Moors in Anglo-Saxon England?

**Ajeje Brazorf** · 01-17-2024, 05:21 PM

Have any of you noticed this sample? It is half NW European and half Berber/SSA. How on earth did he end up in 8th century AD England? XD I am sure that it is not contamination or anything else; in fact, it is a sample with good coverage. Could it be misdated? Who knows...

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05247-2

Genetic ID	EAS003.SG
Publication	GretzingerNature2022
Method for Determining Date	Context: Archaeological - Period
Date mean	750 CE
Full Date	400-1100 CE
Group ID	England_Saxon_oAfrica.SG
Locality	England, Kent, Eastry
Data source	Shotgun
Coverage	64,43%
Molecular Sex	F

Code:

England_Saxon_oAfrica.SG:EAS003.SG,-0.114961,0.106631,0.030924,0.008075,0.02185,0.00502,-0.013631,0.013846,0.020248,0.00656,-0.000974,0.002098,-0.003419,-0.014588,0.019408,0.004508,0.004172,-0.003041,-0.006285,0.000875,0.008235,-0.009892,0.010723,0.010122,0.001796

Closest fit using modern individuals

Code:

Target: England_Saxon_oAfrica.SG:EAS003.SG
Distance: 0.0160% / 0.01596162
51.8    Irish:Irish37
48.2    Berber_Algeria:BerZN181

Target: England_Saxon_oAfrica.SG:EAS003.SG
Distance: 0.0174% / 0.01737973
52.3    Irish:Irish15
47.7    Berber_Algeria:BerZN181

Target: England_Saxon_oAfrica.SG:EAS003.SG
Distance: 0.0176% / 0.01760166
56.5    Tunisian_Douz:DOUZ_11
43.5    Norwegian:GSM1550659

Samples used

Code:

Berber_Algeria:BerZN181,-0.383584,0.09546,0.007542,-0.029716,0.012002,-0.008367,-0.038307,0.026307,0.024952,0.024237,0.002598,0.003597,0.011744,-0.016652,0.013165,0.004243,0.024382,-0.010769,-0.01986,0.008629,-0.007612,-0.026214,0.019227,0.008073,-0.005389
Irish:Irish15,0.127482,0.128972,0.060339,0.040375,0.036622,0.022869,0.003995,-0.000231,0.003272,0.003098,-0.007632,0.006594,-0.019029,-0.007019,0.037595,0.005038,-0.008736,0.011909,0.000251,-0.003126,0.021836,0.005812,-0.006039,0.01205,0.005987
Irish:Irish37,0.132035,0.129988,0.063733,0.047804,0.028621,0.020359,0.01034,0.003461,0.003068,-0.001822,-0.00406,0.008093,-0.015461,-0.011423,0.027823,0.001458,-0.016168,0.00076,0.009176,-0.006128,0.007237,0.008408,0.003944,0.01446,0.004071
Norwegian:GSM1550659,0.127482,0.12491,0.075801,0.062662,0.045547,0.023985,0.00188,0.006692,0.010431,-0.004374,-0.011692,0.009741,-0.004757,-0.020368,0.023072,0.019888,0.006258,0.000127,0.000754,0.009004,0.005615,0.002968,0.001972,0.016508,-0.002395
Tunisian_Douz:DOUZ_11,-0.298217,0.09546,-0.00792,-0.039729,0.003077,-0.016176,-0.029846,0.021922,0.026384,0.008747,0.006658,0.002398,0.008622,-0.003991,0.012351,-0.00305,0.005085,-0.00038,-0.009553,0.004627,-0.002496,-0.007172,0.011216,-0.002289,0.003952

**Kess** · 01-17-2024, 05:23 PM

Interesting indeed. A Roman leftover?

**Beowulf** · 01-17-2024, 05:24 PM

May be the daughter of an slave or merchant?

**Ajeje Brazorf** · 01-17-2024, 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by kessaras

Interesting indeed. A Roman leftover?

No, this individual is clearly the daughter of someone newly arrived in the British Isles.

Originally Posted by Beowulf

May be the daughter of an slave or merchant?

There were indeed individuals of mixed Berber and Black extraction in al-Andalus, this one was probably the daughter of a soldier or a slave. The crazy thing is to learn that some of these came all the way to England and mated with local women (?).

**ecptr** · 01-17-2024, 05:53 PM

A good start for "England has always been multicultural" type of propaganda.

**Creoda** · 01-17-2024, 05:56 PM

Yes, they made a big deal of one woman who was of part-African ancestry, buried alongside the others. I recall listening to a podcast with Duncan Sayer who talked about it. No mention of Moors.

**Ajeje Brazorf** · 01-17-2024, 06:14 PM

Originally Posted by ecptr

A good start for "England has always been multicultural" type of propaganda.

Yeah, the fact that's a lie as well as an exaggeration I think should be clear to anyone with an IQ above 80. Of course, there were individuals such as EAS003, but the percentage of non-European population in England will likely have been less than 0.01% at the time. It certainly was nothing even remotely similar to the England of 2024, where British/Irish are only 65% among the young generation.

Originally Posted by Creoda

Yes, they made a big deal of one woman who was of part-African ancestry, buried alongside the others. I recall listening to a podcast with Duncan Sayer who talked about it. No mention of Moors.

The Moors' is my guess.