The Origins of the British: The New Prehistory of Britain (67 page)

mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)

Genetic material in the mitochondria (self-reproducing organelles inside cells, but outside the nucleus). Because mitochondria (and hence mitochondrial DNA) are inherited only from the mother, mtDNA provides an unmixed link to past female generations. It is useful for dating and recording initial colonizations and migrations of humans.
Compare
Y-chromosome
.

Neolithic

Literally ‘new stone age’, a period that followed the
Mesolithic
and was associated with the introduction of agriculture and pottery. In Britain the Neolithic lasted from about 6,000 to about 4,000 years ago.

Ogham

A celtic alphabetic script, probably originating in Ireland, used throughout non-English,
insular-celtic
-speaking areas of Britain from the fifth century
AD
, mainly on standing stones and often with celtic–Latin bilingual inscriptions. Characters consisted of one to five slash marks, vertical or diagonal, carved against a running base line.

Palaeolithic

Literally ‘old stone age’, a cultural phase preceding the
Mesolithic
and
Neolithic
ages. These phases occurred at different times in different cultures. In Britain the Palaeolithic commenced over half a million years ago.

palimpsest

A classical term meaning a manuscript which has been reused by scraping off the original text and writing over the top. Used in this book and in certain genetic and archaeological literature as an analogy for multiple European migrations: in this sense, it means genetic evidence of one migration route overlying an earlier one, both migrations having been channelled by the same geographical corridors and barriers.

P-celtic

Alternative name for the
Brythonic
branch of the
insular-celtic
group of languages, so called because it uses a ‘P’ sound where
Q-celtic
languages, in the
Goidelic
branch, use a ‘Q’ (or hard ‘C’) sound.

phenotype

The expression of the genes present in an individual. This may be directly observable (eye colour) or apparent only with specific tests (blood group). The blood group A is an example of a phenotype with several possible underlying genotypes (AO and AA), since A is dominant and O recessive.
Compare
genotype
.

phylogeography

The study of the patterns of genetic differentiation on a
gene tree
across landscapes. The geographical distribution of gene lines is analysed with respect to their phylogenetic position on a gene tree, usually within a species, to reconstruct their origins and routes of movement.

Pleistocene

Literally ‘ice age’, the geological epoch that preceded the
Holocene
, lasting, by convention, from around 1.8 million to 10,000 years ago. It was a time of global cooling and increased climatic changes, long
glacial
periods alternating with much shorter, warmer
interglacial
periods.

Principal Components Analysis (PCA)

A statistical technique used to simplify the presentation of a dataset. For instance, it takes the variance of a number of different genetic markers between populations – the degree to which they vary from an average value – and parcels them into a series of components, the First Principal Component, Second Principal Component, and so on, in decreasing order of statistical importance.

Q-celtic

See
P-celtic
.

refuge

An isolated area (also called a
refugium
) where the extensive environmental changes caused by changing climate, typically glaciation, are more benign, and where plants and animals typical of a region – including humans – may survive. After a return to favourable climatic conditions, survivors may spread out from the refuge and repopulate areas from which their species had become extinct.

rune

A letter in a runic alphabet, or an inscription using such letters. Runic alphabets were used to write Germanic languages, mainly and originally in Scandinavia, but also in the British Isles and Frisia, from around the second century
AD
to the fifteenth.

single tandem repeat (STR) sequence

Multiply repeated DNA sequences in which the repeat units are short (typically three to seven nucleotide base pairs in length).
The numbers of such repeats can be used as genetic markers. In the non-recombining Y-chromosome, combinations of these numbers at different genetic sites (loci) can be combined to form unique
haplotypes
(referred to as STR
gene types
in this book). The rapidity of individual number changes over time is an advantage for studying short timescales, but a disadvantage for constructing an unambiguous gene tree or network.

Solutrean

A cultural phase of the Upper Palaeolithic in south-west Europe dating from about 22,000 to 18,000 years ago and distinguished by finely crafted flint projectile points, ornamental beads and bone pins, and evocative prehistoric art. It followed the
Gravettian
and preceded the
Magdalenian
. Named after the archaeological site at Solutré, a village in south-eastern France.

Y-chromosome

The male sex chromosome and held only by the male. Its advantage for tracing the geographical movements of the genes people carry is a lack of recombination at each generation, thus allowing detailed reconstruction of male ancestry in prehistory. It tends to give a sharper geographical pattern than
mitochondrial DNA
.

Younger Dryas (Event) (YD)

A short intense period of glaciation from about 13,000 to 11,500 years ago (the Older Dryas was a less severe glaciation about 2,000 years previously). The
Dryas octopetala
is a hardy Alpine plant known from pollen deposits to have flourished during these cold spells.

These notes are intended as a facility to readers, academic or otherwise, seeking technical clarification and sources of evidence. They contain technical terms and detail which, in the space available, cannot be explained to the same level as in the main text. Sources are cited in full in the bibliography. Explanation of the genetic analysis and dating used in this book and relevant genetic trees are found in the appendices.

1
. Rhiannon Edward, ‘Scots and English aulder enemies than thought’, The Scotsman, 12 April 2004.

2
. Keith Sinclair, ‘English-Scots split goes back 10,000 years: genetic proof of Celts’ ancient ancestry’,
The Herald
, 12 April 2004.

3
. Louise Gray, ‘Celts and English are a breed apart? Absolutely, says Professor’,
Independent
, 12 April 2004.

4
. ‘Scientist mulls Anglo-Scottish split: cultural differences which divide the Scots and the English date back 10,000 years before Britain was an island, a professor has suggested’,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3618613.stm
>, accessed 11 April 2004.

1
. While the romance may have been created in the so-called Dark Ages (‘dark’ mainly for lack of written texts), its various extant versions were all written during the Late Medieval period, generally with chivalric overlay.

2
. Furthermore, today these areas are Germanic-speaking rather than ‘Celtic-speaking’.

3
. Tacitus,
Agricola
11.

4
. Tacitus,
Agricola
11.

5
. Julius Caesar,
Gallic Wars
1.1.

1
. Yeats (1902).

2
. Quoted in Renfrew (1989), p. 225.

3
. James (1999), pp. 67–85.

4
. Invalidation: James (1999); myth: James (1999) and Collis (2003), and see also discussion in Renfrew (1989),
chapter 9
.

5
. James (1999), pp. 45–51.

6
. James (1999), pp. 49, 124; but see Collis (2003), p. 52.

7
. Pezron (1703). He was a Cistercian theologian.

8
. Pezron (1706), Lhuyd (1707).

9
. Pezron, incidentally, had not included Ireland in his model, although Lhuyd had included Brittany.

10
. Buchanan (1582).

11
. Buchanan (1582).

12
. James (1999), pp. 45–50.

13
. James (1999), pp. 44–51, 54–62.

14
. James (1999), pp. 56–7.

15
. James (1999), p. 57.

16
. Herodotus,
Histories
2.11. The identical mistake was made by Aristotle in
Meteorologica
1.13.

17
. Rufus Festus Avenius,
Ora Maritima
(4th cent.
AD
). Extracts as translated in Rankin (1996), pp. 4–7.

18
. Livy, cited in Rankin (1996), p. 3.

19
. Rankin (1996), p. 3.

20
. Rankin (1996), p. 7.

21
. For: Rankin (1996), Cunliffe (1988); against: Collis (2003), James (1999).

22
. Cunliffe (1988); see also Cunliffe (1997).

23
. Rankin (1996).

24
. Collis (2003).

25
. Cunliffe (2004); see also Cunliffe (2003).

26
. Rankin (1996), pp. 2–9. Note that an alternative view of this part of Himilco’s ‘voyage’ is that it was conflated by Avenius with that of Pytheas the Greek: see Cunliffe (2002).

27
. Rankin, (1996), p. 5.

28
. Herodotus 3.115; Diodorus,
Historical Library
5.21,22,38; Strabo,
Geography
2.5.15, 2.5.30, 3.5.11; Pliny the Elder,
Natural History
4.119, 7.197. See Cunliffe (2004), pp. 302–6 for interpretations.

29
. Cunliffe (2004), pp. 30, 306.

30
. Cunliffe (2004), p. 306.

31
. Rankin (1996), pp. 2–9.

32
. Including, presumably, the Channel Islands.

33
. Cunliffe (2004), p. 104.

34
. Belerion, or Cornwall, according to Sicilian Diodorus Siculus writing in the first century
BC
: Cunliffe (2004), p. 305. Note that an alternative view of this part of Himilco’s ‘voyage’ is that he never took it; rather it was conflated by Avenius with that of Pytheas the Greek: see Cunliffe (2002).

35
. Cunliffe (2004), pp. 302–10.

36
. Cunliffe (2004), pp. 306–7.

37
. Cunliffe (2004), p. 317. See also Cunliffe (2003).