Atlantic Europe

Last updated
Floristic regions in Europe Floristic regions in Europe (english).png
Floristic regions in Europe

Atlantic Europe is a geographical term for the western portion of Europe which borders the Atlantic Ocean. The term may refer to the idea of Atlantic Europe as a cultural unit and/or as a biogeographical region.

Contents

It comprises the Atlantic Isles (Great Britain and Ireland), Iceland, Belgium, the Netherlands, the central and northern regions of Portugal, northwestern and northern Spain (including Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Southern Basque Country, and some portions of Castile and León), the southwestern and western portion of France (Northern Basque Country), western Scandinavia as well as western and northern Germany.

Weather and overall physical conditions are relatively similar along this area (with the exception of parts of Scandinavia and the Baltic), resulting in similar landscapes with common endemic plant and animal species. From a strictly physical point of view most of the Atlantic European shoreline can be considered a single biogeographical region. [1] [2] Physical geographers label this biogeographical area as the European Atlantic Domain, part of the Euro-Siberian botanic region. [3]

Culture

Origins

The Atlantic Bronze Age is a cultural complex of the Bronze Age period of approximately 1300–700 BC, that marked the economic and cultural exchange between the current territories of Portugal, Spain, France, Great Britain and Ireland. During this time, tin from throughout Atlantic Europe was traded in the Mediterranean. Via the Bell Beaker culture, Atlantic and Central Europe were in close cultural contact from at least the mid 3rd millennium BC, contributing to what would emerge as the Celtic culture of the West/Central European Iron Age. [4]

Archaeologists have noted that the prehistoric peoples of Atlantic Europe presented common traits, as shown by artifacts, artistic and architectural styles found in the region which attest to at least some form of trade and/or cultural link. [5] In addition, a number of genetic studies seem to interrelate specific groups of population in parts of Atlantic Europe in contrast with, for example, Central or Mediterranean Europe. [6] [7]

Some examples of early cultural contact are the European Megalithic Culture and the Atlantic Bronze Age, or "carp's tongue sword complex". This refers to an industry mainly based on the west coast of France and Brittany but which clearly had links with societies in Iberia and Britain, as evidenced by products such as the carp's tongue sword and the end winged axe, which were widely bought and sold along the routes of the Atlantic seaways.

Atlantic Europe is also a term often used in reference to the territory occupied by the Celtic-speaking peoples and Celtic influenced people of western Europe. [8]

Culture at present

Atlantic Europe
.mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{}
Atlantic Arc
Atlantic Europe
Rest of Europe Atlantic-Europe.jpg
Atlantic Europe
  Atlantic Arc
  Atlantic Europe
  Rest of Europe

A number of authors have postulated that there still is a cultural continuum in Atlantic Europe, forming a cultural unit which has its roots in prehistoric times but remained until today mostly thanks to sea trade. Geographers also mention the influence of the natural environment in the construction of a similar cultural landscape along the western European coasts.

Some of the first geographers to consider this idea of Atlantic Europe were Otero Pedrayo and Orlando Ribeiro. Pedrayo stated in his studies about Galicia that this territory was marked by a strong "Atlantic character", not Mediterranean, despite the fact of being part of a Mediterranean state (Spain). On the other hand, while researching about his native Portugal, Ribeiro deepened the concepts of Atlantic Europe and Mediterranean Europe, linking southern Portugal more towards the Mediterranean culture and central and northern Portugal (together with Galicia and Asturias) to a pan-Atlantic European culture.

This idea would be further developed from the 1950s onwards by authors such as P. Flatrès, Emyr Estyn Evans, A. Bouhier, Meynier, J. García Fernández, Patrick O'Flanagan, Richard Bradley, Barry Cunliffe, Carlos Ferrás Sexto and Xoán Paredes, among others.

O'Flanagan, based on the theories of Pedrayo and Ribeiro, states that Atlantic Europe is a cultural reality that stretches along the coastal fringe of Europe, from Norway to South-Central Portugal (roughly down to the Santarém area), and including Britain and Ireland. With this in mind, Paredes affirms that there exists a cultural landscape common to Atlantic (namely Celtic) Europe, mainly based on the settlement pattern, use and shared perception of the lived space, thus evidencing in itself a social and cultural internal cohesion and continuity. [10] [11]

Bob Quinn in his documentary series Atlantean speculates that western European Celtic culture is actually an earlier, pre-Celtic, Atlantic culture that included Atlantic Europe and people of the Maghreb such as Berbers and that it continues today.

Atlantic Europe in politics

There is a multi-national association of regions, which acts as a co-ordinator of Atlantic European regions and its interests. This is the Atlantic Arc Commission. [12] Operative since 1989, it includes 26 regions from four member States - Great Britain, France, Spain and Portugal. The Atlantic Arc Commission is one of the seven Geographical Commissions in the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe. [13]

Genetics

The genetic link between the various Atlantic population is still under discussion. On the one hand, some studies show that modern and Iron Age British and Irish samples cluster genetically very closely with other North European populations, and not to southern atlantic Europeans in Spain and France. [14] [15] However, as the authors acknowledge, the sample used is unlikely to include many members of smaller genetically isolated populations that exist within countries. On the other hand, an article published in the American Journal of Genetics indicate - after including samples from different regions within European countries - a shared ancestry throughout the Atlantic zone, from northwest Iberia (Galicia) to western Scandinavia that dates back to end of the last Ice Age. [16]

See also

Notes

  1. Indicative map of the European biogeographical regions 2005. Archived July 12, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  2. Map of the biogeographical regions of Europe
  3. Map of the floristic regions of Europe [ circular reference ]
  4. Cunliffe, B. and Koch, J.T., Celtic from the West: Alternative Perspectives from Archaeology, Genetics, Language and Literature. Oxbow books, 2012.
  5. Bradley, R. (1997): Rock Art and the Prehistory of Atlantic Europe. Routledge
  6. Brian Donnelly (2004): "We are not Celts at all but Galicians; DNA research links the Scots, Irish and Welsh to north-western Spain", The Herald (Glasgow - UK), p. 15.
  7. Salas, A; Comas, D; Lareu, MV; Bertranpetit, J; Carracedo, A (1998). "mtDNA analysis of the Galician population: a genetic edge of European variation". Eur J Hum Genet. 6 (4): 365–75. doi: 10.1038/sj.ejhg.5200202 . PMID   9781045.
  8. "Modern Celtic realm - National Geographic". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-08-13.
  9. "Atlantic Arc Commission". Archived from the original on 2006-11-26. Retrieved 2006-12-18.
  10. Paredes, X.M. Bases do Atlantismo Europeo Galego. Unha visión desde a Xeografía Cultural e Histórica. Tese de Licenciatura. Dept. de Xeografía, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 1999
  11. Paredes, X.M.,"A utilidade do celtismo. Celticidade galaica no S.XXI", in proceedings of Jornadas das Letras Galego-Portuguesas 2012-2014, DTS and SAGA. p. 175-190, 2015.
  12. "Atlantic Arc Commission". Archived from the original on 2006-11-26. Retrieved 2006-12-18.
  13. Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions
  14. Novembre J, Johnson T, Bryc K, et al. (November 2008), "Genes mirror geography within Europe", Nature, 456 (7218): 98–101, Bibcode:2008Natur.456...98N, doi:10.1038/nature07331, PMC   2735096 , PMID   18758442
  15. Lao O, Lu TT, Nothnagel M, et al. (August 2008), "Correlation between genetic and geographic structure in Europe", Curr. Biol., 18 (16): 1241–8, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2008.07.049 , PMID   18691889
  16. McEvoy, Brian (2004). "The Longue Dure´e of Genetic Ancestry: Multiple Genetic Marker Systems and Celtic Origins on the Atlantic Facade of Europe". American Journal of Human Genetics. 75 (4): 693–702. doi:10.1086/424697. PMC   1182057 . PMID   15309688 . Retrieved 22 November 2022.

Sources

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celts</span> Indo-European ethnolinguistic group

The Celts or Celtic peoples were a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia, identified by their use of Celtic languages and other cultural similarities. Major Celtic groups included the Gauls; the Celtiberians and Gallaeci of Iberia; the Britons and Gaels of Britain and Ireland; the Boii; and the Galatians. The relation between ethnicity, language and culture in the Celtic world is unclear and debated; for example over the ways in which the Iron Age people of Britain and Ireland should be called Celts. In current scholarship, 'Celt' primarily refers to 'speakers of Celtic languages' rather than to a single ethnic group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galicia (Spain)</span> Autonomous community in the northwest of Spain

Galicia is an autonomous community of Spain and historic nationality under Spanish law. Located in the northwest Iberian Peninsula, it includes the provinces of A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense, and Pontevedra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao</span> Galician politician, writer, painter, and doctor

Alfonso Daniel Manuel Rodríguez Castelao, commonly known as Castelao, was a Galician politician, writer, painter and doctor. He is one of the fathers of Galician nationalism, promoting Galician identity and culture, and was one of the main names behind the cultural movement Xeración Nós. He was also one of the founders and president of the Galicianist Party and had a great influence on the renovating group of Galician art known as Os renovadores. Castelao is considered to be the most important figure in Galician culture of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galician horse</span> Spanish breed of horse

The Galician or Galician Mountain Horse, Spanish: Caballo de Pura Raza Gallega, Galician: Raza Equina Cabalo Galego do Monte, is a breed of small horse from Galicia, in north-western Spain. It is genetically very close to the Garrano breed of northern Portugal. It was in the past used as a war-horse and in agriculture; it is now raised for shows and riding. They are very useful for ranchwork. The horses are bay or black.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castro culture</span> Archaeological culture of the northwestern regions of the Iberian peninsula

Castro culture is the archaeological term for the material culture of the northwestern regions of the Iberian Peninsula together with the Spanish regions of Galicia, Asturias, and western León) from the end of the Bronze Age until it was subsumed by Roman culture. It is the culture associated with the Gallaecians and Astures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galicians</span> Romance ethnic group

Galicians are a Romance-speaking Iberian ethnic group from northwestern Spain; it is closely related to the northern Portuguese people and has its historic homeland in Galicia, in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. Two Romance languages are widely spoken and official in Galicia: the native Galician and Spanish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantic Bronze Age</span> Period of approximately 1300-700 BC in Europe

The Atlantic Bronze Age is a cultural complex of the Bronze Age period in Prehistoric Europe of approximately 1300–700 BC that includes different cultures in Britain, France, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orlando Ribeiro (geographer)</span> Portuguese geographer and historian (1911–1997)

Orlando Ribeiro was a Portuguese geographer and historian.

Patrick O'Flanagan is an Irish geographer and academic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramón Otero Pedrayo</span> Galician geographer, writer and intellectual

Ramón Otero Pedrayo was a Galician geographer, writer and intellectual. He was a key member of the Galician cultural and political movement Xeración Nós.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African admixture in Europe</span>

African admixture in Europe refers to the presence of human genotypes attributable to periods of human population dispersals out of Africa in the genetic history of Europe. For example, certain Y-DNA and mtDNA lineages are thought to have spread from Northeastern Africa to the Near East during the later Pleistocene, and from there to Europe with the Neolithic Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galician language</span> Western Ibero-Romance language

Galician, also known as Galego, is a Western Ibero-Romance language. Around 2.4 million people have at least some degree of competence in the language, mainly in Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain, where it has official status along with Spanish. The language is also spoken in some border zones of the neighbouring Spanish regions of Asturias and Castile and León, as well as by Galician migrant communities in the rest of Spain, in Latin America including Puerto Rico, the United States, Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genetic history of the Iberian Peninsula</span> Ancestry of Spanish and Portuguese people

The ancestry of modern Iberians is consistent with the geographical situation of the Iberian Peninsula in the south-west corner of Europe, showing characteristics that are largely typical in southern and western Europeans. As is the case for most of the rest of southern Europe, the principal ancestral origin of modern Iberians are Early European Farmers who arrived during the Neolithic. The large predominance of Y-Chromosome Haplogroup R1b, common throughout Western Europe, is also testimony to a sizeable input from various waves of Western Steppe Herders that originated in the Pontic-Caspian Steppe during the Bronze Age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galician Institute for Celtic Studies</span>

The Instituto Galego de Estudos Célticos (IGEC) is a Galician non-profit learned society established in 2009. The Institute's main goal is to promote multidisciplinary research in the field of Celtic studies in Galicia, northern Portugal and throughout Atlantic Europe, with a special emphasis on the so-called Celtic Countries and peoples of Celtic origin. The IGEC also promotes general knowledge of history, culture and society of Galicia, as well as academic and scientific exchange. Moreover, the Institute aims at recovering and preserving - on an educated basis - elements of Celtic culture present and visible in contemporary Galician society.

Carlos Ferrás Sexto is a Galician geographer and academic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galician independence movement</span> Independence movement in Galicia

The Galician independence movement or the Galician separatist movement is a political movement which supports the independence of Galicia and the other Galician-speaking territories outside the Autonomous Community of Galicia, including As Portelas, O Bierzo, and the Eo-Navian lands from Spain, and possibly the North Region from Portugal due to its cultural and historical connection with Gallaecia.

Xoán M. Paredes is a Galician geographer, teacher and ordained druid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florentino López Cuevillas</span> Spanish anthropologist and prehistorian

Florentino López Alonso-Cuevillas was a Spanish anthropologist and prehistorian, although in the course of his life he also became involved in writing, primarily essays and fiction. Like several other Galician intellectuals of his generation, he was a member of Xeración Nós, of the Seminar of Galician Studies and the Irmandades da Fala, combining the cultural and linguistic activities he carried out in those institutions with a discrete participation in pro-Galician politics. However, his social and political activities were profoundly disrupted by the victory of nationalists in the Spanish Civil War, although in the 1940s he returned to his commitment to the spread of Galician culture as a full member of the Royal Galician Academy, and of the Instituto de Estudios Gallegos Padre Sarmiento.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antón Fraguas</span> Galicianist historian, ethnographer, anthropologist and geographer

Antonio Fraguas Fraguas was Galicianist historian, ethnographer, anthropologist, and geographer. In 1923, he cofounded the Sociedade da Lingua, whose main goals were the defense of the Galician language and the creation of a dictionary. He was a member of Irmandades da Fala and Seminario de Estudos Galegos and was high school professor after the Spanish Civil War broke out. He was part of the Father Sarmiento Institute for Galician Studies and the Royal Galician Academy, and was director and president of the Museum of the Galician People, member of the Council of Galician Culture, and a chronicler of Galicia. He spent his life studying Galician culture and its territory from different perspectives, with a special focus and mastery on anthropology.

References

48°00′00″N2°00′00″W / 48.0000°N 2.0000°W / 48.0000; -2.0000