Wearing a tartan if not Celtic heritage

[macwilkin]

Post deleted.

[OC Richard]

Quotes from The Deil's Chiel in boldface:

tartan was not a "Celtic" invention

For sure, tartan-like plaid fabric shows up in the traditional folk costume of many countries, for example Bulgaria.

it was introduced to the Celts by the Gallic tribes from eastern Europe who originated in Scythia.

What evidence is there for tartan being introduced to the Celts from the east?

The Celts themselves were descendants of the aboriginal peoples who first inhabited Western Europe during the stone age.

Exactly where the Celtic-speaking peoples came from, if indeed they came from anywhere, is unknown. The issue of Celtic origins is part of the larger problem of Indo-European origins, and the entire matter is far from settled. I've been reading the very interesting, and diametrically opposed, theories put forth by Colin Renfrew and Marija Gimbutas. Suffice it to say that making any sort of definitive statments about Celtic origins goes far beyond current knowledge.

Their name is thought to have come from the tribe called the Celtici who inhabited western Spain during the period of the Roman Empire.

True about Posidonius mentioning the tribe Celtici, but classical writers mention many other related tribal names scattered over a wide area, and it's often not clear whether Greek and Roman writers are referring to people we would call Celtic, or Germanic.

In Celtic: A Comparative Study, DB Gregor says:

"Although on of the world's first explorers, Pytheas of Massilia, had distinguished Celts for Germans early in the fourth century, the Romans were not always careful to differentiate between them. It is still disputed, for example, whether the Cimbri and Teutones, who tried to invade Italy and were eventually defeated by Marius in 102-1 BC, were Germans or Celts. The names of the Cimbric leaders look Celtic, but Strabo calls them both Germani, and they were certainly in the territory now known as Jutland when Augustus in AD 13 wrote his Res Gestae and Tacitus his Germania."


The Gallic tribes had at that time already pushed westward into what was formerly Celtic territory...

Albout the Gallic/Celtic issue, he states:
"Although there is no doubt that linguistically the Gauls were Celts, it is not absolutely certain that the two names are interchangable."
So, it goes beyond present knowledge to state for certain which ancient peoples are "gauls" and which are "celts" and to trace their movements.

The Tocharians, who were closely related to the Gallic tribes...

I wonder what evidence there is for this. "Tochrian" as a term for two extinct Indo-European languages discovered amongst ancient manuscripts in western China is a bit of a misnomer: the connexion of these languages to the tribe Strabo called the Tocharoi is sheer guesswork.