Course Description

Instructor: Michael McDavid

The island of Britain has been continuously inhabited by “modern” humans for about 10,000 years according to the latest archaeological records. Recent DNA testing has shown that England’s first population was “replaced” several times by later incursions of people from the continent. Today’s English citizen whose ancestors have inhabited the island for many generations is a true genetic mix of forebears from across the world. In this session we will survey the different groups who settled in England, mixing with and replacing, the previous people there over the millennia. Some of these “invaders” included the Bell Beaker people, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and the Normans. Each of them left genetic markers in the English population that are readily discernible today.