supplies us with dozens of clues from ancient literary sources (Strabo, Herodotus, Caesar, Ptolemy, Tacitus, Pliny, Ptolemy, Gildas, etc.).  He runs down the complicated linguistic clues to the makeup of the people.  He lists the broad array of archaeological clues to the identity of the peoples.  Finally, he turns to the growing mass of DNA evidence and recent analytical studies that allows us to trace back to the origins.  The author dives deep into the haplogroups of mitochondrial DNA and also Y DNA to follow them from their original post glacial refuges and works hard to date the various arrivals.  Surprisingly to many, Oppenheimer posits that the Celts did not originate in Middle Europe and migrate to Britain (i.e., the popular myth).  Rather, he builds a case to support the notion that the founding families sailed (or walked) north from western Spain to Wales, Cornwall, Ireland and western segments of Scotland.  These folks were then joined by later groups from Europe and Scandinavia.  A fun journey through classical references for sure, his arguments are well researched and balanced, yet with the rigor of academia riding along.  We follow pottery styles; haplogroups; language variations;  glaciers; immense statistical studies of DNA data (current and long buried), weapons, pottery, blood types and stone inscriptions, all in an effort to figure out who are the ancestors of the folks who currently populate Britain and when they arrived.  Suck in a deep breath and then take a fascinating dive into the dark past. If you know your haplogroup, you might spot your own ancestors in the mountains of data. 

 

 

Ron Gilmore

Last Updated: February 22, 2022