Theory that \'Celts\' are a myth

[Jona Lendering]

I am prepared to discuss the notion of whether the various peoples of the ancient British Isles were Celts or not, or perhaps just Celtic-influenced. When it comes to the whole of Europe the issue gets even more confusing.

Actually, it is not that complex. Nationalities and ethnicities are social constructs, not biological categories. They are, therefore, inevitably ambiguous. King Herod, for example, could be labeled citizen of Jerusalem, Roman citizen, king of the Judaeans, ethnarch of the Jews, Greek in culture, Idumean by birth, Phoenician by family, and Jewish by religion. I may have missed a couple of labels. To make things complex, some of those ancient labels have reached modern times, which adds to the confusion.

So it's complex, and that makes it simple. It's too complex, so we should not study it. My personal solution is to abandon nationality and ethnicity from our research, as there is too much to lose and almost nothing to gain. Others may have other solutions, but this works fine with me.

Let's be careful about labelling all recent research and evaluation as revisionism. There have been plenty of examples of investigation that has quite overturned earlier views of history.

Good point.