over a vast area for a very long time yet somehow avoided major dialectal splits", and "it keeps Celtic
fairly close to Italy, which suits the view that Italic and Celtic were in some way linked".[11]
Linguistic evidence
Main article: Proto-Celtic language
Further information: Celtic toponymy
The Proto-Celtic language is usually dated to the Late Bronze Age.[14] The earliest records of a Celtic
language are the Lepontic inscriptions of Cisalpine Gaul (Northern Italy), the oldest of which pre-date
the La Tène period. Other early inscriptions, appearing from the early La Tène period in the area
of Massilia, are in Gaulish, which was written in the Greek alphabet until the Roman
conquest. Celtiberian inscriptions, using their own Iberian script, appear later, after about 200 BC.
Evidence of Insular Celtic is available only from about 400 AD, in the form of Primitive Irish Ogham
inscriptions.[ citation needed ]
Besides epigraphic evidence, an important source of information on early Celtic is toponymy (place
names).[61]
Genetic evidence [
See also: Corded Ware culture § Genetic studies
Arnaiz-Villena et al. (2017) demonstrated that Celtic-related populations of the European Atlantic
(Orkney Islands, Scottish, Irish, British, Bretons, Basques, Galicians) shared a common HLA
system.[ clarification needed ][62]
Other genetic research does not support the notion of a significant genetic link between these
populations, beyond the fact that they are all West Europeans. Early European Farmers did settle Britain
(and all of Northern Europe) in the Neolithic; however, recent genetics research has found that,
between 2400 and 2000 BC, over 90% of British DNA was overturned by European Steppe Herders in a
migration that brought large amounts of Steppe DNA (including the R1b haplogroup) to western
Europe.[63] Modern autosomal genetic clustering is testament to this fact, as both modern and Iron Age
British and Irish samples cluster genetically very closely with other North Europeans, and less so with
Galicians, Basques or those from the south of France.[64][65]
Archaeological evidence
Further information: Iron Age Europe
Reconstruction of a late La Tène period settlement in Altburg near Bundenbach, Germany
(first century BC)