Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age

 Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age

 Abstract

Present-day people from England and Wales harbour more ancestry derived from Early European Farmers (EEF) than people of the Early Bronze Age1. To understand this, we generated genome-wide data from 793 individuals, increasing data from the Middle to Late Bronze and Iron Age in Britain by 12-fold, and Western and Central Europe by 3.5-fold. Between 1000 and 875 bc, EEF ancestry increased in southern Britain (England and Wales) but not northern Britain (Scotland) due to incorporation of migrants who arrived at this time and over previous centuries, and who were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from France. These migrants contributed about half the ancestry of Iron Age people of England and Wales, thereby creating a plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain. These patterns are part of a broader trend of EEF ancestry becoming more similar across central and western Europe in the Middle to Late Bronze Age, coincident with archaeological evidence of intensified cultural exchange2–6. There was comparatively less gene flow from continental Europe during the Iron Age, and Britain’s independent genetic trajectory is also reflected in the rise of the allele conferring lactase persistence to ~50% by this time compared to ~7% in central Europe where it rose rapidly in frequency only a millennium later. This suggests that dairy products were used in qualitatively different ways in Britain and in central Europe over this period.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04287-4 



 



Comments

Arza said…
Shame that the Slovakian R1a sample hasn't been published. But of course more stuff like that is coming. Slavs in Ancient Greece? Why not.
Arza said…
BTW there are some differences between what is published in ENA and what is in the ind file. Apparently some samples are missing from the geno file.
Arza said…
G25 spreadsheet with names (some samples are missing, like I138xx):
https://pastebin.com/mDgxvS2m
Arza said…
Slavic averages modeled using only the samples from this study:

https://pastebin.com/vqYqfCnY
Arza said…
OK, likely all "missing" samples are here:

A high-resolution picture of kinship practices in an Early Neolithic tomb
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04241-4
ambron said…
The five samples from Hungarian La Tene are grouped with the Balto-Slavs. As you said - the Balto-Slavic drift comes from the Carpathians.

And about the Slavic genomes in ancient Greece were you serious?
Arza said…
I'm always serious.
Arza said…
Czech_LN 3800-3400 BCE modeled using full ancients spreadsheet and the reduce function:

Target: Czech_LN:I16108
Distance: 1.3550% / 0.01355037 | R3P
57.6 Iberia_North_MLN
28.6 DEU_LBK_HBS
13.8 Baltic_EST_BA

Target: Czech_LN:I16108
Distance: 1.2125% / 0.01212507 | R4P
48.0 Iberia_North_MLN
19.8 DEU_Tollense_BA
16.8 DEU_LBK_HBS
15.4 HUN_Tiszapolgar_ECA

Target: Czech_LN:I16108
Distance: 1.1123% / 0.01112336 | R5P
37.4 CHE_LN
36.8 FRA_Mont_Aime_MLN
14.2 HUN_Tiszapolgar_ECA
9.4 Baltic_EST_BA
2.2 RUS_Yana_MA
Arza said…
This sample is also quite interesting:

without Baltic_BA

Target: Hungary_EIA_Prescythian_Mezocsat_o1:I18241
Distance: 3.8195% / 0.03819455
44.6 DEU_LBK
31.2 SRB_Iron_Gates_HG
20.4 RUS_Karelia_HG
3.8 Yamnaya_RUS_Samara
0.0 Baltic_LVA_HG
0.0 Baltic_LVA_MN
0.0 GEO_CHG
0.0 POL_Globular_Amphora
0.0 RUS_Khvalynsk_En
0.0 RUS_Progress_En
0.0 TUR_Alalakh_MLBA

with Baltic_BA

Target: Hungary_EIA_Prescythian_Mezocsat_o1:I18241
Distance: 1.4981% / 0.01498105
44.0 Baltic_EST_BA
29.4 DEU_LBK
22.0 SRB_Iron_Gates_HG
4.6 POL_Globular_Amphora
0.0 Baltic_LVA_HG
0.0 Baltic_LVA_MN
0.0 GEO_CHG
0.0 RUS_Karelia_HG
0.0 RUS_Khvalynsk_En
0.0 RUS_Progress_En
0.0 TUR_Alalakh_MLBA
0.0 Yamnaya_RUS_Samara

ambron said…
Arza, can you say more about this unpublished R1a sample from Slovakia?
EastPole said…
@ambron

“And about the Slavic genomes in ancient Greece were you serious?”


If this is confirmed it will be great news for Polish science and literature. It was claimed in the XIX century that there were Slavic influences in Greece. Orphic-Pythagorean religions came from Hyperboreans, i.e. Slavs. A. Mickiewicz, J. Słowacki and many others spoke about it and wrote poems about it.
XIX century Polish scientists and poets believed that Slavs came from India, and this is why in Slavic culture there are so many common element with Vedic culture. They also believed that elements of Slavic religion, which came from India and was similar to Vedic, was passed to Greece and started Orphic-Pythagorean movement. This explains common links between Slavic, Vedic and Orphic religions.
It turns out that XIX century scientists were wrong. After Narasimhan et al. 2019 it is quite clear that Slavs didn’t come from India. They went to India. If Slavic migrations to ancient Greece are confirmed it will explain a lot and a lot of theories will have to be rewritten.
ambron said…
EastPole, but it's about classical age Greece. These genetic Balto-Slavs will probably be Thracians who inhabited almost all of historical Macedonia and whose language is classified as a Balto-Slavic dialect.
Arza said…
@ EastPole

It's hard to tell what was their role - captives, traders, mercenaries? They aren't from the mainland, or not even from the modern day Greece.

I think that the similarities stem mainly from the contacts of Mycenaean Civ and earlier the Proto-Greeks with Carpathian cultures such as O-F (>50% R1a, including Z280 BTW).
ambron said…
Arza, a typical Slavic clade.
Arza said…
Correct.

They've reshuffled more samples. Maybe they were redated or reassigned to some other culture. Or maybe they split them and the second half will be published elsewhere, who knows.
EastPole said…
@Arza
“It's hard to tell what was their role - captives, traders, mercenaries? They aren't from the mainland, or not even from the modern day Greece.”

Yes, everything is possible. Even religious pilgrimages between Hyberborea and Greece were not uncommon. Herodotus tells the story about the Hyperborean Maidens who arrived at Delos with an escort of five men, but none of them returned and they were buried in Delos.
There were Hyperborean physicians and philosophers traveling around Greece as Abaris for example.
When Heraclitus of Ephesus writes “keraunos steers all things” he probably was in contact with some priests or philosophers who used the word keraunos (=perunos according to linguists) for lightning.

Merry Christmas!
Dibran said…
Does this ancient R1a in the Balkans include M458 as well?

This recent La Tene study found M458 kn the Balto-Slavic-like Hungarian La Tene sample and R-L1029 in Czech La Tene that was Germanic-like. I wonder if some East La Tene that entered the Balkans through Bulgaria/Serbia could have carried some M458/L1029.
Arza said…
I'm not aware of any other M458 from before the Migration Period.

I13780 is only superficially Germanic-like. He's at least 1/4 "Russian" (and the rest may, or may not be Germanic):

Target: CZE_IA_La_Tene:I13780
Distance: 1.2696% / 0.01269644 | R3P
50.8 Danish
25.4 Russian_Tver
23.8 German

His similarity to Swedes stems from a fact that they have quite a lot of Balto-Slavic admixture (possibly mediated also through some Uralic populations).

IMHO it's possible that some L1029 was present in the South already in the Iron Age, but it'd be of Slavic origin anyway, as every single M458 that we currently have is also undeniably autosomally connected to the modern day Slavic populations.
ambron said…
Arza, when it comes to the pre-migration M458, we also have the I25524 and MX265.

I do not think that the Balto-Slavic admixture in the Swedes is mediated by the Finns. All Scandinavians have such an admixture, but the British have the most of this admixture.
Arza said…
Dibran asked about new or unpublished samples.

Swedes have an admixture from a source similar to Balts, Estonians or even Baltic_BA/Gotland.

Brits have little to none of it.
ambron said…
I25524 is a new sample. It is possible, however, that it was incorrectly labeled M458.

As for the admixture, I was guided by the study of Athanasiadis. The Scandinavians have from a dozen to above twenty percent of the East European admixture, typical of contemporary Poles, in it. The Britons have 33 percent thise admixture.
Arza said…
He mentioned it ("This recent La Tene study found M458 kn the Balto-Slavic-like Hungarian La Tene sample") and the M458 designation is correct.

There's zero possibility that Britons have 33% of "contemporary Polish" admixture. At K=4 these components are likely just different mixes of EHG, CHG, WHG and EEF.
ambron said…
This admixture is pre-medieval, but typical of contemporary Poles (77%, if I remember correctly).

This genetic Bałt M458 from Hungary is interesting. It confirms the origin of the Balto-Slavic drift from the Carpathians.
Arza said…
@ EastPole

Your comment was sitting in the spam all the time. I have no idea how this happened, sorry!