Maltese Druid Remnants in Central Celtic Lands after 2000 BCE

Neolithic Era - Maltese Female Gene Types in Red

Red dots show 3 types of mitochondrial genes which are common between Malta and other places. Mitochondrial genes are only passed down through the female line. This shows that Malta was part of a Europewide genetic heritage.

Late Bronze Age Era - Maltese Female Gene Types Show Survival in Hallstatt Culture

(Jan 14, 2023) The same 3 types of mitochondrial genes show a different pattern during the late Bronze Age. Druid culture people are no longer in Malta, Crete (Minoan), and most of central Europe as a result of the Indo-European invasions.  But for some reason they survived along the Rhine-Danube trade route linking Britain with the Black Sea with greatest survival rate being around the salt mine areas around Salzburg.
Organized salt mining began around Hallstatt (Salzkammergut region) in the Bronze Age starting around 1600  BCE.  Before then water was boiled from salt springs to get the salt. This Central Celtic culture is different from the Eastern Celtic culture of pre-Roman Britain although an early connection does seem to exist.

Neolithic Era - 2nd Set Malta Female Gene Types  

Red dots show 3 types of mitochondrial genes which are common between Malta and other places. Mitochondrial genes are only passed down through the female line.

Bronze Age Era - 2nd Set Malta Druid Female Gene Types Mostly Eliminated

This shows that a good percentage of Druid lineages did not survive the Indo-European invasion.  So while the Halstatt culture has some genetic connection to the Druid culture through the female lineage no evidence of Druid material culture has been found in the mostly male chief orientated grave goods.

References


Bruno Ariano, Valeria Mattiangeli, Rowan McLaughlin,Ronika K. Power, Jay T. Stock, Bernardette Mercieca-Spiteri,Simon Stoddart, Caroline Malone & Dan Bradley (2022 ) aDNA: An investigation of uniparental genetic heritage in Neolithic Malta; in Temple people, Bioarchaeology, resilience, and culture in prehistoric Malta. Volume 3 of Fragility and Sustainability – Studies on Early Malta,the ERC-funded FRAGSUS Project. By Simon Stoddart, and all.  Published by:McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge.
Online at: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1810/344498/Temple_People_Fragsus_Vol3_l_Chapter11.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Central Celtic Halstatt and La Tene Cultures (1300- 500 BCE)


Hallstatt (yellow) and La Tène (green) cultures. The Proto-Celtic Hallstatt culture was located at the European trade center incorporating the salt mines near Salzburg and the portage between the Danube and Rhine rivers.
 Information from Atlas of the Celtic World, by John Haywood; London Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2001, pp. 30-37.
By Dbachmann via Wikimedia Commons at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hallstatt_LaTene.png

European Trade Rivers

from: https://worldmapwithcountries.net/2021/03/22/map-of-europe-rivers/