{"id":58700,"date":"2025-08-22T18:45:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T18:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/dna-shows-west-african-roots-in-7th-century-england"},"modified":"2025-08-22T19:27:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T19:27:17","slug":"dna-shows-west-african-roots-in-7th-century-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/dna-shows-west-african-roots-in-7th-century-england","title":{"rendered":"DNA shows West African roots in 7th-century England"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. <\/strong><\/span>Two people buried 1,300 years ago in Britain had West African grandparents, a DNA test finds, in a discovery that rewrites the history of Africans\u2019 integration into Medieval European society.<\/b><\/p>\n

Archaeologists tested ancient DNA from skeletons found in two 7th-century graves in Kent and Dorset on the South Coast of England.<\/p>\n

They were perplexed to discover that the remains of one woman and one man shared close genetic similarity with present-day Yoruba, Mende, Mandenka, and Esan groups from Sub-Saharan West Africa.<\/p>\n

The DNA match, published in a study in the journal Antiquity, was so close that scientists estimated that each individual had an African paternal grandparent.<\/p>\n

The finding is significant, as most previous evidence had suggested that migrants arriving in England during the period only came from as far as the Mediterranean region.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur joint results emphasise the cosmopolitan nature of England in the early medieval period, pointing to a diverse population with far-flung connections who were, nonetheless, fully integrated into the fabric of daily life,\u201d said Dr. Ceiridwen J. Edwards, one of the authors of the study.<\/p>\n

A long journey from West-Africa to England<\/b><\/p>\n

Scientists believe that the two individuals descended from migrants who left the southern Sahel area between the mid-sixth and the early seventh centuries during Byzantine control of North Africa.<\/p>\n

As the heir to the Eastern Roman Empire, Byzantine culture was highly influential, even in distant Britain. Researchers have found Byzantine coins – made with gold from Sub-Saharan Africa \u2013 across England.<\/p>\n

But the discoveries in Kent and Dorset are some of the first evidence that the long-distance travels also included the movement of people.<\/p>\n

The study notes that African migrants to England were most likely not slaves in the 7th century, as large-scale enslavement and trafficking in Africa started about two hundred years later.<\/p>\n

The part-African Englishman and woman were buried as typical members of their communities, showing that they were fully integrated members of medieval British society.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Mauritius<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Mauritius. Two people buried 1,300 years ago in Britain had West African grandparents, a DNA test finds, in a discovery that rewrites the history of Africans\u2019 integration into Medieval European society. Archaeologists tested ancient DNA from skeletons found in two 7th-century graves in Kent and Dorset on the South Coast of England. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":58699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[2293,2507,6621,241,111],"class_list":["post-58700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-africanews","tag-archaeology","tag-dna-genealogy-test","tag-mauritius","tag-west-africa"],"yoast_head":"\nDNA shows West African roots in 7th-century England - Mauritius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two people buried 1,300 years ago in Britain had West African grandparents, a DNA test finds, in a discovery that rew ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/dna-shows-west-african-roots-in-7th-century-england\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DNA shows West African roots in 7th-century England\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two people buried 1,300 years ago in Britain had West African grandparents, a DNA test finds, in a discovery that rew ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/dna-shows-west-african-roots-in-7th-century-england\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mauritius\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-22T18:45:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-22T19:27:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2025\/08\/sm_1755874533.152457.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"538\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/dna-shows-west-african-roots-in-7th-century-england#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/dna-shows-west-african-roots-in-7th-century-england\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"DNA shows West African roots in 7th-century England\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-22T18:45:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-22T19:27:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/dna-shows-west-african-roots-in-7th-century-england\"},\"wordCount\":341,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/dna-shows-west-african-roots-in-7th-century-england#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/sites\/61\/2025\/08\/sm_1755874533.152457.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africanews\",\"Archaeology\",\"DNA genealogy test\",\"Mauritius\",\"West Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/dna-shows-west-african-roots-in-7th-century-england#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/dna-shows-west-african-roots-in-7th-century-england\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/mauritius\/all-news\/dna-shows-west-african-roots-in-7th-century-england\",\"name\":\"DNA shows West African roots in 7th-century England - 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