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

The 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 debate2-4. 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 France5,6.

Ancient DNA at the edge of the world: Continental immigration and the persistence of Neolithic male lineages in Bronze Age Orkney.

Orkney was a major cultural center during the Neolithic, 3800 to 2500 BC. Farming flourished, permanent stone settlements and chambered tombs were constructed, and long-range contacts were sustained. From ∼3200 BC, the number, density, and extravagance of settlements increased, and new ceremonial monuments and ceramic styles, possibly originating in Orkney, spread across Britain and Ireland. By ∼2800 BC, this phenomenon was waning, although Neolithic traditions persisted to at least 2500 BC. Unlike elsewhere in Britain, there is little material evidence to suggest a Beaker presence, suggesting that Orkney may have developed along an insular trajectory during the second millennium BC. We tested this by comparing new genomic evidence from 22 Bronze Age and 3 Iron Age burials in northwest Orkney with Neolithic burials from across the archipelago. We identified signals of inward migration on a scale unsuspected from the archaeological record: As elsewhere in Bronze Age Britain, much of the population displayed significant genome-wide ancestry deriving ultimately from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe. However, uniquely in northern and central Europe, most of the male lineages were inherited from the local Neolithic. This suggests that some male descendants of Neolithic Orkney may have remained distinct well into the Bronze Age, although there are signs that this had dwindled by the Iron Age. Furthermore, although the majority of mitochondrial DNA lineages evidently arrived afresh with the Bronze Age, we also find evidence for continuity in the female line of descent from Mesolithic Britain into the Bronze Age and even to the present day.

Biomolecular insights into North African-related ancestry, mobility and diet in eleventh-century Al-Andalus.

Historical records document medieval immigration from North Africa to Iberia to create Islamic al-Andalus. Here, we present a low-coverage genome of an eleventh century CE man buried in an Islamic necropolis in Segorbe, near Valencia, Spain. Uniparental lineages indicate North African ancestry, but at the autosomal level he displays a mosaic of North African and European-like ancestries, distinct from any present-day population. Altogether, the genome-wide evidence, stable isotope results and the age of the burial indicate that his ancestry was ultimately a result of admixture between recently arrived Amazigh people (Berbers) and the population inhabiting the Peninsula prior to the Islamic conquest. We detect differences between our sample and a previously published group of contemporary individuals from Valencia, exemplifying how detailed, small-scale aDNA studies can illuminate fine-grained regional and temporal differences. His genome demonstrates how ancient DNA studies can capture portraits of past genetic variation that have been erased by later demographic shifts-in this case, most likely the seventeenth century CE expulsion of formerly Islamic communities as tolerance dissipated following the Reconquista by the Catholic kingdoms of the north.

Ancient mitochondrial DNA from the middle neolithic necropolis of Obernai extends the genetic influence of the LBK to west of the Rhine.

OBJECTIVES: The arrival of Neolithic farmers in Europe was the source of major cultural and genetic transitions. Neolithic settlers brought a new set of maternal lineages (mitochondrial DNA), recently well-characterized on the continental road, from the Balkans to West Germany (Rhine River). In the present study, the first mitochondrial DNA data from groups associated with this continental expansion wave located west of the Rhine River has been provided and their genetic affinities with contemporary groups have been discussed. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The mitochondrial DNA analysis of 27 human remains originating from Obernai (5,000-4,400 cal. BC), a necropolis located in French Alsace Region and attributed to Grossgartach, Planig-Friedberg, and Roessen cultures was conducted. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Among the 27 individuals studied, 15 HVR-I sequences and 17 mitochondrial haplogroups could be determined. The analysis of the Obernai gene pool clearly confirmed the genetic homogeneity of Linearbandkeramik (LBK) groups on both sides of the Rhine River. Notably, one N1a sequence found in Obernai is shared with LBK farmers from Central Europe, including one individual from the Flomborn site located approximately 200 km north-east of Obernai. On the whole, data gathered so far showed major genetic influence of the Danubian wave from Transdanubia to Atlantic French Coast, going by Alsace Region. However, the genetic influence of descendants from the Mediterranean Neolithic expansion and the significant hunter-gatherer admixture detected further west in the Paris Basin were not perceived in the Obernai necropolis. CONCLUSIONS: Genetic homogeneity and continuity within LBK groups can be proposed on both sides of the Rhine River for the middle Neolithic groups. Nevertheless, mitochondrial data gathered so far for Neolithic groups from the entire extant French Territory clearly point out the complexity and the variability of Neolithic communities interactions that is worthy of further investigation.