REV Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland. Sykes, Bryan (original) (raw)
Related papers
Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2008
The genetic structures of past human populations are obscured by recent migrations and expansions and have been observed only indirectly by inference from modern samples. However, the unique link between a heritable cultural marker, the patrilineal surname, and a genetic marker, the Y chromosome, provides a means to target sets of modern individuals that might resemble populations at the time of surname establishment. As a test case, we studied samples from the Wirral Peninsula and West Lancashire, in northwest England. Place-names and archaeology show clear evidence of a past Viking presence, but heavy immigration and population growth since the industrial revolution are likely to have weakened the genetic signal of a 1,000-year-old Scandinavian contribution. Samples ascertained on the basis of 2 generations of residence were compared with independent samples based on known ancestry in the region plus the possession of a surname known from historical records to have been present there in medieval times. The Y-chromosomal haplotypes of these 2 sets of samples are significantly different, and in admixture analyses, the surnameascertained samples show markedly greater Scandinavian ancestry proportions, supporting the idea that northwest England was once heavily populated by Scandinavian settlers. The method of historical surname-based ascertainment promises to allow investigation of the influence of migration and drift over the last few centuries in changing the population structure of Britain and will have general utility in other regions where surnames are patrilineal and suitable historical records survive.
The populating of the British islands took place in numerous successive waves hardly distinguishable today and being the object of research hypotheses. The question of contribution or not of additional Scandinavian genes by the last Norman invaders arises because the Normans myth appropriated Viking origins since the first chronicles of the Middle Ages. The study of the period of the History finishing with the settlement of male Norman lords on the British islands allows us to envisage several continental Y Haplogroups as being the greater part in this population and others a minority. In spite of the name of Normans/Northmans, the haplogroups of Scandinavian origin could have been a tiny minority.
Genetic history of the British and the Irish people
Eupedia, 2015
A long standing traditional cultural division exists between the Irish, the Welsh and the Highland Scots on one side, who are of Celtic heritage, and the English on the other side, who are of mixed Germanic, French, Celtic and even Roman ancestry. Until recently, no historian could really agree on on much influence the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans had had on the British and Irish gene pools, let alone agree on where the Celts came from before that. Were the Celts descended from Bronze or Iron Age invaders from the Continent ? Were they the direct descendants of the Neolithic farmers who built Stonehenge, or even of the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who recolonised northern Europe at the end of the last glaciation 10,000 years ago ? Before the age of historical population genetics these questions were left to anyone's guess and speculations. The fast paced progress in genetic sequencing have shed a new light on our prehistory and it is now possible to answer all those questions with a great degree of certainty. This page attempts to retrace the origins of the British and Irish people through the analyses of their genetic markers using Y-chromosomal (Y-DNA) haplogroups, which are passed on nearly unaltered from father to son, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is inherited only from one's mother, and complete genomic studies looking at all the chromosomes.
H.H. Meller, F. Daim, J. Frause and R. Risch (eds) Migration and Integration form Prehisory to the Middle Ages. Tagungen Des Landesmuseums Für Vorgeschichte Halle, Saale, 2017
British population history has been shaped by a series of immigration periods, including to some extent the Roman occupation from 43 AD and early Anglo-Saxon migrations after 400 AD. Until recently, the extent to which these events changed the genetic population structure in Britain was an open question. Two recent genetic studies have provided new insights by analyzing the genome sequences from 19 ancient British samples, dating from the 1st century BC until the 8th century AD. Here we will review these two recent studies, present a joint analysis of all 19 available samples, and will put results into a wider archaeological context. Key results reviewed here include: 1) High levels of genetic continuity between the late Iron Age and the Romano-British period; 2) a clear increase in ancestry related to modern Dutch population during the Anglo-Saxon period, suggesting substantial arrival of new people during this time; 3) an estimated 38% average Anglo-Saxon ancestry in modern English population; 4) evidence for early admixture between Anglo-Saxon immigrants and indigenous British inhabitants.
The American Journal of Human Genetics, 2004
Celtic languages are now spoken only on the Atlantic facade of Europe, mainly in Britain and Ireland, but were spoken more widely in western and central Europe until the collapse of the Roman Empire in the first millennium A.D. It has been common to couple archaeological evidence for the expansion of Iron Age elites in central Europe with the dispersal of these languages and of Celtic ethnicity and to posit a central European "homeland" for the Celtic peoples. More recently, however, archaeologists have questioned this "migrationist" view of Celtic ethnogenesis. The proposition of a central European ancestry should be testable by examining the distribution of genetic markers; however, although Y-chromosome patterns in Atlantic Europe show little evidence of central European influence, there has hitherto been insufficient data to confirm this by use of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Here, we present both new mtDNA data from Ireland and a novel analysis of a greatly enlarged European mtDNA database. We show that mtDNA lineages, when analyzed in sufficiently large numbers, display patterns significantly similar to a large fraction of both Y-chromosome and autosomal variation. These multiple genetic marker systems indicate a shared ancestry throughout the Atlantic zone, from northern Iberia to western Scandinavia, that dates back to the end of the last Ice Age.
Remediating Viking origins: genetic code as archival memory of the remote past (pre-print version)
2013
This article introduces some early data from the Leverhulme Trust-funded research programme, 'The Impact of the Diasporas on the Making of Britain: evidence, memories, inventions'. One of the interdisciplinary foci of the programme, which incorporates insights from genetics, history, archaeology, linguistics and social psychology, is to investigate how genetic evidence of ancestry is incorporated into identity narratives. In particular, we investigate how 'applied genetic history' shapes individual and familial narratives, which are then situated within macro-narratives of the nation and collective memories of immigration and indigenism. It is argued that the construction of genetic evidence as a 'gold standard' about 'where you really come from' involves a remediation of cultural and archival memory, in the construction of a 'usable past'. This article is based on initial questionnaire data from a preliminary study of those attending DNA collection sessions in northern England. It presents some early indicators of the perceived importance of being of Viking descent among participants, notes some emerging patterns and considers the implications for contemporary debates on migration, belonging and local and national identity.
Becoming a Viking: DNA testing, genetic ancestry and placeholder identity
Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2015
A consensus has developed among social and biological scientists around the problematic nature of genetic ancestry testing, specifically that its popularity will lead to greater genetic essentialism in social identities. Many of these arguments assume a relatively uncritical engagement with DNA, under 'high-stakes' conditions. We suggest that in a biosocial society, more pervasive 'low-stakes' engagement is more likely. Through qualitative interviews with participants in a study of the genetic legacy of the Vikings in Northern England, we investigate how genetic ancestry results are discursively worked through. The identities formed in 'becoming a Viking' through DNA are characterised by fluidity and reflexivity, rather than essentialism. DNA results are woven into a wider narrative of selfhood relating to the past, the value of which lies in its potential to be passed on within families. While not unproblematic, the relatively banal nature of such narratives within contemporary society is characteristic of the 'biosociable'.
Remediating Viking origins: Genetic code as archival memory of the remote past
This paper introduces some early data from the Leverhulme Trust-funded research programme, The Impact of the Diasporas on the Making of Britain:evidence, memories, inventions. One of the interdisciplinary foci of the programme, which incorporates insights from genetics, history, archaeology, linguistics and social psychology, is to investigate how genetic evidence of ancestry is incorporated into identity narratives. In particular, we investigate how ‘applied genetic history’ shapes individual and familial narratives, which are then situated within macro-narratives of the nation and collective memories of immigration and indigenism. It is argued that the construction of genetic evidence as a ‘gold standard’ about “where you really come from” involves a remediation of cultural and archival memory, in the construction of a ‘usable past’. This paper is based on initial questionnaire data from a preliminary study of those attending DNA collection sessions in Northern England. It presents some early indicators of the perceived importance of being of Viking descent among participants, notes some emerging patterns and considers the implications for contemporary debates on migration, belonging and local and national identity.
From Trondheim to Perthshire: A Macnaughtan DNA Odyssey
2019
Like many people these days, I decided to trace my ancestral genetic legacy through a DNA test. The results were quite revelatory, revealing an entirely different genetic background than I had always supposed. This article analyzes how this new genetic background may have developed over the last 1000 years.