Editing Celts (section)

===Insular===
[[File:Map Gaels Brythons Picts.png|thumb|right|Britain & Ireland in the early–mid 1st millennium AD, before the [[Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain|founding of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms]].
{{legend|#DE3333|outline=#676767|[[Celtic Britons]]}}
{{legend|#2272C4|outline=#676767|[[Picts]]}}
{{legend|#548556|outline=#676767|[[Gaels]]}}]]
{{main|Insular Celts}}

All living Celtic languages today belong to the [[Insular Celtic languages]], derived from the Celtic languages spoken in [[Iron Age Britain]] and [[Prehistoric Ireland|Ireland]].<ref>Ball, Martin, Muller, Nicole (eds.) The Celtic Languages, Routledge, 2003, pp. 67ff.</ref> They separated into a [[Goidelic languages|Goidelic]] and a [[Brittonic languages|Brittonic]] branch early on. By the time of the [[Roman conquest of Britain]] in the 1st century AD, the Insular Celts were made up of the [[Celtic Britons]], the [[Gaels]] (or [[Scoti]]), and the [[Picts]] (or [[Caledonians]]).{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}} The renown of insular Celts has caused a popular belief that Celtic clans only lived in the British Isles.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Solly |first=Meilan |date=27 December 2019 |title=Twelve Fascinating Finds Revealed in 2019 |url= https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/twelve-fascinating-finds-revealed-2019-180973837/ |access-date=25 June 2024 |work=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]}}</ref>

Linguists have debated whether a Celtic language came to the British Isles and then split, or whether the two branches arrived separately. The older view was that Celtic influence in the Isles was the result of successive migrations or invasions from the European mainland by diverse Celtic-speaking peoples over several centuries, accounting for the [[P-Celtic]] vs. [[Q-Celtic]] [[isogloss]]. This view has been challenged by the hypothesis that the islands' Celtic languages form an [[Insular Celtic languages|Insular Celtic]] dialect group.<ref>Koch, J.T., (2006) Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, {{ISBN|1-85109-440-7}}, p. 973.</ref> In the 19th and 20th centuries, scholars often dated the "arrival" of Celtic culture in Britain (via an invasion model) to the 6th century BC, corresponding to archaeological evidence of [[Hallstatt culture|Hallstatt]] influence and the appearance of [[chariot burial]]s in what is now England. Cunliffe and Koch propose in their newer [['Celtic from the West' theory]] that Celtic languages reached the Isles earlier, with the Bell Beaker culture c.2500 BC, or even before this.<ref>Cunliffe, Barry; Koch, John T. (eds.), ''Celtic from the West'', David Brown Co., 2012</ref><ref>Cunliffe, Barry, Facing the Ocean, Oxford University Press, 2004</ref> More recently, a major [[archaeogenetics]] study uncovered a migration into southern Britain in the Bronze Age from 1300 to 800 BC.<ref name="Patterson">{{cite journal |last1=Patterson |first1=N. |last2=Isakov |first2=M. |last3=Booth |first3=T. |title=Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |date=2021 |volume=601 |issue=7894 |pages=588–594 |doi=10.1038/s41586-021-04287-4 |pmid=34937049 |pmc=8889665 |bibcode=2022Natur.601..588P |s2cid=245509501}}</ref> The newcomers were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from Gaul.<ref name="Patterson" /> From 1000 BC, their genetic marker swiftly spread through southern Britain,<ref name="YorkUni">{{cite news |title=Ancient DNA study reveals large scale migrations into Bronze Age Britain |url= https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2021/research/ancient-dna-study-migration-bronze-age/ |access-date=21 January 2022 |publisher=[[University of York]] |date=22 December 2021 |archive-date=18 January 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220118140218/https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2021/research/ancient-dna-study-migration-bronze-age/ |url-status=live}}</ref> but not northern Britain.<ref name="Patterson" /> The authors see this as a "plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain".<ref name="Patterson" /> There was much less immigration during the Iron Age, so it is likely that Celtic reached Britain before then.<ref name="Patterson" /> Cunliffe suggests that a branch of Celtic was already spoken in Britain, and the Bronze Age migration introduced the Brittonic branch.<ref>{{cite news |title=Ancient mass migration transformed Britons' DNA |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59741723 |access-date=21 January 2022 |work=[[BBC News]] |date=22 December 2021 |archive-date=21 January 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220121165716/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59741723 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Like many Celtic peoples on the mainland, the Insular Celts followed an [[Ancient Celtic religion]] overseen by [[druid]]s. Some of the southern British tribes had strong links with Gaul and [[Belgica]], and [[Celtic currency of Britain|minted their own coins]]. During the Roman occupation of Britain, a [[Romano-British culture]] emerged in the southeast. The Britons and Picts in the north, and the Gaels of Ireland, remained outside the empire. During the [[end of Roman rule in Britain]] in the 400s AD, there was significant [[Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain|Anglo-Saxon settlement]] of eastern and southern Britain, and some Gaelic settlement of its western coast. During this time, some Britons migrated to the [[Armorica]]n peninsula, where their culture became dominant. Meanwhile, much of northern Britain ([[Kingdom of Alba|Scotland]]) became Gaelic. By the 10th century AD, the Insular Celtic peoples had diversified into the Brittonic-speaking [[Welsh people|Welsh]] (in [[Wales]]), [[Cornish people|Cornish]] (in [[Cornwall]]), [[Breton people|Bretons]] (in [[Brittany]]) and Cumbrians (in the [[Hen Ogledd|Old North]]); and the Gaelic-speaking [[Irish people|Irish]] (in Ireland), [[Scottish people|Scots]] (in Scotland) and [[Manx people|Manx]] (on the [[Isle of Man]]).{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Classical writers did not call the inhabitants of Britain and Ireland {{lang|la|Celtae}} or ''{{lang|grc|Κελτοί}}'' ({{transliteration|grc|Keltoi}}),<ref name="Koch encyclopedia" /><ref name="SJames" /><ref name="JCollis" /> leading some scholars to question the use of the term 'Celt' for the Iron Age inhabitants of those islands.<ref name="Koch encyclopedia" /><ref name="SJames" /><ref name="JCollis" /><ref name="FPryor" /> The first historical account of the islands was by the Greek geographer [[Pytheas]], who sailed around what he called the "Pretannikai nesoi" (the "Pretannic isles") around 310–306 BC.<ref name="JCollis2">{{cite book |last1=Collis |first1=John |title=The Celts: Origins, Myths and Inventions |date=2003 |location=Stroud |publisher=[[Tempus Publishing]] |isbn=978-0-7524-2913-7 |page=125}}</ref> In general, classical writers referred to the Britons as ''Pretannoi'' (in Greek) or ''Britanni'' (in Latin).<ref name="JCollis4">{{cite book |last1=Collis |first1=John |title=The Celts: Origins, Myths and Inventions |date=2003 |location=Stroud |publisher=[[Tempus Publishing]] |isbn=978-0-7524-2913-7 |page=180}}</ref> Strabo, writing in Roman times, distinguished between the Celts and Britons.<ref name="JCollis3">{{cite book |last1=Collis |first1=John |title=The Celts: Origins, Myths and Inventions |date=2003 |location=Stroud |publisher=[[Tempus Publishing]] |isbn=978-0-7524-2913-7 |page=27}}</ref> However, Roman historian [[Tacitus]] says the Britons resembled the Celts of Gaul in customs and religion.<ref name="Sims-Williams" />