The Anglo-Saxon Migration: New Insights From Genetics

Conny Waters - AncientPages.com - Almost 300 years after the Romans left, scholars like Bede wrote about the Angles and the Saxons and their migrations to the British Isles. Scholars of many disciplines, including archaeology, history, linguists and genetics, have debated what his words might have described, and what the scale, the nature and the impact of human migration were at that time.

Grave goods from inhumation grave 3532 at Issendorf cemetery. Credit: © Landesmuseum Hannover

New genetic results now show that around 75% of the population in Eastern and Southern England was made up of migrant families whose ancestors must have originated from continental regions bordering the North Sea, including the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. What is more, these families interbred with the existing population of Britain, but importantly this integration varied from region to region and community to community.

"With 278 ancient genomes from England and hundreds more from Europe, we now gained really fascinating insights into population-scale and individual histories during post-Roman times," says Joscha Gretzinger, a lead author of the study. "Not only do we now have an idea of the scale of migration, but also how it played out in communities and families."

Using published genetic data from more than 4,000 ancient and 10,000 present-day Europeans, Gretzinger and colleagues identified subtle genetic differences between the closely related groups inhabiting the ancient North Sea region. Their research appears in Nature.

Migrants intermixed with the local population

Upon arrival, the migrants intermixed with the local population. In one case, in an Anglo-Saxon cemetery from Buckland near Dover, researchers were able to reconstruct a family tree across at least four generations and identify the point in time when migrants and locals intermarried. This family showed a large degree of interaction between the two gene pools. Overall, the researchers witnessed burials of prominent status across the studied cemeteries of both local and migrant origin.

Archaeologists excavate grave 112 at Oakington Cambridgeshire, it contained an adult male buried with a knife. He had 99.99 percent Continental North European ancestry. Credit: © Duncan Sayer, University of Central Lancashire

The interdisciplinary team consisting of more than 70 authors was able to integrate archaeological data with these new genetic results, which revealed that women of immigrant origin were buried with artifacts more often than women of local origin, especially considering items such as brooches and beads. Interestingly, men with weapons were found to have both genetic origins equally often. These differences were locally mediated with prominent burials or wealthy graves seen across the range of origins. For example, a woman buried with a complete cow in Cambridgeshire was genetically mixed, with majority local ancestry.

Grave goods from inhumation grave 3532 at Issendorf cemetery. Credit: © Landesmuseum Hannover