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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: 2, Disagree) by Whoever on Saturday February 24 2018, @03:39AM (6 children)
Incidentally, I can't find a thread where TMB was owned and his hypocrisy was made plain for all to see.
Is he deleting discussions from the database?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday February 24 2018, @08:04AM (1 child)
Is this an accusation with zero evidence (disguised as posing a question) made in order to smear a hard-working admin and cover up your own incompetence in not bookmarking the thread or being able to effectively use a site search?
Wow, I should use question marks more often! :-)
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Saturday February 24 2018, @10:36PM
Apparently I owe TMB an apology. Some more searching and I was able to find the thread that I thought had gone missing.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday February 24 2018, @03:40PM (3 children)
"Owned" is probably in the eye of the beholder.
(Score: 3, Informative) by aristarchus on Sunday February 25 2018, @08:32AM (2 children)
Ah, this is why both you, Oh Less Than Mighty Runaway, and The Mangy Broussard, are both still here! You are incapable of sensing when you have been "Powned". Everyone else can see it, even takyon, who did not refute the assertion of "Ownededness", but only the accusation of face-saving deletions. Which I have to say, SoylentNews, whatever its other flaws, does not do. So, you are owned again, Runaway. Too bad you cannot see it. So come at me again, bro! This would be fun, if it were not so pathetic. Poor Runaway.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 25 2018, @08:49AM (1 child)
Come at you? Really? And, what? You'll make more pathetic noises about your age, experience, and wisdom? I think I'll go sort my socks into pairs - arguing with you is just dull.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday February 25 2018, @09:25AM
Kind of the conclusion I was trying to lead you to, so that you would shut up and stop embarrassing yourself by exposing your lack of knowledge and reasoning skills. Glad we finally agree on something.