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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
The ancient population of Britain was almost completely replaced by newcomers about 4,500 years ago, a study shows.
The findings mean modern Britons trace just a small fraction of their ancestry to the people who built Stonehenge.
The astonishing result comes from analysis of DNA extracted from 400 ancient remains across Europe.
The mammoth study, published in Nature, suggests the newcomers, known as Beaker people, replaced 90% of the British gene pool in a few hundred years.
Lead author Prof David Reich, from Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, US, said: "The magnitude and suddenness of the population replacement is highly unexpected."
The reasons remain unclear, but climate change, disease and ecological disaster could all have played a role.
People in Britain lived by hunting and gathering until agriculture was introduced from continental Europe about 6,000 years ago. These Neolithic farmers, who traced their origins to Anatolia (modern Turkey) built giant stone (or "megalithic") structures such as Stonehenge in Wiltshire, huge Earth mounds and sophisticated settlements such as Skara Brae in the Orkneys.
But towards the end of the Neolithic, about 4,450 years ago, a new way of life spread to Britain from Europe. People began burying their dead with stylised bell-shaped pots, copper daggers, arrowheads, stone wrist guards and distinctive perforated buttons.
Co-author Dr Carles Lalueza-Fox, from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE) in Barcelona, Spain, said the Beaker traditions probably started "as a kind of fashion" in Iberia after 5,000 years ago.
From here, the culture spread very fast by word of mouth to Central Europe. After it was adopted by people in Central Europe, it exploded in every direction - but through the movement of people.
Prof Reich told BBC News: "Archaeologists ever since the Second World War have been very sceptical about proposals of large-scale movements of people in prehistory. But what the genetics are showing - with the clearest example now in Britain at Beaker times - is that these large-scale migrations occurred, even after the spread of agriculture."
[...] The Nature study examines the Beaker phenomenon across Europe using DNA from hundreds more samples, including remains from Holland, Spain, the Czech Republic, Italy and France.
Another intriguing possibility links the Beaker people with the spread of Celtic languages. Although many linguistics experts believe Celtic spread thousands of years later, Dr Lalueza-Fox said: "In my view, the massive population turnover must be accompanied by a language replacement."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Arik on Saturday February 24 2018, @02:48AM (6 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 24 2018, @03:09PM
Perhaps you should study more. Islam is founded on deception. Their main prophet was a pedophile. To this day they rape and murder everyone including their own. Their book can be downloaded. Read it.
I never understood why people of one religion felt the need to kill people of another religion. I understood people hating each other, disagreeing, being mean or stupid or paycho. Full on let's kill them all? No.
Now I do.
I have read the koran.
I understand why they want to kill or convert the world.
I understand why others would feel the need to kill them.
Read the first chapter, if nothing else.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday February 24 2018, @07:00PM (4 children)
It's not all that modern. The violent wing of the Muslim faith has been rather dominant ever since Tamerlane wiped out the civilized branch. This isn't to say that the peaceful Muslims aren't the majority, they just haven't been dominant. This is also, of course, true of Christianity. They've been pretty dominated by the violent wing recently, and without the excuse of being violently suppressed.
Note, that just as most Muslims are peaceful, so are most Christians, and most atheists. The problem is that violent people wrap themselves in the mantle of an ideology and claim it for themselves. This is, admittedly, easier for the followers of Mohamed, as he lead an army during his lifetime, and a lot of his writings reflect that. But Christians have managed to be excessively violent without that support. The Inquisition was probably the inspiration of some of the Nazi atrocities. Of course, there've been technical improvements since the 12th century.
The problem isn't religion, either, the Communists were rather vile at time, and you could ask the American Indians about the honesty, integrity, and kindness shown but the invading citizens of a democracy. (Or the Army. President Jackson was intentionally vile.)
That said, civilizations that see themselves as more homogeneous tend to be more supportive of their citizens. I think this is because of some built-in tribalism, but that's a guess. The correlation is an observed fact. (Of course, since the causal sequence isn't proven, there could be other observations that will disprove it...but I haven't heard of any.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Monday February 26 2018, @03:48PM (3 children)
Wrong, wrong, and wrong.
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703 – 1792.)
Timur was only nominally Muslim and simply used religion in a thoroughly political way and transparently cynical way. He ruled as an oriental potentate, a 'Great Khan' in conscious imitation of Genghiz, and he was viewed by such. You'll not find him listed as an Imam at all, let alone a significant one.
You should check out lettertobaghdadi.com
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday February 26 2018, @05:33PM (2 children)
Did you not read what I wrote? You aren't disagreeing with my point, even if you think you are.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Monday February 26 2018, @07:07PM (1 child)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday February 26 2018, @11:29PM
No, I didn't make any claim about some recently founded branch of Islam, except that they aren't both peaceful and dominant.
To be certain I went back and reread my original post.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.