DNA analysis reveals West African ancestry in early medieval England
An unrelated pair of people buried in cemeteries in 7th-century Britain probably had grandparents from West Africa
By Chris Simms
13 August 2025
The skeleton of a girl from Updown cemetery, who was found to have West African ancestry
D. Sayer et al.
Two unrelated young people buried in cemeteries in England in the Early Middle Ages probably had grandparents from West Africa. How and when their relatives arrived in Britain is unknown, but the discovery implies that migrants in Anglo-Saxon times were coming from much further afield than previously thought.
After the Romans finally withdrew from Britain in AD 410, Britain was invaded and settled by Germanic Angles, Saxons and Jutes. To investigate whether people also arrived from elsewhere, Duncan Sayer at the University of Central Lancashire, UK, and his colleagues have analysed ancient DNA from the bones of people buried in two 7th-century cemeteries on England’s southern coast.
Read more
Amazingly preserved Bronze Age village reveals life in ancient England
One of them is in Updown in Kent, where many traded objects from around the world have been found, including pots, buckles and brooches from Frankish Gaul, and garnets in jewellery that may have come from India. The people in the cemetery were often buried with items like cookware, cutlery or combs.
The other cemetery is in Worth Matravers, Dorset, further west. The people there are buried in a Romano-British manner, with few grave goods.
The majority of those in the cemeteries had, as expected, either northern European or western British and Irish ancestry, but a girl at Updown and a young man at Worth Matravers had a recent ancestor, likely a grandparent, from West Africa.
