SoA Forums

History => Ancient and Medieval History => Topic started by: Duncan Head on May 22, 2017, 09:38:40 AM

Title: Did the Beaker Folk wipe out the Stonehenge-builders?
Post by: Duncan Head on May 22, 2017, 09:38:40 AM
Genetic evidence suggests that the people who built Stonehenge left no trace on the genome of subsequent British populations:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/20/dutch-invaders-stonehenge-ancient-britons

Of course, maybe Stonehenge was a portal to another dimension, and the continental incomers just occupied the space that the vanished henge-builders left empty.

Or maybe the sample set is just too small.
Title: Re: Did the Beaker Folk wipe out the Stonehenge-builders?
Post by: Imperial Dave on May 22, 2017, 04:57:58 PM
not sure Duncan, the piece is not specific in terms of where they tested the DNA samples from. Were they just in the Wiltshire area or throughout the UK? As you point out there is no indication of the sample size for the UK analysis. It would seem very odd to have one culture/genetically unique grouping completely replace another.

Even the Neanderthals appear to have left some DNA hanging around in the modern gene pool. If the normal pattern of 'invasion' occurs then the preceding groupings normally move West and North and we should be able to find some evidence there...?
Title: Re: Did the Beaker Folk wipe out the Stonehenge-builders?
Post by: Duncan Head on May 22, 2017, 07:45:22 PM
The http://biorxiv.org page linked to has a "Supplementary Information" tab which gives info on where some of the samples came from, but it's samples from all over Europe and I'm not interested enough to go through it looking for the British ones.
Title: Re: Did the Beaker Folk wipe out the Stonehenge-builders?
Post by: Dave Beatty on June 03, 2017, 11:40:16 PM
Weren't there some mass graves found in Wiltshire that were associated with a violent demise of the indigenous folk and posited to be the outcome of a battle with the invading Bronze Age Beaker Folk? Maybe I am getting my prehistoric massacres mixed up...