Two people who lived in England during the Early Middle Ages had recent sub-Saharan African ancestry — likely from a grandparent, a new DNA analysis reveals.
“The DNA shows that there is human, as well as material, connection and that it extends into West Africa,” study co-author Duncan Sayer, a historical archaeologist at the University of Lancashire in the U.K., told Live Science in an email.
Archaeologists discovered the burial of an adolescent girl at Updown cemetery in Kent and the burial of a young man at Worth Matravers cemetery in Dorset. Both cemeteries, located in southern Britain, were dated to the seventh century, after the fall of the Roman Empire, when Anglo-Saxon peoples occupied the island.
DNA analysis of five people buried at Updown and 18 people buried at Worth Matravers found that most of these individuals had Northern European or western British and Irish ancestry, researchers reported in 2022. But when they sequenced the DNA of the girl buried in grave 47 at Updown, they realized her ancestry came from an entirely different continent.
In two studies published Wednesday (Aug. 13) in the journal Antiquity, researchers detailed the unusual genetic backgrounds of the girl from Updown and the young man from Worth Matravers.
Analysis of the young people’s mitochondrial DNA, which is passed from mother to child, revealed that both had mothers who were likely from Northern Europe. But their autosomal DNA, which comes from chromosomes that do not code for biological sex, showed clear signals of non-European ancestry.
Related: Archaeologists discover rare liquid gypsum burial of ‘high-status individual’ from Roman Britain
“Both individuals thus show genetically and geographically mixed descent,” and had an estimated 20% to 40% ancestry characteristic of sub-Saharan Africa, Sayer and colleagues wrote in the study. Updown girl’s DNA had affinity to that of present-day Yoruba, Mende, Mandenka and Esan groups, the team found.
Based on a statistical model, the researchers propose that both people had a grandparent with African ancestry, possibly from similar groups that left sub-Saharan Africa between the mid-sixth and early seventh centuries.
The fact that these individuals were buried with their communities suggests they were valued by their peers, the authors wrote in the study.
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Latest from Live Science…