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Large-scale archaeogenetic studies of people from prehistoric Europe tend to be broad in scope and difficult to resolve with local archaeologies. Drawing together a critical anthropological perspective with the details of the archaeological record, we show how information provided in the supplementary information of Olalde et al. (2018) can provide new insights into patterns of ancestry change and genetic relatedness in the past. Olalde et al. identified a >90% shift in ancestry of people who lived in Britain during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age. We assess suggestions that such changes were the result of swift and large-scale migration of ‘war bands’ of young men from continental Europe who practised exogamous marriage with women from local groups and introduced patriarchal forms of social organisation. While ancestry change was certainly influenced by movements of communities carrying novel ancestries into Britain, this was unlikely to have been a simple, rapid process, potentially taking up to 17 generations, during which time there is evidence for the synchronous persistence of groups largely descended from the Neolithic populations. Insofar as genetic relationships can be assumed to have had social meaning, identification of genetic relatives in cemeteries suggests paternal relationships were important, but there is substantial variability in how genetic ties were referenced and little evidence for strict patrilocality or female exogamy. It is evident, too, that relations with maternal kin were significant and that kinship was not solely predicated on genetic relatedness.

EAA2021: Abstract

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