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I've heard it said that the Basque are conjectured to be the last remnant of Pre-Celtic Western Europe. When would have these people existed? What evidence do we have for their culture and habitation sites? When did they cede to the Celts?

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Good question. This has been explored a lot, and I think the answer is indigenous Cro-Magnon culture. The Basques and possibly the Etruscans are often listed as examples of this. (Often the Picts of Scotland too.) I'll wait for someone to quote Gimbutas' theory here, which is quite interesting. If not, may get around to doing it myself... – Noldorin Oct 24 '11 at 0:58
@Noldorin, to which you can add the linguistic theories of Theo Vennemann (cf "Europa Vasconica") and the genetic evidence from mitochondrial DNA haplogroups ("V" Toroni 1996, 1998, 2001, "H" Alessandro Achilli 2004). However the Cro-Magnon culture (Haplogroup N) seems to be only a remote ancestor of haplogroups V,H... – Alain Pannetier Oct 25 '11 at 20:44
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@Alain: I knew you'd be here! By the way, the Pelasgians in Greece were also possibly pre-Indo-European. See also Old Europe and Pre-Indo-European for various hypotheses about who lived in Europe before we came and what they spoke — Wikipedia. – Cerberus Oct 25 '11 at 22:09
@AlainPannetier Ah yes, good old Vennemann's theory. I think Gimbutas' theory is the most interesting/modern here however. – Noldorin Oct 26 '11 at 0:58

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Pre-Celtic inhabitants of western Europe included Bronze Age settlers, such as the Lusitaninans, Basques, Belgians, and Etruscans.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Bronze_Age

Prior to that, we are talking about pre-historic cultures such as those that settled river valleys like the Dordogne in France.

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