By sequencing the genomes of four different ancient Irish men and women from different eras, researchers from Trinity College Dublin and Queen’s University Belfast have found evidence of mass migration that likely explains historical lifestyle transitions in the British Isles.
In research published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Trinity College population genetics professor Dan Bradley and his colleagues said that they sequenced the genome of an early female farmer who lived near Belfast about 5,200 years ago, along with three men from the Bronze Age, approximately 4,000 years ago.
They found that the farmer was primarily of Middle Eastern ancestry, which is where agriculture was invented, and that the genomes of the three Bronze Age men were different, with nearly one-third of their ancestry coming from ancient sources in the Pontic Steppe.
This is a reconstruction of the Ballynahatty Neolithic skull by Elizabeth Black. Her genes tell us she had black hair and brown eyes. (Credit: Barrie Hartwell)
Clear evidence of mass migration in the British Isles found
Based on these findings, the authors believe there is clear evidence that the transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, to a farming-based one, then to one centered around metal and stone use was due to the influx of new peoples through migration, and not solely due to the adoption of new lifestyles by locals already settled in the area.
“There was a great wave of genome change that swept… from above the Black Sea into Bronze Age Europe and we now know it washed all the way to the shores of its most westerly island,” said Bradley. “This degree of genetic change invites the possibility of other associated changes, perhaps even the introduction of language ancestral to western Celtic tongues.”
“It is clear that this project has demonstrated what a powerful tool ancient DNA analysis can provide in answering questions which have long perplexed academics regarding the origins of the Irish,” added Dr Eileen Murphy, an osteoarchaeologist from Queen’s University Belfast.
The team also found that the early farmer had black hair and brown eyes, while the three men from the Bronze Age had the most common Irish Y chromosome type, blue eye alleles and the C282Y mutation, a gene variant that is frequently found Irish people that is responsible for the condition haemochromatosis. This discovery marks the first ever identification of a key disease variant in prehistory, the researchers noted.
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Feature Image: Excavated near Belfast in 1855, she had lain in a Neolithic tomb chamber for 5,000 years; subsequently curated in Queens University Belfast. (Credit: Daniel Bradley, Trinity College Dublin)
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