[stadiaKab]

Really interesting article this. For the longest time it has been thought that British were a mix of a celtic gene base with lots of anglo-saxon and french thrown in, with a bit of Roman and Viking for good measure.

Now that so much more is known about genes and so forth, this has now been refuted.

It turns out that the celts had nothing to do with anything, not even the Irish or Scots.

The British gene pool has essentially remained unchanged since the last Ice Age, despite the masses of invasions the Islands have had.

It is thought that the British are of Basque origin. The Basque region is a small area in the very north of Spain, between Spain and France.

Most likely the Basques crossed over and settled Britain over 10,000 years ago.

Most interesting is that it seems as tho the British, Irish, Scots and Welsh all come from the same stock. The notion of Scottish and Irish people being of Celtic origin seems to have been made up in the 17th and 18th centuries as they tried to differentiate themselves from the English, but this doesn't appear to be the case at all.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...ishgene_2.html

[no02rSx2]

i can see the bit about the spanish,but consider the point that the vikings settled here and never left

[we0MA4MI]

That's pretty interesting

I suppose even if you do get invaders, the local women aren't likely to feel that amorous towards them!

[GroosteFoessy]

That's pretty interesting

I suppose even if you do get invaders, the local women aren't likely to feel that amorous towards them!

back then the women didn't get much of a say in it

[cokLoolioli]

Well the British I suppose have held different value sets than those of the invaders, so perhaps that's why there wasn't much integration.

Not sure about the viking situation, according to wikipedia:

Genetic studies in the British Isles of the Y-DNA Haplogroup R1a1, seen also across Scandinavia, have demonstrated that the Vikings settled in Britain and Ireland as well as raiding there. Both male and female descent studies show evidence of Norwegian descent in areas closest to Scandinavia, such as the Shetland and Orkney Islands. Inhabitants of lands farther away show most Norse descent in the male Y chromosome lines. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...f-pillage.html

[Feloascarlelt]

back then the women didn't get much of a say in it

Good point still, I would have thought maybe the men would stop their women getting carried off if they could?

[Trebbinsa]

Good point still, I would have thought maybe the men would stop their women getting carried off if they could?

they may have actually encouraged it

[Unoloknovagog]

they may have actually encouraged it

It's almost like you're suggesting british men don't value their women, you cheeky sod!

[jobsfancy]

It's almost like you're suggesting british men don't value their women, you cheeky sod!

well given the chance to offload the old one for newer model, assuming the young ones survived the invaders (being faster runners)

[spineeupsenry]

Good point still, I would have thought maybe the men would stop their women getting carried off if they could?

if it got to the point that the women were being carried off the men were probably on the floor with holes in them