Posted on 06/24/2003 10:33:30 AM PDT by blam
Y chromosomes rewrite British history
Anglo-Saxons' genetic stamp weaker than historians suspected
19 June 2003
HANNAH HOAG
Some Scottish men's Y's are remarkably similar to those of southern England. © GettyImages
A new survey of Y chromosomes in the British Isles suggests that the Anglo-Saxons failed to leave as much of a genetic stamp on the UK as history books imply1.
Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Danes, Vikings and Normans invaded Britain repeatedly between 50 BC and AD 1050. Many historians ascribe much of the British ancestry to the Anglo-Saxons because their written legacy overshadows that of the Celts.
But the Y chromosomes of the regions tell a different story. "The Celts weren't pushed to the fringes of Scotland and Wales; a lot of them remained in England and central Ireland," says study team member David Goldstein, of University College London. This is surprising: the Anglo-Saxons reputedly colonized southern England heavily.
The Anglo-Saxons and Danes left their mark in central and eastern England, and mainland Scotland, the survey says, and the biological traces of Norwegian invaders show up in the northern British Isles, including Orkney.
Similar studies, including one by the same team, have looked at differences in mitochondrial DNA, which we inherit from our mothers. They found little regional variation because females tended to move to their husbands.
But the Y chromosome shows sharper differences from one geographic region to the next, says geneticist Luca Cavalli-Sforza, of Stanford University, California. "The Y chromosome has a lower mutation rate than mitrochondrial DNA."
Goldstein's team collected DNA samples from more than 1,700 men living in towns across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. They took a further 400 DNA samples from continental Europeans, including Germans and Basques. Only men whose paternal grandfathers had dwelt within 20 miles of their current home were eligible.
The Y chromosomes of men from Wales and Ireland resemble those of the Basques. Some believe that the Basques, from the border of France and Spain, are the original Europeans.
The new survey is an example of how archaeologists, prehistorians and geneticists are beginning to collaborate, comments Chris Tyler-Smith of the University of Oxford, UK, who tracks human evolution using the Y chromosome. "It would be nice to see the whole world surveyed in this kind of detail, but it's expensive and there are other priorities."
References Capelli, C. et al. A Y chromosome census of the British Isles. Current Biology, 13, 979 - 984, (2003). |Article|
© Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003
actually, if they are saying mitochondrial dna didn't vary from region to region, is this consistent with what I proposed? If they are including the continent, that is a different issue than if just britain.
ping
the non-survival of the pictish language nor almost anything but king-names and place-names for me is the biggest philological mystery of british history.
aside from one person (who knows more than me) proposing it as a finno-ugric language, everything I have read assumed it was P-celtic. I find the question fascinating and would assume the dna studies being made now would propose some ideas, but aside from carved stones and the above material, what else is there to go on?
This thread seems to contradict the other thread now running on FR entitled: "English and Welsh are Races Apart". Go read this other thread, and then tell me why I shouldn't be very confused.
aside from one person (who knows more than me) proposing it as a finno-ugric language, everything I have read assumed it was P-celtic. I find the question fascinating and would assume the dna studies being made now would propose some ideas, but aside from carved stones and the above material, what else is there to go on?
I would think that either Basque-related or Finno-Ugric would be good candidates. I'm also curious if Minoan falls into one of those groups or was something else, perhaps related to Etruscan.
Y haplotype ping...
 |
Genetic Genealogy  |
| Send FReepmail if you want on/off GGP list Marty = Paternal Haplogroup O(2?)(M175) Maternal Haplogroup H |
|
| GG LINKS: African Ancestry DNAPrint Genomics FamilyTree DNA mitosearch Nat'l Geographic Genographic Project Oxford Ancestors RelativeGenetics Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation Trace Genetics ybase ysearch |
|
| The List of Ping Lists | |
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
Gods, Graves, Glyphs PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
|
|
|||
Gods |
Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. |
||
|
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
|||
|
|
|
| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
|
|
Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. |
|
|
|
|
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
