Author(s): Stephen Oppenheimer

History

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 per cent) 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. Most of the remaining third arrived between 6,000 and 3,000 years ago as part of long-term north-west European trade and immigration, especially from Scandinavia - possibly carrying 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 the majority 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 we ever knew. Unpublished mtDNA and Y-chromosome genetic data has rapidly piled up about the British people. Synthesising the new genetic evidence with linguistics, archaeology and history, Stephen Oppenheimer breaks dramatic findings about the origins of the British people. The first scoop is that the roots of English identity lie over 6000 years ago, not with the Anglo-Saxons. Genetic evidence reveals that the majority of English people derive directly from before the first farmers. Secondly, new findings finally answer the question of Celtic genetic identity, which is an issue real for millions of people. Gene lines prove, once and for all, the continued existence of a discrete, British Atlantic coast-based population. Finally, Oppenheimer puts new detail on the genetic legacy of the Viking invasions. He reveals that Orkney and Shetland, far from being victims, had been part of the Scandinavian world long before the Viking onslaught and, through the evidence of their genes, participated actively in raids on Ireland and the colonization of Iceland. Review: "* '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" This edition first published April 2007.