The Anglo-Saxon migration and the formation of the Early English gene pool

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorGretzinger, Joscha
dc.contributor.authorSayer, Duncan
dc.contributor.authorJusteau, Pierre
dc.contributor.authorBeckett, Sophie
dc.date.accessioned2022-09-27T10:36:59Z
dc.date.available2022-09-27T10:36:59Z
dc.date.issued2021-09-21
dc.description.abstractThe history of the British Isles and Ireland is characterized by multiple periods of major cultural change, including the influential transformation after the end of Roman rule, which precipitated shifts in language, settlement patterns and material culture1. The extent to which migration from continental Europe mediated these transitions is a matter of long-standing debate [2,3,4]. Here we study genome-wide ancient DNA from 460 medieval northwestern Europeans—including 278 individuals from England—alongside archaeological data, to infer contemporary population dynamics. We identify a substantial increase of continental northern European ancestry in early medieval England, which is closely related to the early medieval and present-day inhabitants of Germany and Denmark, implying large-scale substantial migration across the North Sea into Britain during the Early Middle Ages. As a result, the individuals who we analysed from eastern England derived up to 76% of their ancestry from the continental North Sea zone, albeit with substantial regional variation and heterogeneity within sites. We show that women with immigrant ancestry were more often furnished with grave goods than women with local ancestry, whereas men with weapons were as likely not to be of immigrant ancestry. A comparison with present-day Britain indicates that subsequent demographic events reduced the fraction of continental northern European ancestry while introducing further ancestry components into the English gene pool, including substantial southwestern European ancestry most closely related to that seen in Iron Age France [5,6].en_UK
dc.identifier.citationGretzinger J, Sayer D, Justeau P, et al., (2022) The Anglo-Saxon migration and the formation of the Early English gene pool. Nature, Volume 610, Issue 7930, 6 October 2022, pp. 112–119en_UK
dc.identifier.issn0028-0836
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05247-2
dc.identifier.urihttps://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/18471
dc.language.isoenen_UK
dc.publisherSpringer Natureen_UK
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/*
dc.titleThe Anglo-Saxon migration and the formation of the Early English gene poolen_UK
dc.typeArticleen_UK

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
formation_of_the_Early_English_gene_pool-2022.pdf
Size:
23.43 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.63 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

Staff publications (CDS)