Scientists shatter Anglo-Saxon
THE first analysis of DNA passed from father to son across the UK has shattered the Anglocentric view of early British history, it emerged yesterday.For decades, historians have believed that successive waves of invaders, such as the Anglo-Saxons, drove out the indigenous population of the British Isles, labelled Celts, pushing them to the fringes of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
However, work by a team of scientists on the Y chromosome, which is passed from father to son, has shown the native tribes left their genetic stamp throughout the UK and not only in the "Celtic fringe".
The evidence suggests that Anglo-Saxons tend to dominate British history merely because they kept better written records than their indigenous counterparts.
A large number of native people remained in England and central Ireland and were never entirely replaced by the invaders, often surviving in high proportions throughout the British Isles, according to the research by Professor David Goldstein, Dr Jim Wilson, and a team of experts at University College London.
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Posted by Ith at June 25, 2003 7:26 AMI was vaguely alarmed to read about this. That said, my very English mother would be just as happy to learn we are as much Iceni as Angle.
Posted by: Nicholas Packwood on June 25, 2003 10:03 AMI'm totally of British Isles/Ireland stock, and I would love to be able to get one of these genetic breakdowns done.
I wonder when these sorts of tests will be available to regular folk?
Posted by: Ith on June 25, 2003 10:15 AMI always thought that it stood to reason that there was as much intermarriage as there was slaughtering/driving out.
Posted by: Andrea Harris on June 28, 2003 2:12 PMYeah, that's what I would have thought as well. We know the Norse intermarried with the people the pillaged. and the Normans and the Anglo Saxons to the extent that the language that survived was what became English and not Norman/French.
Posted by: Ith on June 28, 2003 2:22 PM