Employees of the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) and the Institute of Archeogenomics and Archeology of the Research Center for the Humanities of the Eötvös Loránd University (BTK) also took part in the international program, which contains nearly 800 of his genomes, according to an ELKH statement. The aim of the project was to survey the population movements in the British Isles in the second half of the Bronze Age (1300–800 BC). Domestic research Anna Szécsényi-Nagy, Head of the Institute of Archeogenomics of the BTK and Tamás Hajdu, coordinated by the Associate Professor of the Department of Anthropology of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Eötvös Loránd University and the Assistant Museologist of the Theological Museum of the Hungarian Museum of Natural History (MTM).

The experts also examined DNA samples from many regions of the continent, including Hungary, in order to gain a better understanding of the Bronze and Iron Age population processes in Europe. The results suggest that the influx of settlements into the British Isles in the Late Bronze Age formed the basis of the later Iron Age populations in the area and may have been associated with the spread of Celtic languages.

The findings from Central Europe were essential comparative materials in the study, and the data will also influence the answers to the Iron Age population history questions of our region in subsequent analyzes.

The new study In the second half of the Bronze Age, the gene pool of early farmers living in Europe since the Neolithic period has once again strengthened and become dominant in what is now southern England. This suggests that nearly half of the population of the south of England changed during the Bronze Age under study. The process was not the result of a one-off and drastic migration, but took place through smaller-scale relocations and marriages that accompanied trade relations with the communities living in what is now France. At the same time, the components of the genes in the late Bronze Age populations of Central and Western Europe that can be traced back to farmers have become unified, so that their genetic stock is more similar to each other than in previous periods.

The already extensive trade routes involved a large part of Europe, allowing bronze tools and the raw materials needed to produce them to be transported over long distances. According to the new results, trade relations can sometimes lead to significant population mixing, which has also had a significant impact on the composition of Europe’s later populations.

Unlike the Bronze Age specimens, no traces of a larger population movement were found in the analysis of the hereditary material of the Iron Age communities. This suggests that language-speaking groups occurred earlier in the Bronze Age in the British Isles.

In addition to the researchers of BTK and ELTE, the University of Szeged, Ásatárs Kft.