Thank you Greg!

Thank you!! I've got another one on European Early Medeval aDNA coming up!

Thank you!!

I felt it physically

​@@AlexIlesUK but I have Viking DNA! 😂😂

@letsdothis9063 SKALL BRÜDËRRRR

Glad you've enjoyed it!

Glad you enjoyed it!

I will put it on my list of things to do! I do have another DNA episode coming up that I filmed a couple of days ago, but I am always looking for more information to be inspired by!

Thank you for that, these are little bits of knowledge that really makes the difference!

I'm sure that's true, but the likelihood is that migration and intermarriage between Ireland, Britain and the near continent have been going on for thousands of years, and in all directions. Trying to construct "national identities" out of that stew is a political rather than a scientific activity.

@@kubhlaikhan2015 I don't think so. Most European "modern" states before mid XIXth century were opposed to population movements, and, at least in France, they were rather successful at preventing that. They were not opposed to ruling-class' intermarriages with inhabitants of other region, or even sometimes with foreigners, but but those intermarriage concerned few people and had no real consequences on the population. Significant European population movements between #800 and #1850 are rare, especially in France. Brittany played a special part in that story, because it was much less controlled by French central authorities, because it allied with the UK during the 100 years war and because, until the XVIth century, Brittons had a tradition of enrolling as mercenaries in the British army or navy. It is well known that during the Kalmar Wars, many Norwegian economic refugee settled in Brittany, while it was much more difficult for them to settle in Normandy, which was much more controlled by French central authorities. I guess that you had more population movements in London, for instance, because British governments had no special prevention against foreign seamen, but french governments had such prevention, at least until mid XIXth. cent.

@@laurentdavid2147 I think you underestimate population movement between France and Britain in the medieval period, given the complex political interactions and the strong evidence for French being spoken widely in southern Britain before the 11th century (which is why half the vocabulary of Middle English is French). However that wasn't my point - I'm saying the long proximity of the British Isles with the near continent is all that is needed for crossovers of DNA, language, ideas and fashions to occur. The volume of travel or migration doesn't need to be large given a long period of time. It doesn't matter if only lords travelled either (although I'm sure they didn't row their own boats). Migrations and intermarriage between the inhabitants of Ireland, Britain and France have been going on for at least ten thousand years, if not longer and consequently trying to distinguish them genetically is splitting hairs at best and believing you can identify specific mass migrations or invasions is dubious without strong archaelogical or documentary support. Perhaps an arrival of Irish in Brittany is sufficiently documented I don't know but many bolder claims - like "the anglosaxon invasion of Britain" - certainly aren't. Which begs the question - where do these stories come from? why do people want to believe in them - often passionately (even murderously)? I think the answer is very sad - that they are often the figleaf for political tyranny and racism.

@@kubhlaikhan2015 I understand that before mid XIXth century, peasant population typically stayed where they were born and never traveled more than 20km from this place during their whole life. I understand that in France, you had mass migration at the end of the Roman-Empire, when Germanic tribes moved west, and as I understand in the 8th century when a significant number of Englishmen moved to Brittany to flee Danish invaders. Apart from that, modern DNA studies seem to show that "Viking invasion" of Normandy resulted in local population changes of less than 5%, bar two very small parts of Normandy where population change was about 40%. Concerning Brittany, I understand that this region was mainly rural, with very limited interest in maritime economy until the en of the XVth century (very little fishing...), and that everything had changed at the beginning of the XVIIth century, where you can see seafaring brittons and serious fishing activities. In between you had the Kalmar Wars in Scandinavia, who constrained many Norwegians to exile, and they very often settled in Brittany where they brought their technical culture, but were often exploited by local feudal landowners. For instance you have a port in Brittany, name is Douarnenez, that nearly didn't exist in 1500, that was quite large in 1600, and whose industry between 1600 and 1950 was sardine fishing using cod's eggs imported from Norway as bait. Douarnenez maritime population is generally considered as different from local peasant population, with a long tradition of socially strained relations between local peasants and local seamen. It seems extremely likely that Douarnenez benefited from a large influx of Norwegian migrants during the Kalmar Wars, that those migrants were in a way "exploited" by local authorities, and that, in return, they had a tradition of not treating well impoverished peasant's sons who were economically compelled to work as unqualified seamen on Douarnenez's fishing boats. But, this kind of idea has been considered as "politically incorrect" for a long time, and you will not find it in any book. Concerning marriages between Frenchmen and Englishmen before 1066, I guess that it did exist in maritime communities, but not in rural communities that had no interest in seafaring, and that in the XIth century, maritime communities were very different from rural communities and were much less numerous, at least in France and in the UK. as bait

I'm very glad you enjoyed it, I'll take the points about detail and look to try to work that in more in the future!

I'm sure people have done, but it would be a prehistoric topic and one I sadly don't know anything about

i don't think anyone has... so I'm officially bagging the theory here :-) the question now, what happens when you remove vit-k2 from the general population?

@@kinemapup people get broken bones more easily?

@@AlexIlesUK and so much more possibly. as an experiment, to experience this population transition period, the dog and I are taking vit d3+k2 supplements, at 14 1/2 years old, he's already pushing the odds

I'm so glad you got that as a takeaway from the episode, so often people don't understand that.

I made a mistake - its 2023! doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.03.478491 Sorry about that!

Thank you!

That's really interesting but it was 5th century human remains that they mentioned with the N. African aDNA

It's probably not one army at one point in history. Rather, it's a continuous movement of individuals between the Maghreb, Spain and France, in all directions. Medieval people were not completely fixed, they moved around too.

Yes, it's a reason I don't engage with Haplogroups on this channel, people turn them into identities instead of actually having a personality!

@@AlexIlesUK That's unfortunate, you could help people understand what haplogroups are and aren't, it's really not that complicated. Also, what mt/yDNA tells us definite, unlike wishy-washy aDNA. Did the study use "Irish" for like "Iron Age Celtic base" instead of "Gaul"...!?

Firstly Celtic suggests that all the groups are homogeneous, which they are not. They didn't use Iron Age Ireland as a basis for the study. aDNA isn't wishy washy.

@@AlexIlesUK I was just asking about the study, I couldn't tell from what you said. Everyone seems to think autosomal DNA is way more wishy-washy than I do, I just think compared to mt/yDNA it requires a much better reference of samples surely...

@Ghost2743 ah I'm sorry! In Archeology aDNA stands for Ancient not autosomal! It's looking at the genetic groups that were present in the time period of study, not using modern DNA groups and working backwards to get a 'model' of the past! Sorry for the confusion.

There's been migration across the Irish sea for thousands of years - in my family my maternal grandfather's mother was Irish.

Thank you, I wouldn't put too much weight behind that kind of map personally

@@AlexIlesUK I thought the same until I started looking around, the United States upside down on topographic is a snarling Dog surrounded by ancient Hebrew men, the great lakes are the Dogs mouth. Have a look and get back to me, thanks 🙏

Interesting proposition, it depends on how big your tracing goes? Do you know the grandparents and great grandparents of all your ancestors? Can you be certain that all the ancestors came from the same place and same genetic group? There's slight risks with that particular hypothesis.

I have no interest in doing videos on those topics. Please feel free to do the research yourself and go for it.

@@AlexIlesUK That’s unfortunate for you.

Why? We all are interested in different things. If you are you are interested and passionate about something you should press on and go for it, I've got different interests

@@AlexIlesUK I assumed you were trying to shed light on the problems with using modern dna to understand ancient populations, I didn’t realize you only were interested in that topic, when it’s related to Europeans.

I'm quite time poor and I'm working on other projects. I don't know of any papers on the topics you've asked for and I don't feel I know enough on the areas to do it justice. Rather than upsetting people and making mistakes, I've decided to politely decline. I understand you may be disappointed but I'd encourage you to look into it just as much for the joy of learning as anything else. Best wishes, Alex

Thank you for your time.

I believe it was a decision on the part of the research team. I don't know if they were or not inspired by Caesar!

I'm not entirely sure what that changes as the North African aDNA was from the 5th century.

I'd have thought that due to new methods of agriculture in the 19th century the rural populations would have seen substantial migration as well, but I need to do more research for certain!!

@@AlexIlesUKRural populations tended to decline with migration to cities not move between local rural areas outside of the colonial migration to the Americas, Africa and Australia.

Did they offer a hypothesis? I’ve always said a Place will change you, but that’s more than I expected!

I'd not use that as the basis for a hypothesis. Thankfully science has moved on a little bit since Boaz.

@@AlexIlesUK I'm often disappointed by archaeologists who turn out to be racist. What I think happened was that racist university professors won't give a doctorate to someone who's not racist like themselves. The dolochoceohalic/brachycephalic one has always bothered me because it's talked about so often as a racial difference when there might be environmental factors that influence it. I've noticed a difference like that myself. If you lay a palm on each side of someone's arse and they walk away and you look at your hands with a European or Middle Easterner your palms will be parallel but with an American your palms will be angled out a bit. And I've noticed that parallel sided European people who have children in America have children with tapered backsides. I think it has something to do with the width of the glute vs the depth of the muscle. It's a pretty easy difference to notice if you're around people from both continents but otherwise you wouldn't think of it. I'm pretty sure the difference is environmental rather than hereditary but what causes it is a mystery. I don't really know how to talk about it without offending someone as the difference crosses genders and one just should not discuss this with ladies, especially when you're holding them. The round head/long head doesn't show much until you put a cowboy hat on an Asian, where it really looks odd. Been there. Done that. Try explaining Bosnians: they are round headed but oddly their necks are wider than their skulls so they appear pinheaded. Bosnians look really odd. Since Bosnians are a mix of a whole bunch of different ethnic origins how did they get to where a roomful of them looks like a roomful of traffic cones? It's worse when they all wear pointed hats. I suspect an environmental factor. (The hats are too tight?)

Sorry would you explain by the Archeologists who are racist? As I understand it craniology can show relationships between family members in the same cemetery, but I've no heard it being used in other studies otherwise, I've got a paper to read on it though.

@@thesjkexperience Horse breeders from certain countries (Argentina) must continually import Thoroughbred breeding stock from England or their herd will degenerate.

I'm so glad! I sometimes feel like I'm yelling into the abyss with these but it means a lot when people comment afterwards that you've enjoyed it! I've got a series on aDNA/DNA if you're interested.

Now that looks facinating, thank you for sharing that with me and I will try to read that paper soon.

@@AlexIlesUK European Journal of Human Genetics… 24 January 2007

@@MadeleineTakam I've found it and printed it off - it is in my reading pile!!! Also found papers which cite it too - a paper on Craniology! Thank you again for brining it to my attention!

Fair points!

I think they don't envision a migration into Ireland as there's no material culture that backs up that potential theory.

@@AlexIlesUK But the Irish people didn't just pop up out of the ground, at least some of them must have crossed the seas from Britain or France or Spain or elsewhere, & this could happen repeatedly at any time. What about Lanullae, & Beakers, tombs etc?

@@danielferguson3784 I am sorry I understand your point now, The majority of their aDNA comes from the Bronze Age migration into Ireland rather than later migrations

I think there would be enough samples, but the difficulty in North America is respecting the native populations who have a difficult and complex relationship with Government. I dont think they would appreciate a large scale campaign to gather ancient DNA from their burial grounds. Whereas in Europe, due to the density of settlments, we regularly find burials and can conduct this research and re-intern our dead respectfully.

Good to know

Hi Michael, you are right, the term has political conitations. I will have a good think about the various terms I can use in future videos and will try to be more accurate. I expect everyone has a slightly diffrent view on wich is the correct term depending on which part of Britian and Ireland/ United Kingdom/ British Isles they come from, and I know people who would agree and vehemently disagree with you on this point. I do try wherever posible and appreciate the feedback

@@AlexIlesUK Go raibh maith agat Alex (Thank You) and indeed, I appreciate your point in the penultimate sentence above. However, surely in the furtherance of good neighbourliness, one would understand that using a possessive term that implies ownership of one's neighbour's home and garden might be considered offensive? An irrationally patriotic attachment to the term has much to do with a nostalgia for a long gone imperial greatness and/or, more probably, evidence of a fanciful sense of irredentism. Either way, mutual respect should be the order of the day and therefore, anachronistic geopolitical terms should be avoided, especially, in public history videos as such may lead to misuse by factions, particularly, on the far right. Thanks again Alex.

@@michaelmerrigan3086 Thank you for the time you have taken to write this.

@@AlexIlesUK Likewise!

Brittany. Not Britain.

@@AlexIlesUK thanks for clarifying still wild

You my good man, are a man of the world!

Commercial tests and research are two very different methods.

While I would not define myself as a truth seaker, I would view it more that we are all trying to learn a little bit more about people and the whole human story by researching and learnining. I am not a singular source of knowledge and sometimes I get things wrong or upset people without meaning to (have a look at the comments on some of my videos!) gald you are enjoying the content though!

Thank you, I do appreciate that feedback. Something to work on, I try to take them in one take and it's often when I'm thinking that come out. I'll have a talk with the editors to see what I can do!

@@AlexIlesUK I'm sure I am being too critical. It came from a place of respect for what you do. Thank you kindly for listening. Fascinating channel.

@italianbirdvideos6190 it's useful feedback and I know I can improve and want to I've recorded four more episodes already so you may not notice a difference for a while, but I'll make an effort to try not to do that, the only thing I can say is that I have a lot going on every recording season. It's not an excuse, but I'm thinking about my voice, position in the shot and I'm reading my notes and finding a way to convey it engagingly and accurately. Unfortunately I'm time poor and this is only a part of my job so I need to get it right on my filming days. Today I'm going to try and film more so I'll see what I can do! Also my editors want me to move to hour long content - when you see the hour long episode in about three to four weeks, you'll see how exhausted I look!! :)

Thank you Gary, can I ask why you think that?

Oooh new emoji

I just thought the southerners looked funny. Now I understand why... ;)

@@AlexIlesUK Lisa Nandy local MP👎 Enough said.😄

I can't comment as I try to stay out of modern politics and don't know who she is.

@@AlexIlesUK Its no lose to you. Relax👍