# Which is the stronger case for the origin of the Celts? The Danube region or Iberian peninsula? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 7, 2018, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-stronger-case-for-the-origin-of-the-celts-the-danube-region-or-iberian-peninsula/820933 "2018-09-07T08:16:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 25
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2018, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-stronger-case-for-the-origin-of-the-celts-the-danube-region-or-iberian-peninsula/820933/25 "2018-09-09T17:30:03Z")
**Dr. Drake** ’s dates are much too recent. You need to come up with a chronology that fits the whole I-E tree. Italo-Celtic certainly separated from Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian well before those latter two separated from each other, so if Italo-Celtic split off 2000 BC, when did Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian separate from each other? Indo-Iranian unity is usually estimated as at least several centuries. When did Indo-Aryan and Iranian split in **Dr. Drake** ’s model? Well _after_ Sanskrit is attested, it would seem. 🙂 I think Ringe’s team is about as credible as any. [On page 29 of this slide-show](https://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/conference/09_SwadeshCentenary/pdf/Slides/WarnowEtAlSlides.pdf) Italo-Celtic is shown splitting off at 3200 BC; Italic and Celtic separate from each other about 2600 BC. _ **There is much uncertainty of course** _ and Ringe himself (who focuses on linguistic evidence rather than archaeological clues) avoids dating altogether. However I think the path lengths in the diagrams (pages 2, 39) of the link are intended as proportional to _quantitative_ linguistic change. Are Ringe’s team and I wrong? **Dr. Drake** , can you cite a credible historical linguist advocating dates anywhere near yours? --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-the-stronger-case-for-the-origin-of-the-celts-the-danube-region-or-iberian-peninsula/820933)._