Ancient DNA reveals the shocking scale of Anglo-Saxon migration

Origins A massive genetic analysis sheds new light on ancient Britain. by Jennifer Walter Sep. 23, 2022 Heritage Images/Hulton Fine Art Collection/Getty Images

Shutterstock In the Early Middle Ages, groups of people from mainland Europe migrated to the British Isles and dramatically reshaped society in their new homelands.

The history of those people — the Anglo-Saxons — is shrouded in mystery. Some scholars have hypothesized that the Anglo Saxons were wealthy elites, but more recent analyses show that they were likely of similar economic status to the local populations on the Isles. duncan1890/DigitalVision Vectors/Getty Images

And we still don’t know the full scale of Anglo-Saxon migration, or how they interacted with native populations.

duncan1890/DigitalVision Vectors/Getty Images But questions remain about how early medieval society was structured on the Isles.

A study published this week in the journal Nature sheds light on the answers, thanks to a widespread analysis of ancient DNA.

The researchers compared their DNA to ancient and modern samples from northwest Europe to determine similarities in their genetic makeup.

More genetic similarities indicate that the ancient peoples living in Britain were not native to the Isles, and instead related to Anglo-Saxon migrants.

©Landesmuseum Hannover The researchers also looked at other artifacts like grave goods and weapons buried with the individuals in Britain.

©Landesmuseum Hannover Those artifacts help determine the social status and wealth — or lack thereof — of the Anglo-Saxon migrants and their native counterparts.

Analysis revealed that up to 76 percent of the DNA from ancient individuals in Britain could be traced back to northwest Europe. This ancestry shows that it was quite common for the Anglo-Saxons and the local population to intermix. Shutterstock

Heritage Images/Hulton Fine Art Collection/Getty Images And the findings also support the idea that Anglo-Saxon migration was a widespread, mass migration, instead of being limited to an elite few.

However, there may have been some social separation between those of different ancestry.

Heritage Images/Hulton Fine Art Collection/Getty Images

©Landesmuseum Hannover For example, researchers found that female individuals who had more local DNA were less likely than their continental European counterparts to be buried with grave goods.

©Landesmuseum Hannover However, male individuals were just as likely to have been buried with weapons regardless of their ancestry.

And burial differences varied from site to site across Britain, showing that some regions may have been more socially separated than others. © Duncan Sayer, University of Central Lancashire

While questions remain about the nature of ancient societies on the Isles, we now have a better sense of just how much Anglo-Saxon migration altered medieval family trees.

ZU_09/DigitalVision Vectors/Getty Images