Before the Romans came to England.?

Question

I was wondering, before the Romans came to England, were English people all supposidly white skin and red hair. What the Romans called Barbarians.
Nowadays a lot of English people look mixed. Say have dark hair etc. For example I look mediterrain, but both my parents.
are English. Is this because we've had a lot of different cultures come to England over the years.

Sorry about any spelling mistakes.

Answer 1

Actually, the people living in what is now called England would not have called themselves English in pre-Roman times. The Romans invaded in Caesar's time and their armies left in AD 410. The Anglo-Saxons, who gave their name to England ("Angle-land") did not show up until AD 449. Prior to that, the British Isles were peopled by the Celtic Britons. But, yes, there's been quite the mix. In addition to the original Celts, the Romans (from Italy), and the Anglo-Saxons (from Germany), you've also had the Vikings (from Scandinavia) in the 800s and the Normans (Vikings who had stopped over in France for about 150 years before heading off to England) in 1066.

Answer 2

The latest genetic evidence suggests that the majority of people in England (natives) are a Celtic/Pictish mix (~80%).

The Celts and Picts arrived about 8000 years ago seperately but apparently got on very well. Only about 10-12% of the "native" English are actually Anglo-Saxons, this is a myth created by the Saxons when they took over, because the Victorians believed them this idea has become common knowledge despite being wrong!

The Celts were generally red haired and pale, the Picts, who came from the mediterraneon via Spain had darker complexions. If you look dark you may well have a Pictish ancestry, or slightly more modern: Roman ~2000 years ago Semetic (Jewish) ~1000 years ago, Various Gauls, Spaniards, Italians, Huganoes etc ~last 500 years.

The Norse influence (Various Vikings) includes the Normans who were essentially French speaking vikings, but they unsuprisingly looked Scandinavian.

By the way, cultural movement, and people movement are not often the same thing, I'm using Microsoft stuff to write this message but I'm not American!

Answer 3

England despite the name is made of a lot of Kingdoms, united under one ruler from the Norman Invasion. Befor then the kingdoms where split into geographical areas for example Mercia (Midlands), Wessex (mid southern England), Northumbria, etc, etc. This covers the area known as the Dark Ages (approx 400 - 1000 AD) and the kingdoms came and went depending on the loacal problems, invasions and raids. Also during that time, there was migration and invasion from the Angles, Saxons, Norse, Picts, Danes, and the remaining Romano-British people. Then you are back to the Roam Occupation (from approx 67AD to 350 / 400 AD) so a lot of not only Roman interbreeding, but also, Galles, Hispania, Greek, Tutonic, to name the main tribes concerned with trade and power. Before them, then most of the British Isles was split into tribal areas, each mixing as trade, wars and the so forth happened along with the trading tribes from most of the continent of Europe and supposedly as far away as the Egyptians and possibly the Babylonians (most of the uk had abundent stocks of Iron Ore, Coal, Copper, etc, apart from good charcol, wool and timber) so naturally there was some intermingling there.
But you would suspect that the tribal sources of this country would go further back predating any written evidence as the land bridge was still in existance along the Channel for a very long time and certainley those DNA samples that are traced of true Englishmen can be found often to have large traces of Far Eastern, Northern Russian, African codes inside.
Come forward from the Norman Conquest and the English have been to virtually every country and race on this world, brought back natives, had immigration for centuries (England has always accepted outsiders it seems, apart from a few persecutions now and again) and lots of trading posts from other countries present on its soil.
Hope this helps

Answer 4

Your completely right. England was mainly a druid pagen people as you describe. Most of Europe is a complete mixture of all the different areas. Contray to popular UK pride we were invaded countless times. The Romans, the Vikings, the Saxons, Spain via Ireland, the French etc. From these victories of other people sex was a bonus hence the likes of me & you with our non English looks. Even now the UK has another invasion in the form of the colonies so once this influx spread into native groups and visa verca your have another genetic pool. Look at the 'half cast' kids.

Answer 5

Britain has always been a bit of a melting pot of cultures and peoples so it's difficult to know what they would have looked like, but there is a school of thought that says that the people living here then would have been similar in looks to the Welsh, Irish and Scots with fair skin, dark hair and blue eyes. Influences from other European countries would have been there as we know that trade existed.

The Roman called the unconquered people barbarians but this was more like calling them non-Romans in the same way that the Greeks used barbarian to mean non-Greek. They weren't using it to described the colouring of the people but more that they didn't have the things that the Romans felt was civilised.

Answer 6

Yes.

The true English were, as you have identified, Celts. This means that the true English are living in Cornwall, Wales and Scotland.

After the legions left Britain, around AD 400, the local population found themselves in a difficult position. The population had become domesticated. They no longer had warriors of their own to defend the country. consequently, Britain got invaded.

Your darker colouring is probably Saxon in origine (Dutch), although you are corect in assuming that there may be some Roman in your genetic trea, as well as Norman.

In short, we are a mongrell race.

Luck

Answer 7

Britain was inhabited by a lot of different tribes, but we aren't talking cave people here, the higher eschelons of the tribal hierarchy for example were sophisticated enough to be multilingual, have trading interests abroad, international alliances and to have travelled on the continent. Obviously the hoi-polloi weren't quoting Shakespeare or inventing prepetual locomotion, but they weren't dumb animals .. the Romans called anyone who wasn't Roman a 'barbarian', more through their own ignorance than anything else.

As for looks, I doubt it was one big ginger love-in, amusing as the picture is. They would have all been white, and predominently fair haired, but there would have been variations.

Answer 8

Any people in Europe is mixed.

As to Great Britain, someone thinks that mediterranean features existed before Celtic invasion.

Answer 9

The common hair colour of the British is brown. Red hair mixed with black hair = brown = the Brits.

How do you know it's safe to go onto a beach in Spain?

Check the hair colour of the mob occupying it. If the majority have brown hair, they belong to your tribe. Expect them to be rude, vulguar and drunk. They are probably Celts.

The people who occupied Breten [Britain] at the time of the Romans are classified as Celts. Their descendants are living in Britain today and occupy Cornwall, Wales and Scotland. [The Irish were not part of the Roman issue, but play a major role in the ancient and modern history of Britain].

Celts often have red hair and if you know anyone with red hair, the chances of them being a Celt or descended from the Celts is about 100%.

All Celts with or without red hair, have the red hair gene. Recenty DNA studies of the modern Celts being carried out by Oxford Uni have shown this to be the case.

Modern Celts in Britain have an ancestory going back for 10,000 years. Much of Celtic culture has been lost in time but a great deal remains and is very much part of modern British, Irish and European Culture today.

The living Roman description of Queen Boudica [Boadicia or Bod-dig] is as follows : -
...she had red hair which fell to her knees and she wore a coat of many colours [plaid]. She grasped a heavy war spear [Celtic] and spoke with a harsh voice [Welsh type of language]....

The oldest surviving Celtic Language in Breten today is Welsh, the present day modern Welsh dates from the 6th century AD., but the language's history goes way back to before the Romans and before the building of Stone Henge and back into the mists of the Celtic realms before time began.

Modern Welsh contains a large number of words which are also common in Modern Urdu. Welsh is an Indo-European language and not Germanic as is English.



A small Welsh phrase for you : -
Celtii bew [kelt-ee-eye bew] = The Living Celts.

While the Romans are gone the Celts remain.

The name CELT comes from the classical Greeks. They referred to the people they called 'barbarians' as the CELTOY = CELTS, CELTIC.

Latest evidence shows that if you are white British - you are much more likely to have Celtic ancestors.

As a child I lived in a small Kent village in the 1940s. My grand parents and parents came from Wales and were Welsh. I must tell you that nearly everyone in that village would easily have passed as Welsh, both in their appearance and the manner in which they conducted them sevles. I think most of these people were probably Celts but did not realise it. Even today nearly everyone I see in Kent and Sussex looks very Celtic, especially around the town of Rye.

BBC Wales - Education - Iron Age CeltsLearn about the people who lived in Britain 2000 years ago. From the BBC.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/celts

Celts and Britain Celts, who were the celts, Britain was Europes sacred isle ever since the Gods chose to favour the isle. ( proberly when the Gulf stream started to warm ...
http://www.webmesh.co.uk/nice/newhistory.htm

Genetic Survey Reveals Hidden Celts Of EnglandThe "invading" Anglo-Saxons, although often clashing with the Celts, generally migrated to Britain WITH their families. They were chiefly bent on settlement ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3c0f90571752.htm

Celtic Britain - history and cultureCeltic Britain - culture, history and warfare. Who were the Celts and where did they come from?
http://www.britainexpress.com/History/Celtic_Britain.htm