It is at this point that we can see the older population who inhabited Britain during the Neolithic had only a small overall genetic legacy. ![]() ![]() This situation persisted for at least three hundred years, until sometime around 4,000 years ago when the two groups started mixing more liberally. 'Two groups that were genetically quite different from one another lived largely in parallel, having children with each other only occasionally.' 'It looks like this new population came over from the continent and settled areas of the landscape where the local Neolithic population weren't living. 'When you look at this change more carefully, it is a much more gradual process, probably taking the best part of 500 years' explains Tom. Rather than this shift representing a sudden, violent turnover of populations, it was instead a gradual integration and merging of communities.ĭr Tom Booth, a former postdoctoral researcher at the Museum now based at The Francis Crick Institute, has been delving deeper into the genetics of these ancient people. Recent narratives have framed this in terms of waves of invaders sweeping across the channel and displacing the people who were already living in Britain.īut a new study looking at both the genetics and culture of Britain between 4,500 and 4,000 years ago is showing that the picture is far more complex. Not only did this period see a shift in the dominant culture of the island, but studies have found that there was a huge change in the genetics of the people living there too. The Early Bronze Age in Britain was a time of great change.
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