Schiffels et al. (2014) tested two Iron Age Celtic samples and four early medieval Anglo-Saxon samples, all from Hixton in Cambridgeshire, East Anglia, England. The Iron Age Britond lived approximately 2,000 years ago, while the Anglo-Saxon individuals are dated to c. 1,300 years before present.
[N.B. Fire Haired started another thread on this subject here, but I would like to post my own detailed analysis in a separate thread for the sake of clarity. In the other thread Motzart posted a comparison of the Iron Age Briton's genome using Eurogenes' K15 admixtures with other ancient European samples. Angela also posted the K12 (div3) and K12b admixtures for both the Celtic Briton and the Anglo-Saxon.]
Here is a summary of the data available, with an analysis under each category. I have coloured the admixtures using the same colours as on the maps I made, if there is a map for that admixture.
[TABLE="class: outer_border, width: 660"]
[TR]
[TD]Hg
[/TD]
[TD="align: center"] Celt 1
(ERS389798)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]Celt 2
(ERS389799)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]Anglo-Saxon 1
(ERS389795)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]Anglo-Saxon 2
(ERS389796)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"] Anglo-Saxon 3
(ERS389797)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Y-DNA[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]R1b-L21 ?[/TD]
[TD="align: center"](female)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]R1b-L11[/TD]
[TD="align: center"](female)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"](female)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]mtDNA[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]H1ag1[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]H2a2a1[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]K1a1b1b[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]H2a2b1[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]K1a4a1a2[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Nothing very surprising here. Both Celtic and West Germanic people are predominantly R1b. Maternal haplogroups are all fairly common in north-west Europe.
Dodecad K12 admixtures
[TABLE="class: outer_border, width: 600"]
[TR]
[TD="width: 20%"]Admixture
[/TD]
[TD="width: 20%, align: center"]Iron Age Celt 1
[/TD]
[TD="width: 20%, align: center"]Anglo-Saxon 1[/TD]
[TD="width: 20%, align: center"]Modern Britons[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]West European[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]59.73%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]41.46%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]65%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]East European[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]8.22%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]24.44%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]3.2%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Mediterranean[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]24.91%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]17.31%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]22.8%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]West Asian[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1.70%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]6.7%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Southwest Asian[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.85%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1.2%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]South Asian[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]3.17%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.5%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Southeast Asian[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.99%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.1%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Northeast Asian[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1.21%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.1%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Northwest African
[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.03%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]5.55%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.2%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]East African
[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Neo African
[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1.69%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.63%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.1%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Palaeo African
[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]5.41%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]2.69%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The Anglo-Saxon individual is the biggest surprise. His admixtures do not match any modern population. If we look only at the the West European, East European and Mediterranean admixtures, he appears to lie somewhere in between East Germans and Poles, probably close to the modern population of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern or Brandenburg. However, he also has over 2% of East Asian admixture and virtually no West Asian or Southwest Asian admixture, which places him closer to modern Finnish people (as reported in the paper) or Northwest Russians. Another oddity is his nearly 9% of African admixture (see below), which shouldn't be there at all.
The Celtic Briton is closest to modern British people in the West European, East European and Mediterranean admixtures. The higher East European and lower West European of the ancient Briton makes them even closer to modern Belgians. This isn't unlikely considering that many Belgic tribes (Atrebates, Menapians) settled in Britain during the Iron Age.
One major difference between this ancient sample (perhaps unrepresentative) and modern Britons is the high percentage (>7%) of African admixture (and mostly Paleo African at that !) in the Iron Age individual on the one hand, and his complete lack of West Asian or Southwest Asian admixture. Modern Britons have practically the reverse proportion, with close to 8% of West/Southwest Asian and almost no African at all.
Unless the data was inverted, it is very hard to explain why Iron Age samples possessed such high African admixtures. Here are possible explanations:
A) The admixtures reported as African are in fact non-African, but do not correspond to any modern sample, or represent another regional group not included in the K12 admixtures.
B) Africans possess some admixture in common with North Europeans that came from a very ancient common source. This could be the Early Neolithic split between R1b-V88 (who migrated to Africa) and R1b-M269 (who migrated to Europe).
C) Some Paleo African could be the remainders of Palaeolithic African A1a lineages that are still found sporadically from the British Isles to Scandinavia. After all, the Mesolithic samples from Sweden, Luxembourg and Spain all had a few percent's of African admixture too.
D) The Northwest African in the Anglo-Saxon sample may actually be Germanic DNA that ended up in Northwest Africa when the Vandals settled there. Being more common in Northwest Africa today it may easily have been mislabled as Northwest African.
It is easier to explain the increase in West Asian and Southwest Asian admixtures among modern Britons. In Europe, these two admixtures are highest in Italy and Greece, and would have spread around Western Europe with the Roman colonisation. The Iron Age sample dates from 2,000 years before present, which is approximately the time the Romans first set foot in Britain - obviously not long enough for having any impact on the Celtic population.
A second source of West Asian DNA would have been the Norman conquest. France has the highest West Asian admixture in Western Europe after Italy, and the Normans, despite their partly Danish roots, had a lot of French blood. The Normans appear to have had a considerable genetic impact on the British population. That may be because of the Normans dominated the English aristocracy, and the upper classes had more surviving offspring in the long run.
Dodecad K12b admixtures
[TABLE="class: outer_border, width: 600"]
[TR]
[TD]Admixture
[/TD]
[TD="width: 25%, align: center"]Iron Age Celt 1
[/TD]
[TD="width: 25%, align: center"]Anglo-Saxon 1[/TD]
[TD="width: 25%, align: center"]Modern Britons[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]North European[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]39.04%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]49.89%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]44.5%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Atlantic-Med[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]32.43%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]30.08%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]43%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Caucasus[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]9.12%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]9.78%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1.8%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Gedrosia[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]5.96%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.08%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]10.4%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Southwest Asian[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1.63%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.2%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]South Asian[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]2.90%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.07%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.1%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Southeast Asian[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]East Asian[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]3.63%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Siberian
[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.02%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1.16%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Northwest African [/TD]
[TD="align: center"]2.63%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1.31%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]East African[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]2.73%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.79%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sub_Saharan [/TD]
[TD="align: center"]3.54%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]3.19%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The K12b shows a quite different picture, because the regional division was done very differently. Instead of splitting Europe in Northwest, Northeast and Mediterranean, the split in more on a dual North-Northeast to South-Southwest axis. Here we see that modern Britons fit nicely in between the ancient Celtic and Anglo-Saxon samples for the North European admixture. But for the rest there is hardly any match between the ancient and modern samples.
Oddly enough, the ancient and modern proportions of Caucasian and Gedrosian admixtures appear to be reversed. Both the Celtic Briton and the Anglo-Saxon individuals have about 10% of Caucasian, which is the same as modern Belgians and Germans, slightly more than modern French people (8.5%), but much more than modern English (3%), Scottish (0.5%), Irish (0.2%) and Orcadian (0%) people. The Caucasian component is similar to the West Asian in K12 in that the both peak in the Eastern Mediterranean and could have been spread by the Romans and the Alpine Celts (Hallstatt and La Tène, including Belgic tribes). That would explain why the English have some Caucasian, although less than the French, but the Scots and Irish almost don't have any. If that is the case, the Iron Age Celt would surely be of Belgic or at least Hallstatt descent.
The main difference between the Caucasian and West Asian admixtures is that the former is also very common among northern Slavs (Poles, Belarussians, Russians), while the latter is not. That explains why the Anglo-Saxon individual has 10% of Caucasian, once again an intermediary value between modern Poles and Germans.
The Gedrosian component is conversely absent from North Slavic people and is also nearly absent in the Anglo-Saxon individual. This is consistent with the K12 data showing the closest affinity to the present-day northeast German and northwest Polish populations. The Celtic Briton has 6% of Gedrosian, much less than the 10.5% found in modern English people, the 12% of the Irish and Orcadians, or the 13% of Argyll Scots. Once again, this Iron Age Briton has closer affinities with modern Belgians (6.8%) and Germans (7.3%) than with the modern Celtic populations of the British Isles.
One thing that remains to be explained is how modern Britons got more Gedrosian admixture than any other Europeans (even Southeast Europeans), and also more than these two ancient samples. I had hypothesised before that the Gedrosian admixture came with R1b people during the Bronze Age, and represents one of the original admixtures of R1b people before the crossed the Caucasus to settled as Neolithic cattle herders in the Pontic Steppe. If that is the case, then true ancient Britons (R1b-L21) should have at least as much Gedrosian admixture as modern Britons. The reason why this Iron Age guy didn't is that he was an immigrant from the continent (Belgium, southwest Germany or Switzerland).
The Southwest Asian admixture, which was completely absent in both samples in the K12, shows 1.6% in the Celt. Once again that is closer to modern Belgians (2.5%) and Germans (1.7%) than to modern Britons (0.2%). The Anglo-Saxon has 0% this time (instead of 0.85%), which is less than any modern population, but closer to the Scandinavians and Balts.
Modern Germanic people lack the South Asian admixture at the K12b, just like the Anglo-Saxon sample. However, modern British and Irish people also lack it, while the Iron Age Celt has a surprisingly high 2.9%. No modern European population has more than 1% of South Asian, and that is the Poles, Russians and Romanians. The original Bronze Age Proto-Indo-Europeans may have had higher percentages though, and this Celtic guy may be an isolated case of someone who ended up with more South Asian segments than average.
The really surprising data is the tremendous amount of African DNA in both samples and East Asian DNA in the Anglo-Saxon. This was already observed in the K12, but the regional breakdown in African admixtures is now very different, which reinforces my suspicion that something is wrong and that this may not be African DNA at all (see above).
The East Asian component in the Anglo-Saxon is clear though, and even more pronounced here (4.8% instead of 2.2%). The best explanation is that the Huns contributed a few percent's of the Anglo-Saxon gene pool, or that this individual came from a family with an especially high Hunnic ancestry. I had theorised before that the Huns were the ones who brought haplogroup Q to Central Europe and Scandinavia. It is also possible that the Anglo-Saxon got some Mongoloid admixture from the Finns or Lapps, but that seems more far-fetched because modern Finns have exclusively Siberian admixture at the K12b, while this Anglo-Saxon guy has three times more East Asian than Siberian, which is an even higher proportion of East Asian than modern Mongols (36% Siberian, 45% East Asian).
Conclusion
Of the two Iron Age samples from East England tested by Schiffels et al. (2014), the Celtic Briton individual displays the greatest affinity to modern Belgian, then German, then French people, indicating a probable Belgic/La Tène or Hallstatt origin.
The Anglo-Saxon genome fits in between the modern populations of northeast Germany and northwest Poland, which may indicate an East Germanic (Gothic ?) origin. This is further corroborated by the fact that this individual possess a substantial percentage (2-5%) of East Asian and Siberian admixture, present in a proportion that is consistent with an introgression of Hunnic (Mongol) genes.
Both individuals have unexplained level of African admixture using the Dodecad K12 and K12b (both between 5 and 9%), which are probably misclassified admixtures of unknown origin, some of which may be shared with some African populations. Note that the Eurogenes K15 admixtures show 0% for both the Northeast African and Sub-Saharan admixtures.
Finally, both samples are characterised by very low levels of West Asian and Southwest Asian admixtures compared to the modern British population. The higher modern percentage could be explained both by the Roman colonisation and the Norman conquest.
Below: Anglo-Saxon helmet from the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, England.
[N.B. Fire Haired started another thread on this subject here, but I would like to post my own detailed analysis in a separate thread for the sake of clarity. In the other thread Motzart posted a comparison of the Iron Age Briton's genome using Eurogenes' K15 admixtures with other ancient European samples. Angela also posted the K12 (div3) and K12b admixtures for both the Celtic Briton and the Anglo-Saxon.]
Here is a summary of the data available, with an analysis under each category. I have coloured the admixtures using the same colours as on the maps I made, if there is a map for that admixture.
[TABLE="class: outer_border, width: 660"]
[TR]
[TD]Hg
[/TD]
[TD="align: center"] Celt 1
(ERS389798)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]Celt 2
(ERS389799)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]Anglo-Saxon 1
(ERS389795)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]Anglo-Saxon 2
(ERS389796)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"] Anglo-Saxon 3
(ERS389797)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Y-DNA[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]R1b-L21 ?[/TD]
[TD="align: center"](female)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]R1b-L11[/TD]
[TD="align: center"](female)[/TD]
[TD="align: center"](female)[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]mtDNA[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]H1ag1[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]H2a2a1[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]K1a1b1b[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]H2a2b1[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]K1a4a1a2[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Nothing very surprising here. Both Celtic and West Germanic people are predominantly R1b. Maternal haplogroups are all fairly common in north-west Europe.
Dodecad K12 admixtures
[TABLE="class: outer_border, width: 600"]
[TR]
[TD="width: 20%"]Admixture
[/TD]
[TD="width: 20%, align: center"]Iron Age Celt 1
[/TD]
[TD="width: 20%, align: center"]Anglo-Saxon 1[/TD]
[TD="width: 20%, align: center"]Modern Britons[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]West European[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]59.73%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]41.46%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]65%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]East European[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]8.22%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]24.44%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]3.2%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Mediterranean[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]24.91%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]17.31%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]22.8%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]West Asian[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1.70%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]6.7%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Southwest Asian[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.85%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1.2%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]South Asian[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]3.17%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.5%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Southeast Asian[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.99%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.1%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Northeast Asian[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1.21%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.1%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Northwest African
[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.03%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]5.55%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.2%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]East African
[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Neo African
[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1.69%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.63%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.1%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Palaeo African
[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]5.41%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]2.69%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The Anglo-Saxon individual is the biggest surprise. His admixtures do not match any modern population. If we look only at the the West European, East European and Mediterranean admixtures, he appears to lie somewhere in between East Germans and Poles, probably close to the modern population of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern or Brandenburg. However, he also has over 2% of East Asian admixture and virtually no West Asian or Southwest Asian admixture, which places him closer to modern Finnish people (as reported in the paper) or Northwest Russians. Another oddity is his nearly 9% of African admixture (see below), which shouldn't be there at all.
The Celtic Briton is closest to modern British people in the West European, East European and Mediterranean admixtures. The higher East European and lower West European of the ancient Briton makes them even closer to modern Belgians. This isn't unlikely considering that many Belgic tribes (Atrebates, Menapians) settled in Britain during the Iron Age.
One major difference between this ancient sample (perhaps unrepresentative) and modern Britons is the high percentage (>7%) of African admixture (and mostly Paleo African at that !) in the Iron Age individual on the one hand, and his complete lack of West Asian or Southwest Asian admixture. Modern Britons have practically the reverse proportion, with close to 8% of West/Southwest Asian and almost no African at all.
Unless the data was inverted, it is very hard to explain why Iron Age samples possessed such high African admixtures. Here are possible explanations:
A) The admixtures reported as African are in fact non-African, but do not correspond to any modern sample, or represent another regional group not included in the K12 admixtures.
B) Africans possess some admixture in common with North Europeans that came from a very ancient common source. This could be the Early Neolithic split between R1b-V88 (who migrated to Africa) and R1b-M269 (who migrated to Europe).
C) Some Paleo African could be the remainders of Palaeolithic African A1a lineages that are still found sporadically from the British Isles to Scandinavia. After all, the Mesolithic samples from Sweden, Luxembourg and Spain all had a few percent's of African admixture too.
D) The Northwest African in the Anglo-Saxon sample may actually be Germanic DNA that ended up in Northwest Africa when the Vandals settled there. Being more common in Northwest Africa today it may easily have been mislabled as Northwest African.
It is easier to explain the increase in West Asian and Southwest Asian admixtures among modern Britons. In Europe, these two admixtures are highest in Italy and Greece, and would have spread around Western Europe with the Roman colonisation. The Iron Age sample dates from 2,000 years before present, which is approximately the time the Romans first set foot in Britain - obviously not long enough for having any impact on the Celtic population.
A second source of West Asian DNA would have been the Norman conquest. France has the highest West Asian admixture in Western Europe after Italy, and the Normans, despite their partly Danish roots, had a lot of French blood. The Normans appear to have had a considerable genetic impact on the British population. That may be because of the Normans dominated the English aristocracy, and the upper classes had more surviving offspring in the long run.
Dodecad K12b admixtures
[TABLE="class: outer_border, width: 600"]
[TR]
[TD]Admixture
[/TD]
[TD="width: 25%, align: center"]Iron Age Celt 1
[/TD]
[TD="width: 25%, align: center"]Anglo-Saxon 1[/TD]
[TD="width: 25%, align: center"]Modern Britons[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]North European[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]39.04%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]49.89%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]44.5%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Atlantic-Med[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]32.43%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]30.08%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]43%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Caucasus[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]9.12%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]9.78%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1.8%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Gedrosia[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]5.96%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.08%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]10.4%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Southwest Asian[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1.63%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.2%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]South Asian[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]2.90%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.07%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.1%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Southeast Asian[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]East Asian[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]3.63%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Siberian
[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.02%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1.16%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Northwest African [/TD]
[TD="align: center"]2.63%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]1.31%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]East African[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]2.73%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0.79%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Sub_Saharan [/TD]
[TD="align: center"]3.54%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]3.19%[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]0%[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The K12b shows a quite different picture, because the regional division was done very differently. Instead of splitting Europe in Northwest, Northeast and Mediterranean, the split in more on a dual North-Northeast to South-Southwest axis. Here we see that modern Britons fit nicely in between the ancient Celtic and Anglo-Saxon samples for the North European admixture. But for the rest there is hardly any match between the ancient and modern samples.
Oddly enough, the ancient and modern proportions of Caucasian and Gedrosian admixtures appear to be reversed. Both the Celtic Briton and the Anglo-Saxon individuals have about 10% of Caucasian, which is the same as modern Belgians and Germans, slightly more than modern French people (8.5%), but much more than modern English (3%), Scottish (0.5%), Irish (0.2%) and Orcadian (0%) people. The Caucasian component is similar to the West Asian in K12 in that the both peak in the Eastern Mediterranean and could have been spread by the Romans and the Alpine Celts (Hallstatt and La Tène, including Belgic tribes). That would explain why the English have some Caucasian, although less than the French, but the Scots and Irish almost don't have any. If that is the case, the Iron Age Celt would surely be of Belgic or at least Hallstatt descent.
The main difference between the Caucasian and West Asian admixtures is that the former is also very common among northern Slavs (Poles, Belarussians, Russians), while the latter is not. That explains why the Anglo-Saxon individual has 10% of Caucasian, once again an intermediary value between modern Poles and Germans.
The Gedrosian component is conversely absent from North Slavic people and is also nearly absent in the Anglo-Saxon individual. This is consistent with the K12 data showing the closest affinity to the present-day northeast German and northwest Polish populations. The Celtic Briton has 6% of Gedrosian, much less than the 10.5% found in modern English people, the 12% of the Irish and Orcadians, or the 13% of Argyll Scots. Once again, this Iron Age Briton has closer affinities with modern Belgians (6.8%) and Germans (7.3%) than with the modern Celtic populations of the British Isles.
One thing that remains to be explained is how modern Britons got more Gedrosian admixture than any other Europeans (even Southeast Europeans), and also more than these two ancient samples. I had hypothesised before that the Gedrosian admixture came with R1b people during the Bronze Age, and represents one of the original admixtures of R1b people before the crossed the Caucasus to settled as Neolithic cattle herders in the Pontic Steppe. If that is the case, then true ancient Britons (R1b-L21) should have at least as much Gedrosian admixture as modern Britons. The reason why this Iron Age guy didn't is that he was an immigrant from the continent (Belgium, southwest Germany or Switzerland).
The Southwest Asian admixture, which was completely absent in both samples in the K12, shows 1.6% in the Celt. Once again that is closer to modern Belgians (2.5%) and Germans (1.7%) than to modern Britons (0.2%). The Anglo-Saxon has 0% this time (instead of 0.85%), which is less than any modern population, but closer to the Scandinavians and Balts.
Modern Germanic people lack the South Asian admixture at the K12b, just like the Anglo-Saxon sample. However, modern British and Irish people also lack it, while the Iron Age Celt has a surprisingly high 2.9%. No modern European population has more than 1% of South Asian, and that is the Poles, Russians and Romanians. The original Bronze Age Proto-Indo-Europeans may have had higher percentages though, and this Celtic guy may be an isolated case of someone who ended up with more South Asian segments than average.
The really surprising data is the tremendous amount of African DNA in both samples and East Asian DNA in the Anglo-Saxon. This was already observed in the K12, but the regional breakdown in African admixtures is now very different, which reinforces my suspicion that something is wrong and that this may not be African DNA at all (see above).
The East Asian component in the Anglo-Saxon is clear though, and even more pronounced here (4.8% instead of 2.2%). The best explanation is that the Huns contributed a few percent's of the Anglo-Saxon gene pool, or that this individual came from a family with an especially high Hunnic ancestry. I had theorised before that the Huns were the ones who brought haplogroup Q to Central Europe and Scandinavia. It is also possible that the Anglo-Saxon got some Mongoloid admixture from the Finns or Lapps, but that seems more far-fetched because modern Finns have exclusively Siberian admixture at the K12b, while this Anglo-Saxon guy has three times more East Asian than Siberian, which is an even higher proportion of East Asian than modern Mongols (36% Siberian, 45% East Asian).
Conclusion
Of the two Iron Age samples from East England tested by Schiffels et al. (2014), the Celtic Briton individual displays the greatest affinity to modern Belgian, then German, then French people, indicating a probable Belgic/La Tène or Hallstatt origin.
The Anglo-Saxon genome fits in between the modern populations of northeast Germany and northwest Poland, which may indicate an East Germanic (Gothic ?) origin. This is further corroborated by the fact that this individual possess a substantial percentage (2-5%) of East Asian and Siberian admixture, present in a proportion that is consistent with an introgression of Hunnic (Mongol) genes.
Both individuals have unexplained level of African admixture using the Dodecad K12 and K12b (both between 5 and 9%), which are probably misclassified admixtures of unknown origin, some of which may be shared with some African populations. Note that the Eurogenes K15 admixtures show 0% for both the Northeast African and Sub-Saharan admixtures.
Finally, both samples are characterised by very low levels of West Asian and Southwest Asian admixtures compared to the modern British population. The higher modern percentage could be explained both by the Roman colonisation and the Norman conquest.
Below: Anglo-Saxon helmet from the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, England.

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