Skip to main content

Did the English kill off the Britons? Part 2


Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon genomes from East England reveal British migration history [Nature Communications]

English DNA 'one-third' Anglo-Saxon [BBC News  19/1/2016]



Were one million or more Britons wiped out by the English in a Dark Ages holocaust?


The research cited (and summarised) above estimates that on average people in modern Eastern England get 38% of their genes from Anglo-Saxon immigrants dating from the 5th century onwards. They also suggest that this 38% has a particularly strong correlation with modern Dutch and Danish populations.

The evidence has been gathered from three burial sites near Cambridge: Linton for the Late Iron /Early Romano-British period; Oakington for the Late Romano-British/Early Anglo-Saxon period; and Hinxton for the Middle Anglo-Saxon period.

The research contradicts linguistic evidence (and previous DNA research) that the Anglo-Saxons wiped out the indigenous Britons.  Even in the east where the Anglo-Saxon influence could be expected to be at its strongest there is evidence of integration and intermarriage in the genetic record. Further west we would expect to see a much lower Anglo-Saxon contribution.

This suggests a band of immigrants emerging as a cultural, political and military élite and imposing  themselves, their language and their way of life on the indigenous Britons. The result over several generations was a cultural and linguistic takeover with the Anglo-Saxons calling all the shots. 

 The burial sites reveal a genetically diverse but culturally integrated population.
So less of a holocaust , more of a shotgun wedding.

See: Did the English kill off the British?

Comments

  1. veik13 December 2021 at 09:15

    The People we call English/Anglo-Saxons today ,the descents of the of the Germanic Tribes from Northern Germany and Danish peninsula pushed the Britons westwards and call them Welas(Wales)Land of the Foreigner.
    As the British will push westwards the Amerindians to reservations in America.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What really links place names in Brittany, Cornwall and Wales (apart from a few hundred Celtic saints)?

Place Name Elements in Breton, Welsh and Cornish (with examples and English gloss) BRETON CORNISH WELSH ENGLISH EXAMPLES C=Cornwall; W= Wales aut , alt, aod alt, als, aulz allt hill, slope, cliff Duault (22), Nansalsa (C), Allt-golau (W) ael ael ael summit, brow, ridge Hirael (35), Aelbryn (W) aval aval, avallen afal, afallen apple Availles-sur-Seiche (35), Rosevallen (C), Dolafallen (W) aon, aven auon, awan afon river Pont-Aven (29); Arrowan (C), Aberavon (W) arcae - argae dam, embankment Erquy (22), Argae Alwen (W) ard, art, arz are, ard, arth ardd hill, elevation Arzon (56); Trenarth (C), Pennard (W) arz, arzh art, arth arth bear Île-d'Arz (56), Carn Arthen (C), Aber-arth (W) ascorn - asgwrn, esgyrn bone/s Coatascorn (
Post a Comment
Read more

The legend of Saint Gwen of Brittany and Dorset

The church of Whitchurch-Canonicorum in Dorset is dedicated to Saint-Candida (a.k.a Saint-Wite). Below the east window there is an altar tomb with  three openings which allowed devotees to reach inside the shrine in the hope of a miraculous cure for whatever ailed them.  On the top of this there used to be a 14th century coffin built into a slab of local marble. When the local vicar opened it in 1848 he found a stone box. Inside the stone box he discovered a Saint's relics.  When the coffin was examined again in 1899 another vicar found teeth, a lot of  bones resembling those of small, forty year old woman and an inscription: Here lie the relics of Saint Wite What was even more extrordinary about this find was that all relics such as these had been destroyed during the Protestant Reformation. The only other collection of saint's remains still extant were those of St Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey. Perhaps this shrine looked more like a tomb then a
13 comments
Read more

Why all the Ermine?

The ermine ( Mustela erminea ) a.k.a. stoat or short-tailed weasel  is the national emblem of Brittany. Its much sought after white winter coat was used for the cloaks, crowns and caps of the aristocracy. Ermine The eleven 'ermine spots' which form the pattern in the top left corner of the Breton flag represent the way the black-tipped tails were hung on the white fur.  This heraldic ermine canton was a feature of the arms of the Dukes of Brittany.  Breton flag with ermine canton The story goes that Anne de Bretagne,  the last independent Breton ruler and the wife of two successive French kings,   saw a group of hunters chasing after an ermine. When the ermine reached the edge of a muddy lake the ermine decided to stand up to his attackers rather than risk soiling his beautiful white fur.  ANNE DE BRETAGNE Anne, it appears, was so impressed that she saved the ermine and adopted it as the emblem of her dynasty along with the motto: Plutôt la mort que la
2 comments
Read more