That distinction currently goes to a band of Vikings who settled (albeit temporarily) in what is now L’Anse aux Meadows in northern Newfoundland around 1000 CE. No, the Celts were not the first Europeans to reach the Americas. ‘Leif Eriksson Discovers America’ by Hans Dahl (1849-1937) (source: Wikimedia Commons) Were the Celts the first Europeans to reach the Americas? So while personally, as someone with Celtic heritage, I think it would be pretty awesome if we could prove that the ancient Celts crossed the Atlantic in a currach all those centuries ago, the reality is there’s no concrete evidence to support such a claim. I try to separate my personal feelings and preferences from what actually exists in the historical record.
On this humble website, I strive for objectivity.
Our current prejudices and cultural allegiances play a large role in what we believe. My point here is that the present shapes the past. On the other side of that coin, we have the Celtic deniers, people who belittle the accomplishments of the ancient Celts and claim, for example, that the Celts did not really settle in Britain ahead of the Normans and the Anglo-Saxons and the Romans, and that the reason the ancient Britons spoke a Celtic language and practiced Celtic customs was the result of a cultural invasion, not an actual one. To the superfans, the ancient Celts were more than “mere” warrior-poet-metalworker-road-builders who sacked Rome before it was cool, they were also transatlantic voyagers who reached the New World ahead of the Norsemen and that infamous Genoan, Christopher Columbus. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission.įor people who are proud of and actively celebrate their Celtic heritage, there can be seemingly no bounds to the cultural and technological achievements of their Celtic ancestors.
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