Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon genomes from East England reveal British migration history

Stephan Schiffels (), Wolfgang Haak, Pirita Paajanen, Bastien Llamas, Elizabeth Popescu, Louise Loe, Rachel Clarke, Alice Lyons, Richard Mortimer, Duncan Sayer, Chris Tyler-Smith, Alan Cooper and Richard Durbin ()
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Stephan Schiffels: Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton
Wolfgang Haak: Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Biological Sciences and The Environment Institute, University of Adelaide
Pirita Paajanen: Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton
Bastien Llamas: Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Biological Sciences and The Environment Institute, University of Adelaide
Elizabeth Popescu: Oxford Archaeology East
Louise Loe: Oxford Archaeology South
Rachel Clarke: Oxford Archaeology East
Alice Lyons: Oxford Archaeology East
Richard Mortimer: Oxford Archaeology East
Duncan Sayer: School of Forensic and Applied Sciences, University of Central Lancashire
Chris Tyler-Smith: Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton
Alan Cooper: Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Biological Sciences and The Environment Institute, University of Adelaide
Richard Durbin: Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract British population history has been shaped by a series of immigrations, including the early Anglo-Saxon migrations after 400 CE. It remains an open question how these events affected the genetic composition of the current British population. Here, we present whole-genome sequences from 10 individuals excavated close to Cambridge in the East of England, ranging from the late Iron Age to the middle Anglo-Saxon period. By analysing shared rare variants with hundreds of modern samples from Britain and Europe, we estimate that on average the contemporary East English population derives 38% of its ancestry from Anglo-Saxon migrations. We gain further insight with a new method, rarecoal, which infers population history and identifies fine-scale genetic ancestry from rare variants. Using rarecoal we find that the Anglo-Saxon samples are closely related to modern Dutch and Danish populations, while the Iron Age samples share ancestors with multiple Northern European populations including Britain.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10408

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