DNA analysis reveals the origin of West Africa in England early in the Middle Ages

The skeleton of a girl from an updated cemetery, it was found that the ancestors of West Africa

M George and others.

There will be two young, non -relevant young men buried in graves in England in the Middle Ages, the first ancestors of West Africa. How and when their relatives reached Britain, it is unknown, but the discovery means that immigrants in the Anglo -Saxon ages came from other places more than he had previously thought.

After the Romans finally withdrew from Britain in 410 AD, Britain was invaded and stable by the Germanic, Saxon and Jute angles. To investigate if people also arrived from another place, Denkan Sayer At the University of Central Lancashire, the United Kingdom, and its colleagues have analyzed the old DNA of the bones of people buried in the graves of the seventh century on the southern coast in England.

One of them is in the updated in Kent, where many things were found from all over the world, including utensils, ox and gravel from Franch Gall, and agate in jewelry that might come from India. People in the cemetery are often buried with elements such as cooking tools, table tools or combs.

Another cemetery in Matraves, Dorset, West. People are buried there in a British Roman way, with a few dangerous commodities.

The majority of those in the graves, as expected, had either the origins of northern Europe or British and Irish, but a girl in an updated and young man in Worth Matrifers had modern ancestors, probably very, from West Africa.

Either way, the DNA of Mitochondria, which was transferred from the mother, northern Europe, but the autonomous DNA, which comes from both parents on an equal footing, had 20 to 40 percent of Europa at the present time, Mindy, Mandica and two versions of Africa under the Eucharist.

This means that Western DNA from West Africa comes from a grandfather – the first evidence of genetic ties between Britain and Africa during the early Middle Ages.

Both young men were buried as model members in society. DNA analysis also showed that two relatives of “Updown Girl”, who was about 11 to 13 years old when she died, in the same cemetery: Jeddah and aunt.

Looking at the proportions of carbon and nitrogen counterparts in a sample of Matraves Work, between the ages of 17 and 25 years old when he died, showed what he ate when the bones form.

“From his diet, he appears to be born and raised in England,” says team member. Ceiridwen Edwards At Huddersfield University, UK.

Edwards says there is evidence of African DNA in York during the Roman period. However, Sayer believes that the level of DNA in West Africa in youth in the graves will be much lower if they are the descendants of people from the days of Roman rule. He says: “This is very, so it is not about the Roman army or officials, who have been several hundred years in the past,” he says.

“There is also no evidence that these people were slaves:” These individuals are buried as members of their community, “said Sayer. “

Instead, it suggests that this is related to trading, merchandise movement and people. At some point, people from West Africa came to Britain, perhaps on a commercial ship, and remained.

Sayer believes that their arrival may be linked to the restoration of North Africa by the Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, in the sixth century. This military action has been taken to reach gold from sub -Saharan Africa. He says: “The reopening of this channel occurs at a time that corresponds to the ancestors of these two people.”

“This work shows the extent of post dynamics-[Western] He says Roman and early medieval periods in Britain. Marina Suares da Silva At the Francis Crick Institute in London. “The authors propose trading methods facilitated by the Byzantine Empire base in North Africa, and I think this is a correct possibility.”

Sayer says that in the seventh century England was certainly not a “dark era” group of isolated small and rural societies. “These are dynamic societies that are traded, and the flow of genes, along the way from West Africa and abroad.”