Welsh people could be most ancient in UK, DNA suggests

[microrobert]

Welsh people could be most ancient in UK, DNA suggests

Welsh people could lay claim to be the most ancient Britons, according to scientists who have drawn up a genetic map of the British Isles.

Research suggests the Welsh are genetically distinct from the rest of mainland Britain.

Professor Peter Donnelly, of Oxford University, said the Welsh carry DNA which could be traced back to the last Ice Age, 10,000 years ago.

The project surveyed 2,000 people in rural areas across Britain.

Participants, as well as their parents and grandparents, had to be born in those areas to be included in the study.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-18489735

[Albion]

I notice the BBC never tell us just what DNA it actually is, what they're testing. Also nobody believes in the Celts being from Ice Age Iberia any more, more likely most of the males in Europe descend from people who spent the Ice Age on the Pontic Steppe.

We know there are genetic differences between the Welsh and rest of the Isles, but they're not so great. Wales is only unique because it is so genetically conservative, not because they differ significantly.

[Graham]

The other news stories say purest DNA in Cornwall, Wales. We know that.

http://www.savecornwall.org/?p=235
In the study Donnelly and his colleagues analysed the differences at 500,000 points in the DNA of 2,000 people. Only rural dwellers were included, and all had to have had all four grandparents born in the same area.

So it will be autosomal DNA.

[Albion]

The other news stories say purest DNA in Cornwall, Wales. We know that.





So it will be autosomal DNA.

None of these reports say what they tested. That southern and central England are quite uniform suggests the Germanic invasions. Northern England and Scotland being similar suggests that the Angles mixed with existing Celts.
So no surprises so far.

Donnelly and his colleagues, who will be describing their work at the Royal Society’s summer science exhibition, to be held in London on July 3-8, say there is some uncertainty about why the Cornish and Welsh have retained such a distinct profile, similar to that found in the peoples of Ireland and France. One possibility is that they are “relic” populations, tracing their ancestry back to the tribes that first moved into Europe and Britain as the ice receded.

Elsewhere, such peoples would since have been displaced or diluted by migrants.

Another is that the western parts of Britain were populated by migrants from the Atlantic coasts of France and Spain.

1. The English and Scots also have a great proportion of their genes from the Atalntic Coast of Europe - the Welsh and Cornish just draw most of theirs from it
2. No one believes in the Basque theory any more.

The Cornish and Welsh are likely to be delighted to have their identities confirmed — but the study could undermine similar claims by other regions.

The people of Norfolk, for example, have long claimed descent from the Iceni, the ancient tribe of which Boadicea is said to have been the warrior queen. However, Donnelly and the study leader, Professor Walter Bodmer, a leading Oxford geneticist, found that the people of East Anglia are genetically little different from those found across the south as far west as Dorset. Similarly, the DNA taken from Scots showed they had strong genetic similarities to the northern English.

So in other words the report is trying to say that Boudica must be Welsh or Cornish. That Norfolk is mainly Germanic today is apparently justification for this, but even Germanic regions such as that preserve some of the original Celtic population in their genes.

[Graham]

500,000 points means it's autosomal dna. Kind of what Polacko does. But with more British samples.

[gold_fenix]

mmm basques are oldest in Europe, Welsh i heard are very old and share with basuqes to be the people with highest frecuencies of R1b, too i heard something of some interesting rest of people in a cave suggest it

[Grizzly]

The better question is did this study offend the Muslims?

[Septentrion]

None of these reports say what they tested. That southern and central England are quite uniform suggests the Germanic invasions. Northern England and Scotland being similar suggests that the Angles mixed with existing Celts.
So no surprises so far.

1. The English and Scots also have a great proportion of their genes from the Atalntic Coast of Europe - the Welsh and Cornish just draw most of theirs from it
2. No one believes in the Basque theory any more.

So in other words the report is trying to say that Boudica must be Welsh or Cornish. That Norfolk is mainly Germanic today is apparently justification for this, but even Germanic regions such as that preserve some of the original Celtic population in their genes.

The Basque story was nonsense! Welsh are of course the purest Britons because they have the highest ratio of Celtic genes!