Rewriting Medieval History with Ancient DNA

Joscha Gretzinger (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology), African Connections with Anglo-Saxon England? New Light from Ancient DNA. Comments by John Hines (Cardiff University), Emmanuel Akyempong (Harvard University), and Orlando Patterson (Harvard University); reception to follow. Co-sponsored by the Harvard Initiative for the Science of the Human Past (SoHP) and the Committee on Medieval Studies.

Researchers have sequenced DNA from two individuals buried in seventh-century England—an adolescent girl from Kent and a young man from Dorset—and discovered that both carried recent West African ancestry, probably within the last two generations, along with northern European genetic links. Despite their varied heritage, each was buried in keeping with local traditions, suggesting they were regarded as members of their communities.