Here is some news that will shake up our view of history. Iceland has long been considered as the only place in the world where people descended exclusively from Viking settlers, with virtually no outside admixture until the 20th century. Well this is all false. A genetic study by Icelandic personal genomics company DeCODEme came to the conclusion that Iceland was mainly settled by men of Scandinavian origin, but by Celtic women from Ireland and Scotland.
Here is the article.
DeCODE : Genetic snapshot of Iceland 1000 years ago
Not all men who settled in Iceland 1000 years ago were Scandinavian Vikings either. Iceland's high proportion of haplogroup R1b (about 42%, against about 28% in Norway) is probably a sign that 10 to 15% of the R1b lineages originated in the British Isles. This still has to be confirmed by analysing the R1b subclades found in Iceland. The percentage of L21+ would determine ancient British and Irish heritage.
This kind of story is very enlightening as it shows that paper history cannot be entirely trusted.
Here is the article.
DeCODE : Genetic snapshot of Iceland 1000 years ago
Not all men who settled in Iceland 1000 years ago were Scandinavian Vikings either. Iceland's high proportion of haplogroup R1b (about 42%, against about 28% in Norway) is probably a sign that 10 to 15% of the R1b lineages originated in the British Isles. This still has to be confirmed by analysing the R1b subclades found in Iceland. The percentage of L21+ would determine ancient British and Irish heritage.
This kind of story is very enlightening as it shows that paper history cannot be entirely trusted.