Before the Romans

What was life like in the British Isles before the Romans?

The dates given to artifacts found in the British Isles before the arrival of the Romans are often wild guesses.

For example, the Iron Age, when iron weapons and the like became common, is stated to have begun about 1200 BC in the Near East and Egypt.  

However, iron was already common like copper and tin in Egypt at the time of the Exodus around 1800 BC (Numbers 31:21-23).  It was already being forged into instruments and weapons (Numbers 35:16-18).

In fact, things had been made from iron and copper by the descendants of Cain before the Flood that occurred about 2400 BC (Genesis 4:17-22).

Just like people today make things from both copper and iron today, so did people in the past.  What people made from a particular material was governed by availability more than technology.

So, finding instruments of bronze (copper plus tin) or iron, really does not tell you anything about the age of the artifact.

Carbon dating is also known to be very unreliable for anything more than about three thousand years old.   This is the reason that no date has been assigned to some artifacts found in Scotland.

The unreliability of carbon dating has been proven by using it to date things where the date was actually known.  

One example is core samples from bristle cone pine trees.  

The tree rings give an accurate record of how many years the tree has been alive.  The record in the trees themselves is that the oldest one is about four thousand two hundred years old.  Yet, carbon dating gave the center of the tree of an age of several million years old.

The reason for the discrepancy is that carbon dating and all similar dating systems are based on the idea that things continued at a predictable pace with no catastrophic events or disruption for billions of years.  

Of course, this is very flawed, because the longer the time, the more likely a catastrophic event occurred that brought about sudden dramatic change.

For example, when Mount Saint Helens erupted violently in 1980 AD, it made dramatic changes to the atmosphere, the weather, and the land around it.  

It put more hydrocarbons in the air in a single day than the entire human race had in the previous 100 years.  This did not bring about massive melting of the ice caps nor a new ice age.

The effect on the landscape around Mount Saint Helens was even more dramatic.  Among other things a 100 foot plus deep water fall on the Lewis River was created within minutes.  It also instantly reduced 230 square miles of forest to ashes.

Dating systems like carbon dating cannot account for catastrophic events, yet they occur.   These systems show that the Lewis River falls millions of years in the making and the forestation of the area around Mount Saint Helens was an event that took thousands of years, instead of less than 40 years.

The system for dating things like rocks is even worse.  

The numbers on the geologic column were just made up, yet people act like they have some real meaning.  It is a scientific fact that there is no accurate way to age a rock.

For example, suppose I gathered fifty pieces of lava from around Mount Saint Helens and fifty similar looking pieces of lava from another site that supposedly erupted millions of years ago.  I then marked all 100 with a six digit number chosen at random, keeping a list of which numbers marked the pieces from each site. Then I handed all one hundred pieces to a group of geologists, without telling them the source of the pieces.  

If I asked them to group the rocks by age and tell me the age of each group, they would not be able to do it.  They would not even be able to determine that the Mount Saint Helen samples were only formed forty years ago.

These data systems are based on assumptions that things have continued the same as always and there were no catastrophic events like Mount Saint Helens.  

This is not science at all (1 Timothy 6:20-21).  It is a system that people have created because they want to believe that things have never been changed by dramatic events like the Flood in the days of Noah, despite the very visible evidence of this event throughout the Earth (2 Peter 3:4-6).

The truth is people cannot accurately know the details of past events that nobody made a record of any more than they can accurately know details of future events (Isaiah 41:21-23).

The fact is that the only reliable way to age events is to find things with something objective to use to date them directly or indirectly.  For example, a coin with the picture of a particular emperor is guaranteed to not have been minted before the emperor was born.

The best source, of course, is an event written down by people who were actually there that includes information for determining when the event occurred.  

The written eye-witness reports of Mount Saint Helens erupting are much more reliable than models recreated using dating systems.

Now, we can look at what we can accurately know about the inhabitants of the British Isles before written records appeared.

The British Isles were certainly not first inhabited for hundreds of thousands of years before Romans for the same reasons that the First Nations did not arrive in North America twenty thousand years before Columbus.

DNA has proven that the Germanic tribes and the Celts shared a common ancestor who lived about 4,400 years ago.  This common ancestor was named Gomer, and was born not long after the Flood (Genesis 10:1-3).  

The inhabitants of the British Isles did not come in one wave, nor did they originally live near the British Isles.

The majority of these inhabitants of the British Isles were Celts, but there were some other ethnic groups in the mix.  Understanding the migration of these groups to the British Isles begins with understanding who they were.

Noah had three sons: Japheth, Shem, and Ham, which everyone on Earth came from (Genesis 9:18-19). 

The youngest son was Ham (Genesis 9:22-24).  Shem was the middle son and Japheth was the oldest son (Genesis 10:20-21).

Japheth had seven sons: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Meshech, Javan, Tubul, Meshech, and Tiras (1 Chronicles 1:5).

Gomer had three sons: Ashkenaz (Ashchenaz), Riphath, and Togarmah (1 Chronicles 1:6).

Javan had four sons:  Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim (Chittim), and Dodonim.

The sons of Japheth that did not have other sons listed, gave rise to five very broad ethnic groups: Magog (Kazakhs and related groups in central Asia), Madai (Medes aka Aryans (Iranians) and groups that came out of them like Hindus), Tubal (light skin inhabitants of Siberia in northern Asia), Meshech (Slavic people of Europe like those in Russia and Ukraine), and Tiras (Scandinavians).

The sons of Gomer gave rise to three narrower ethnic groups: Ashkenaz (Germans aka Gauls aka Galatians and Gaels aka Celts), Riphath (Estonian, Finnish, and other related ethnic groups across the far north of Europe and Asia), and Togarmah (Turkish peoples, originally sandwich between the descendants of Magog and Madai across the central half of Asia, with the western most living next to the southern most of the descendants of Riphath).

The sons of Javan gave rise to four narrower ethnic groups: Elishah (Greeks), Tarshish (Spaniards and other Iberians), Kittim (Italians (including Romans)) and Dodonim (Cretans and their descendants who first inhabited the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, including the Phoenicians and other "sea people").

Irish history records that they came from an original ancestor was called Riphath Scot, the son of Gomer.  

However, this does not agree with the writing of Josephus and other ancient historians.  They indicate that the descendants of Riphath lived in the area of the Ural Mountains and then migrated northward.  

Indeed, the Finnish people and those along the Ural mountains speak related Uralic languages, as well as other groups scattered across northern Russia (modern Russia in Europe) and Siberia (modern Russian in Asia).  These same groups also possess Y chromosome markers from a common male ancestor.

Gaelic is not closely related to the Uralic languages, and the Irish predominately have the same Y chromosome markers as other people in western Europe who descended from the Celts.  The Y chromosome marker of the Finnish is completely absent among the Irish. So, it is certain that the Irish, and Celts in general, are not descendants of Riphath through their paternal line.

However, some of the Irish do share the mitochondria markers that are passed down maternally with most of the Finnish.  These same markers are also common in the Basque and Catalonia regions of Spain, where the Irish say they immigrated from. 

So, perhaps it was originally Scota (feminine version of Scot), daughter of Riphath, son of Gomer and an error was made over many generations of passing the information down verbally.  It was not uncommon in ancient times for people groups who came from a common father, but through different mothers, to distinguish between themselves by their mothers.

That is not all that their history, the history of other ethnic groups, and archeology tell.

The Celts first lived north of Assyria near the Hindus (ethnic group, not religion), with whom they shared a similar language.  (For this reason, Gaelic and Hindu are both Indo-European languages.)

The Celts frequently lived near the other descendants of Ashkenaz. 

The descendants of Ashkenaz still lived in Asia to the east of the mountains of Ararat (near the north east border of Turkey), the area of Scythia and Armenia, when they helped the Medes destroy Babylon in southern Iraq (Jeremiah 51:27-28).  There were undoubtedly Celts there as well.

From there, many descendants of Ashkenaz migrated to live throughout modern Turkey, while others remained in the area of Scythia.  After that, many of the Celts migrated to the area of France via the Mediterranean Sea, with the other descendants of Ashkenaz.  

Some of the descendants of Ashkenaz then migrated further north in the area of Germany, while many of the Celts migrated to the western part of France.  Some of the Celts then migrated southward into the land of the descendants of Tarshish in Spain and Portugal.

Of course, there was inevitably some intermarriage between ethnic groups in all of these areas.  This has left markers in the DNA of some of the inhabitants of the British Isles, besides those belonging to the Celts, the descendants of Ashkenaz.

The first Celts could have arrived in Britain as early as 2000 BC.

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles the first people to arrive in the British Isles were the British, who migrated from Armenia.  This was probably not a direct migration.  

The ancestors of these Celts migrated from Armenia to Cilicia (Kelikia (land of the Celts) in ancient Greek) in modern Turkey.  Later, they migrate from there to the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal, and Spain) via the Mediterranean Sea.  Afterwards, they went north to the Celtica ("land of the Celts" in Latin) in western France. 

Finally, some of those Celts migrated to the British Isles from Celtica.

The first Celts were led to the island of Britain by their king Brutus, who came from the area of Troy according to the Historia Brittonum (History of Britain).  Many Celts lived there among the Galatians.

His kingdom was called Britain (Kingdom of Brutus).  When he died, his kingdom was divided between his three sons.  

The northern quarter went to second his son, Albanactus, and came to be known as Albania (Kingdom of Alban) aka Alba. The western quarter went to his youngest son, Camber, and came to be known as Cambria (Kingdom of Camber).  The remaining half went to his oldest son, Locrinus and became known as Loegria (Kingdom of Locrinus).

These names were used for roughly the areas of modern Scotland, Wales (plus part of northwestern England), and England, for centuries. 

After Albanactus died, his kingdom was split between his seven sons, with the oldest son getting a double portion, as was the custom of all ancient people groups.  These became the kingdoms of Alba.

Their religion was that of the Druids, which they brought with them to the British Isles.

 This was the same religion that was practiced by the Gauls, the mainland Celts of Europe, the Germans, and the Scandinavians. This religion was filled with human sacrifices, particularly on Samhain, the holiday that became known as Halloween. 

The Druids met in stone circles, sacred groves of trees, and in caves. 

They typically wore robes with oversized hoods that would completely hide their faces and oversized sleeves that could hide their hands when they performed their rituals at night.  These dark rituals were often bloody sacrifices to "The Horned God".

In the day, they wore white robes decorated with green things like mistletoe as well metal bracelets and necklaces made from a single piece of metal.  They often had their heads partly shaved in the Celtic tonsure to show that the blessing of the Sun, the chief "god" of the day, was on them.

The original earthen circles used by the Druids are still visible in places like Briar Hill near Northampton.

When they had people congregate for religious ceremonies, these ceremonies were always at night.  Their religious practices were both literally and figuratively very dark.

The Druids wrote nothing down, but passed on knowledge orally to each other from generation to generation.  They had little choice, since they had no writing system.

The Druids held incredible sway over the people that followed them.  No one dared raise up arms against the Druids.

If a Druid stood between two opposing armies and forbade them from fighting, then the battle was over.  

Instead, the Druid would hear both sides and settle the matter for them.  Even the greatest kings were afraid to go against the decision of the Druids. 

The Druids ruled over everyone through fear throughout their lands - ever since the first inhabitants had brought their religion with them to the British Isles. 

These original inhabitants of the British Isles made their tools and weapons from stone.  

They build settlements like Oundle and Louth that have remained occupied to this day.  

Ring ditches like the one at Pire Hill were developed at this time as an early defense system to slow down and trap attackers.  

They built defensive structures from stacked unhewn stones like brochs and roundhouses.  They also built crannons - stilted wooden houses that form artificial islands in lakes, where the water served as a defensive barrier.

Families with a common ancestor lived near each other to form a clan.  Clans related by a common ancestor between them combined together to form a tribe.  Some tribes gave rise to kingdoms over time.

For hundreds of years after that, the people of the British Isles then lived isolated from the rest of Europe, except for trade with mainland Celts.  Their society only had brief periods of disruption from mainland Europe, usually when a new group of Celts was being forced to flee to the British Isles from mainland Europe.

Eventually, these Celts discovered copper and tin in the British Isles.  So, bronze tools and weapons began supplementing the ones made of stone, until there were enough made to replace them.

This led to new settlements like Northampton and Minster-in-Thanet that remained occupied to this day. 

Then came the Picts.

According to the Anglo-Saxon chronicles and other earlier sources, the Picts were from some of the Celtic tribes of Scythia.  They probably migrated to the coast of modern France that would later be part of Brittany as part of the Pictones.  

The land of the Pictones was on the Atlantic coast and was bordered by Armorica on the north. The Pictones were a Celtic tribe that had some similar customs to the Picts, but lived in the mainland of Europe.

The Picts most likely migrated from the land of the Pictones and overran the kingdoms of Alba under the leadership of Cruithne.  

The people of Alba fled to Loegria and became part of it.  The combined people called themselves the British (people of Brutus), after Brutus, the common ancestor of their founding leaders.

Each kingdom of Alba then became the territory of one of the tribes of the Picts.  Each tribe was named after one of the seven sons of Cruithne, who led them after his death.

Then the Picts eventually expanded into the northern part of Ireland.  Since they were from each of the seven tribes, they were called the Cruthin - the people of Cruithne, leader of all the Picts.  Many places in modern Northern Ireland are still named after the Cruthin.

Afterwards, iron was discovered.

Soon iron tools and weapons supplemented the ones made of bronze, until there were enough made to replace them.

This is when hill forts, like the one at Hunsbury Hill, began to be built.

The skills to forge iron may have come from the Caledonii (Caledonians). 

The Caledonians were described as large bodied, with thick loose limbs and red hair by Tacitus, Eumenius, and Jordanes.  The Caledonians dyed their hair an unnatural red color, perhaps the color of human blood, to distinguish themselves from other people.

Tacitus had seen Germanic tribes with similar characteristics on the mainland of Europe.  So according to him, the Caledonians were Germanic tribes who immigrated to the British Isles.  

The Caledonians then adopted Celtic language and much of the Celtic culture over the centuries, but kept dying their hair red to remain distinctive.  They originally settled in the southern half of Ireland.

Around the same time, a group of Celts from northwest Spain immigrated to southern Wales.  Indeed, the people of southern Wales today have distinctly different DNA markers and speak a different dialect than the rest of Wales. 

After that, another group of Celts came from Spain.

According to Irish history, the Irish came to Ireland from the Basque region of Spain.  They had come to the Basque region following the same migration route that Celts followed in general.

Their leader was Mil Espaine ("soldier of Spain"), who died in Spain before being able to arrive in Ireland.  The followers of Mil Espaine and their descendants came to be called Milesians.  

One of the eight sons of Mil Espaine was named Ir, who Ireland is named after. ("Eire", the Irish name for Ireland, means "belonging to Ir".)

The Milesians then proceeded to conquer, push out, and assimilate the Celts that already lived in Ireland.  (There were five Celtic migrations prior to the arrival of the Milesians according to Irish history.)

The Milesians also built a sophisticated road system with bridges in Ireland that did not exist in the rest of the British Isles until after the arrival of the Romans.  

The Milesians also introduced a number of musical instruments to the British Isles.  They were far more skilled in song and poetry than anyone else in the British Isles.

The Milesians were from a different branch of Celts than the rest of the British Isles.  Their language, Gaelic, was a distinctly different dialect than that spoken by other Celts.

There is evidence that this happened.  Many people in Ireland share DNA markers with people in the Basque in the area of Pyrenees along the border of Spain and France.  The Celts in the rest of the British Isles and France do not have these markers. 

Spanish history also records this.  For this reason, Irish people fleeing to Spain were given automatic citizenship upon arrival.

The Caledonians were pushed out of southern Ireland by the Milesians to Wales.  They were then pushed out of most of Wales, except for "The Old North" (Hen Ogledd).  This was the northern part of Cambria (Wales) before the Caledonians took it over.

The Caledonians continued to expand their territory until they pushed the Picts out of western and southern Scotland as well as part of northern England.  

The Picts continued to occupy eastern and northern Scotland.  They adjusted the boundaries of their tribes accordingly.

The Picts may have been similarly pushed out of most of northern Ireland by the Milesians, except for the area of Ulster. 

Then others besides the Celts learned of the British Isles.

The first mention of the British Isles in writing is a Greek sailing manual written shortly after 600 BC.

The last of the Celtic tribes arrived in the British Isles no later than 500 BC, as stated by their oral history that was written down after the arrival of the Romans.

Before 400 BC, the Greeks, Phoenicians, and Carthaginians were trading for Cornish tin.  

This trading appears to have been done in Armorica, which was part of the Celtica, the land of Celts, in the mainland of Europe.  The people of Armorica apparently traded with those who had migrated to Cornwall from there.  

The Greeks called the source of this tin, "the tin islands", and described them as west of Armorica.  (Armorica was on the western coast of France.)

Around 400 BC, a Carthaginian explorer named Himilco visited the area of Cornwall near where the tin was being mined.  Few people believed his stories of the island of Britain.

However, the Greek explorer Pytheas believed them.  

So, around 325 BC, Pytheas sailed around the entirety of the British Isles and made the first map of them.  However, his map has been lost and only parts of his description of the British Isle have survived.  

His description spoke of things like amber that were unknown on the mainland of Europe at the time.  Like the descriptions of China by Marco Polo, his descriptions of the British Isles sounded unreal to most people.  

The British Isles remained shrouded in mystery and most people on the mainland of Europe doubted that they even existed.

However, contact with the Greeks had an effect on the Celts.

The Pictones in Brittany had become civilized by 200 BC, unlike the Picts in Scotland.  They were even minting their own coins, showing that money had replaced the barter system used in less developed societies.

The Irish had also developed a well defined set of codified laws called "Dli na Fiene" that was used across Ireland by 200 BC.  Every kingdom in Ireland was subject to it.

Although there was no central government over all of Ireland, every three years there was an assembly among the rulers to recite the "Dli na Fiene" to put everyone into remembrance.  They would also discuss any changes that were needed to it, due to new circumstances.

After that, each smaller kingdom or tribal area would hold fairs, where the "Dli na Fiene" could be recited to the common people, including any changes decided upon at the assembly.

Then clans inside of a kingdom or tribe would have a smaller fair to do the same.  This ensured that everyone had the opportunity to know what the current laws of the "Dli na Fiene" were.

Under the "Dli na Fiene", women were considered to be eligible for marriage when they reached fifteen years old and men when they reached eighteen years old. 

This ruling came from the Druids, who led the Celts in the worship of rocks and trees.  This ruling of the Druid is the origin of people considered to be adults when they reach eighteen years old in much of the world today.

(The Father of Truth (YHVH aka God aka THE LORD) says that people are adults when they reach twenty years of age (Numbers 14:29-31).)

Women who were still virgins when they reached at least sixteen years of age were candidates for human sacrifices by the Druids.  Some of these sacrifices were part of the regular yearly rituals, but other extra sacrifices were made to appease the "gods" when disasters occurred like crop failure.

So, women were highly motivated to not remain virgins until they were sixteen.  This undoubtedly contributed to the high infant mortality and high childbirth mortality rate experienced by those who followed the religion of the Druids.

Around 100 BC,  Dui Dallta Dedad led an army of Caledonians and killed Congal Clairingnech, the High King of Ireland, to avenge the death of his grandfather.  He then ruled as High King of Ireland from Tara for ten years until he was killed by Frachtna Frathach in battle.  His Caledonian army then returned to Scotland with his son, Eochaid Garb.

So, what was life in the British Isles like before the Romans? 

According to the history written by Greeks and Romans during this time, life in the British Isles was not that different from the Celts on the mainland of Europe.  

The Celts in the British Isles had high mortality rates among the men, due to spending a good part of their time and energy warring with each other.  They had high mortality rates among women and infants due to their marrying before their bodies were fully ready for childbirth.  

When the Celts in the British Isles had a disaster that brought on death to their populace like a plague, the Druids responded to it with increased human sacrifices to appease "The Horned God".  

The Celts in the British Isles had absolutely no concept of even basic sanitation, which would have helped prevent these plagues from forming and spreading.

Needless to say, all of these factors contributed to a low life expectancy of less than forty years of age for the Celts in the British Isles - except for the Druids.  

The Druids were not allowed to fight in wars nor be used in human sacrifices.  They were always well fed - even in the severest of famines.  They kept away from the general populace most of the time, making them less likely to be affected by the plagues.

The Celts in the British Isles were behind even the mainland Celts in technology.  They knew how to fight, farm, hunt, fish, make things to use in those occupations, and that was about it for most of them.  

The Celts in the British Isles had very little education - except for the Druids.  All of them, even the Druids, were illiterate.

The Celts in the British Isles were living in darkness in every sense.

The Celts in the British Isles needed major changes in their societies to prepare them to come out of their darkness.

However, the Celts in the British Isles were not forgotten by the Father of Truth, even though they had forgotten Him.

He was going to use the Romans to prepare them to come out of their darkness.

The people of the British Isles worshiped rocks and trees before the Romans arrived, just like the Native Americans did before the day when worlds collided.

The ancestors of the natives of the British Isles had once known the Father of Truth, but like all people, they had turned to idolatry and lived in darkness instead (Romans 1:21-25).  They had lost all knowledge of the Father of Truth, the source of all good things, so they only knew those things that bring death and misery (James 1:13-17).

They did not have the Law of Truth (Torah aka The Law) that would make them a wise and understanding people (Deuteronomy 4:5-9).  

The Father of Lies (HaShatan aka Satan Aka The Devil), "The Horned God", ruled over them with cruel oppression.

The Father of Lies had appeared in light to the ancestors of the Druids, and the people of the British Isles believed that the Druids knew the right way for them to live (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).  

Like Simon the sorcerer, people thought that the Druids had great supernatural powers that must have come from the Father of Truth (Acts 8:9-11).  Like the coming Man of Lies (The Antichrist aka The Beast), the Druids worked signs and wonders by the power of the Father of Lies (2 Thessalonians 2:8-9).

The Druids led the people of the British Isles in making sacrifices to Spirits of Lies (devils aka demons aka unclean spirits aka gods), and drank cups, even filled with human blood, to the Spirits of Lies (1 Corinthians 10:19-21).

Like the ancient Canaanites, the people of the British Isles sacrificed even their own children to the Spirits of Lies (Psalm 106:36-38).  The Druids did terrible things to women and children under the cover of darkness with their faces hidden that were too shameful to even mention (Ephesians 5:11-12).

The people of the British Isles needed someone to turn them from the power of the Father of Lies to the power of the Father of Truth (Acts 26:17-18).  They were enslaved to him all of their lives through the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-15).

However, this darkness is not limited to the people of the British Isles before the Romans came.  

There are people today who want to return to the religion of the Druids.  They are part of the "Neo-paganism" movement.

This leaving the House of Truth by some, to come under the seduction of the Spirit of Lies and teaching doctrine of the Spirit of Lies, like the Druids did, is a sign that time of the return of the Man of Truth (Yeshua HaMashiach aka Jesus Christ) is getting near (1 Timothy 4:1).

So, heed the Father of Truth, who is calling you out of darkness and into his marvelous light by coming into the House of Truth (1 Peter 2:9-10).  There is only light in Him, so those who come to him through the blood of the Man of Truth will no longer walk in darkness (1 John 1:5-7).

The Father of Truth sent the Man of Truth to give you light so you can escape the death that dwells in the darkness (Luke 1:78-79).  He was sent by his Father to be a light to all who trust in him, which will bring them out of living in darkness (John 12:44-46).  Those who come into the House of Truth will live in the light and no longer belong to the darkness (1 Thessalonians 5:5).

So, come under the control of the Man of Truth, because you believe that his Father raised him from the dead (Romans 10:9).

Come into the House of Truth!