Articles
4 articles on british-isles, ancient-DNA research written up for readers who want the evidence, not just the headline.
The British Isles have some of Europe's best-measured ancient-DNA transects: a Mesolithic baseline, Neolithic tomb-builders, a near-total Beaker-era turnover, a mid-Bronze Age influx, and in England the quantified Anglo-Saxon settlement and the Danelaw. Ireland and Scotland show striking continuity since the Beaker reset. Which of those layers a genome carries, and in what proportion, is a matter of descent; it is not a statement of national identity.
The articles read English ancestry from the Beaker reset to the Anglo-Saxon century, follow Ireland's transect from Mesolithic foragers through a Neolithic dynastic elite to the Beaker turnover, cover the Pictish genomes and their local roots, the Gaelic-Irish kinship of the west and the measured Norse layer in Scotland's isles, and report the 30-genome transect of southwestern England where Beaker newcomers buried their dead inside monuments built a millennium earlier.
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A new 30-genome transect of southwestern England confirms the sharp Beaker-era turnover — and shows the genetically distinct newcomers burying their dead inside monuments built a millennium earlier by the people they replaced.
England has ancient DNA's best-measured migrations: a Beaker-era turnover, a mid-Bronze Age Celtic-era influx, the quantified Anglo-Saxon settlement and the Danelaw. What each layer left in English genomes, and how to read yours.
What ancient DNA says about Scottish ancestry: the shared Beaker-descended base, the Pictish genomes and their local roots, the Gaelic-Irish kinship of the west, and the measured Norse layer in the isles.
Ireland's ancient-DNA transect is one of Europe's cleanest: a Mesolithic baseline, a Neolithic of tomb-builders with a dynastic elite, a near-total Beaker-era turnover, and striking continuity since. The story, and how to read an Irish genome.