a team of geneticists from trinity college dublin and archaeologists from queen's university belfast has sequenced the first genomes from ancient irish humans, and the information buried within is already answering pivotal questions about the origins of ireland's people and their culture. the team sequenced the genome of an early farmer woman, who lived near belfast some 5,200 years ago, and those of three men from a later period, around 4,000 years ago in the bronze age, after the introduction of metalworking. their
2 results are published today in international journal
3 of the national academy of sciences, usa.
ireland has
4 genetics. it lies at the edge of many european
1 gradients with world maxima for the
5 that code for lactose
6, the western european y
7 type, and several important genetic diseases including one of excessive iron
8, called haemochromatosis.
however, the origins of this heritage are unknown. the only way to discover our genetic past is to sequence genomes directly from ancient people, by
9 on a type of genetic time travel.
10 has been a hot topic in
11. opinion has been divided on whether the great transitions in the british
12, from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to one based on agriculture and later from stone to metal use, were due to local
13 of new ways or whether these influences were
14 from
15 of new people.
these ancient irish genomes each show unequivocal evidence for massive migration. the early farmer has a majority
16 originating ultimately in the middle east, where agriculture was invented. the bronze age genomes are different again with about a third of their ancestry coming from ancient sources in the pontic steppe.
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