Origins of the British

Stephen Oppenheimer's extraordinary scientific detective story combining genetics, linguistics, archaeology and historical record shatters the myths we have come to live by. It demonstrates that the Anglo-Saxon invasions contributed just a tiny fraction (5%) to the English gene pool. Two thirds of the English people reveal an unbroken line of genetic descent from south-western Europeans arriving long before the first farmers. The bulk of the remaining third arrived between 7,000 and 3,000 years ago as part of long-term north-west European trade and immigration, especially from Scandinavia - and may have brought with them the earliest forms of English language. As for the Celts - the Irish, Scots and Welsh - history has traditionally placed their origins in Iron Age Central Europe. Oppenheimer's genetic synthesis shows them to have arrived via the Atlantic coastal route from Ice Age refuges including the Basque country; with the modern languages we call Celtic arriving later. There is indeed a deep divide between the English and the rest of the British. But as this book reveals the division is many thousands of years older than previously thought.

ISBN 1845294823   Pages 400 ISBN13 9781845294823 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 529 Publisher Constable and Robinson   Published in London Imprint Robinson Publishing   Height (mm) 197 Format Paperback   Width (mm) 130 Publication date 12 Apr 2007   Spine width (mm) 39 DEWEY 305.800941   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC22

"* 'A well-informed, original and challenging application of new gentic dta to the early populatio of Britain: British prehistory will never look the same again' Professor Colin Renfrew, University of Cambridge * 'Oppenheimer calls his book 'a genetic detective story. It is. Pre-Roman language in western Europe was a locked-room mystery - until someone looked for the key' Aubrey Burl"

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