Low Genetic Impact of the Roman Occupation of Britain in Rural Communities
The Roman period saw the empire expand across Europe and the Mediterranean, including much of what is today Great Britain. While there is written evidence of high mobility into and out of Britain for administrators, traders, and the military, the impact of imperialism on local, rural population structure, kinship, and mobility is invisible in the textual record. The extent of genetic change that occurred in Britain during the Roman military occupation remains underexplored. Here, using genome-wide data from 52 ancient individuals from eight sites in Cambridgeshire covering the period of Roman occupation, we show low levels of genetic ancestry differentiation between Romano-British sites and indications of larger populations than in the Bronze Age and Neolithic. We find no evidence of long-distance migration from elsewhere in the Empire, though we do find one case of possible temporary mobility within a family unit during the Late Romano-British period. We also show that the present-day patterns of genetic ancestry composition in Britain emerged after the Roman period.
Authors
- Eugenia D’Atanasio (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4965-246X)
- Rob Wiseman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8947-5624)
- Simone Andrea Biagini (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4488-3162)
- Craig Cessford (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7291-7828)
- Martin Millett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4073-3260)
- Mait Metspalu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3099-9161)
- Christopher Evans (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9203-1354)
- Benjamin Neil (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7183-4622)
- Christiana L. Scheib (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4158-8296)
- John Robb (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7987-4549)
- Alice Rose (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1755-7174)
- Stefania Sasso (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1090-5731)
- Corinne Duhig
- Anu Solnik (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5615-5726)
- Tamsin C. O’Connell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4744-0332)
- Sarah A. Inskip (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7424-2094)
- Trish Biers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1467-7667)
- Göran Runfeldt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1313-3123)
- Jenna M. Dittmar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3514-1869)
- Sarah-Jane Harknett
- Samuel J. Griffith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-2335-9054)
- Toomas Kivisild (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6297-7808)
- Ruoyun Hui (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5689-7131)
Institutions
- Museum of London Archaeology (GB)
- Turing Institute (GB)
- University of Leicester (GB)
- St. John's College of Nursing (US)
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ES)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- British Library (GB)
- Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (ES)
- Gene Therapy Laboratory (FR)
- Bridge University (SS)
- Center for Human Genetics (US)
- Institute of Molecular Biology and Pathology (IT)
- National Museum of Archaeology (BO)
- Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (ES)
- Department of Archaeology (LK)
- Estonian Biocentre (EE)
- University of Tartu (EE)
- KU Leuven (BE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Molecular Biology and Evolution
- Published
- 2024-09-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msae168
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Forensic and Genetic Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.85
Funders
- Wellcome Trust
- British Archaeological Association
- European Commission
- Queen's University Belfast
- Eesti Teadusagentuur
- Queen's University
- Tartu Ülikool
- European Regional Development Fund