Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

‘Cheddar Man and the Genetic Prehistory of Britain’

Dr. Tom Booth, Senior Research Scientist,  Pontus Skoglund Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute

Next Generation Sequencing technology has enabled vast improvements  in the study of ancient DNA over the last 15 years and we now have genome-wide data from thousands of humans from the last c.50,000 years. The long history of archaeology in Britain, ranging from antiquarian digs to modern commercial excavations has meant that archaeological institutions collectively have accumulated a vast assemblage of human remains dating to a variety of periods over the last 20,000 years. As a result, Britain has been a particular target for studies of ancient DNA, and we now have genetic information from over 1000 ancient people who lived in Britain over the last 15,000 years. The proliferation of ancient genetic information from Britain has mean that we now have a clear idea about the demographic history of Britain before written records, revealing amongst other things several major episodes of migration and genetic change and patterns of relatedness amongst burials at significant sites, including those around Stonehenge. In this talk I will discuss what we have learned from ancient DNA about Britain 15,000-2000 years ago, from the end of the last Ice Age up to the development of written histories.

7pm in the Tempest Anderson Lecture Theatre in the Yorkshire Museum

All welcome to this free event; although donations are welcome.

Member’s report

The long history of archaeology in Britain has accumulated vast assemblages of human remains dating over various periods from the last 20,000 years. Studies of their ancient DNA have been enabled by the development of Next Generation Sequencing Technology, and we now have genetic information from more than 1,000 people who lived in Britain. This has revealed several major episodes of migration and genetic change and patterns of relatedness among burials at significant sites like Stonehenge and Cheddar Gorge. Cheddar Man from the 9th millennium BC appears to be a Western European Hunter-Gatherer with dark skin and blue eyes, whereas later waves of migration came from the group of Early European Farmers (EEF) from Anatolia. The Boscombe Bowman may have been of Breton origin, while the Amesbury Archer was more Alpine. The ancient DNA of the EEF group is largely preserved in modern Britain, less so in more remote places in Scotland and Ireland but more prevalent in England. It is clear that Britishness and whiteness was not an immutable truth but has always changed and will further change, while racial categories are modern constructs and not really applicable to the past. There is no ‘British’ DNA, and we seem to be more closely related to our European continental neighbours in a homogenisation of ancestries across Europe.

Roger Pinder