Southern Netherlands, Celts or Teutons?

[The Black Prince]

Caesar wrote that Belgica was invaded by the Germanics, who came from the other side of the Rhine. Why is it not possible that these Germanic tribes came from the north of the Rhine (Netherlands) before Caesar's arrival?

Huh, what do you mean?

Caesar wrote that they came from the other side of the Rhine to Belgica.. than who stated (according to you) that they could not have come from the north of the Rhine (as/instead from the east)?

[Erik]

But the other side also can mean: north of the Rhine. North of Rhine
Germanic tribes always have lived there. Why did the Germanic Belgae
not cross the Rhine from the north like the Franks about 350 AD?

[Albion]

The Belgae of the Southern Netherlands and Flanders would have probably been Germanics with heavy Celtic influence. The area would have been a sort of frontier zone of mixing between the two groups.
I still hold my view that the Northern section of the Belgae were predominantly Germanic.

[Osweo]

The Belgae of the Southern Netherlands and Flanders would have probably been Germanics with heavy Celtic influence. The area would have been a sort of frontier zone of mixing between the two groups.
I still hold my view that the Northern section of the Belgae were predominantly Germanic.

Um... WHY?!?

The tribal names are solidly Celtic.

[Albion]

Um... WHY?!?

The tribal names are solidly Celtic.

Tribal names can point to an elite, as with Normandy. I'm more concerned with material culture. If it points to Celts then that's proof enough.

[Osweo]

Sigh...... These are the same Belgae who came to southern Britain. There is NOTHING to indicate Germanicness in them.

The Grimm shift responsible for the appearance of the most recent common ancestor to ALL Germanic languages is dated to just before the time of Christ, near enough. There isn't time for a fully fledged Germanic language to have reached the western Rhineland by the time you're talking about.

[JeanBaMac]

Germanic languages probably did not appear before the Nordic Bronze Age (1800-500 BCE). Proto-Germanic language probably developed as a blend of two branches of Indo-European languages, namely the Proto-Balto-Slavic language of the Corded-Ware culture (R1a-Z283) and the later arrival of Proto-Italo-Celto-Germanic people from the Unetice culture (R1b-L11). This is supported by the fact that Germanic people are a R1a-R1b hybrid, that these two haplogroups came via separate routes at different times, and that Proto-Germanic language is closest to Proto-Italo-Celtic, but also shares similarities with Proto-Slavic.
http://www.eupedia.com/europe/Haplog...1a_Y-DNA.shtml

[Äijä]

Germanic languages probably did not appear before the Nordic Bronze Age (1800-500 BCE). Proto-Germanic language probably developed as a blend of two branches of Indo-European languages, namely the Proto-Balto-Slavic language of the Corded-Ware culture (R1a-Z283) and the later arrival of Proto-Italo-Celto-Germanic people from the Unetice culture (R1b-L11). This is supported by the fact that Germanic people are a R1a-R1b hybrid, that these two haplogroups came via separate routes at different times, and that Proto-Germanic language is closest to Proto-Italo-Celtic, but also shares similarities with Proto-Slavic.
http://www.eupedia.com/europe/Haplog...1a_Y-DNA.shtml

This theory has just been questioned by linguists, it does not explain why Baltic Finnic is the closest contact language for Germanic, not Baltic, Slavic or Celtic.

[Hevo]

A great part of the Netherlands(Some historians/archaeologists even claim that Coastal Netherlands was almost deserted after many floods etc) was sparsely populated before the Germanic migrations of Saxons/Frisians/Franks. They had a huge genetic impact @the gnome of the Dutch people although there is genetically a significant difference between the Southern and Northern regions. So i don't think that Southern Dutch people are ''Germanic speaking Celts''.

[FeederOfRavens]

South Dutch are mostly Germanic(frankish) and look the part too.