A racially discriminatory society is believed to have existed at the beginning of the Anglo-Saxon period in England, researchers speculate. They suggest that a small population of migrants from Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark established this discriminatory society upon arriving on the misty island nation.
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| Anglo-Saxon artifacts show they were an economic force. (Photo: BBC) |
Researchers believe that these immigrants altered the gene pool of the local population by leveraging economic advantages to intermix with the indigenous population. This could explain the relatively rich presence of German genes in men living in England today.
Studies reveal that the genetic makeup of contemporary English populations contains between 50% to 100% Y chromosomes from German ancestry.
However, this overwhelming dominance has puzzled experts, as some historical and archaeological evidence indicates that only a small number of Anglo-Saxon immigrants (around 10,000 – 20,000 individuals) arrived in England between the 5th and 7th centuries AD, compared to about 2 million indigenous people.
To understand what transpired during that period, British scientists employed computational models to simulate changes in the gene pool with the introduction of a small group of immigrants.
They also utilized historical evidence suggesting that the indigenous English were at a social and economic disadvantage compared to the Anglo-Saxon immigrants. This, they propose, may have led to reproductive imbalances and ethnic divisions.
Dr. Mark Thomas, one of the study’s authors from University College London, stated: “We found that the Anglo-Saxons spread their culture and genes into the indigenous English within just a few hundred years.”
“A small group of Anglo-Saxon migrants may have quickly established their position by having more surviving offspring, thanks to military power and economic advantages,” Thomas explained.
“We believe they also hindered the spread of indigenous English genes into their population by limiting inter-ethnic marriages within an Apartheid-like system. This is what we see today – a population with a predominantly German gene pool, speaking German as their primary language.”
T. An
