What Was the DNA of the Stonehenge Builders

Who were the people that built Stonehenge? What do we know about the DNA of these ancient builders, and how closely related are they to modern English people? Now the first point to note is that Stonehenge was built in phases of course, and this actually somewhat mirrors the genetic transformation in ancient Britain, as the people who first began building this iconic monument actually had different DNA than the people that laid the final stone. Now the earliest phase of Stonehenge begins around 3000 BC, when a circular ditch and bank were dug, and the obre holes were created, many of which held cremated human remains. Following a transitional phase of timber structures, known as phase 2, the monument reached its iconic form during phase 3, between around 2600 and 1600 BC, with the arrival of the massive Sarsen stones. Final modifications involved rearranging the blue stones and digging the Y and Z holes. And I should note that there are some strange connections with Stonehenge and other parts of Britain, such as links with Orkney, although this is a topic of debate and may be a topic of a future video. But who were the people that built this iconic monument? Well in the first phase, the early phase of the building of Stonehenge, people were largely descended from Neolithic farming communities of ancient Britain. Now farming reached Britain around 4000 BC, roughly 1000 years before Stonehenge began to be built. And we have some good research on these people, including an interesting paper from 2019 published in Nature Ecology and Evolution. They analysed 6 Mesolithic and 67 Neolithic individuals from Britain, dating between 8500 and 2500 BC, with many samples found very close to Stonehenge, such as West Kennet, Eton Rowing Course and Upper Swell. Now we know that farming spread to Europe from around Anatolia, or modern Turkey. And when we look at the ancestry of these Neolithic Britons, their ancestry was dominated by Anatolian farmer-related DNA. This made up roughly 74% of their genetic profile, with the remaining portion mostly coming from Western hunter-gatherers. These people had genetic affinities with Iberian Neolithic individuals, and they likely followed the Mediterranean route of dispersal. We also have a good idea of what these people looked like. They largely had brown eyes, dark brown hair and intermediate skin colour, likely similar to someone from the Eastern Mediterranean today. They had mixed with earlier hunter-gatherers, Western hunter-gatherers though, who were known for their striking blue eyes and dark hair. So there was some variation of features. But how closely related were the early Stonehenge builders to the people of modern England today? Well if you look at this breakdown, you can see that modern English people have less early European farmer ancestry when it comes to their foundational genetics. And this was largely because of the influence of steppe ancestry during the Bronze Age. Now quickly before we look at this, this 2019 study also looked at haplogroups amongst these ancient peoples. And they found that the Y-DNA or male marker that both these hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers belonged to was mainly I2A2. Now this is somewhat surprising. We know that I2A was very common amongst Western hunter-gatherers. Yet early European farmers are often linked to G2A on the Y-DNA side. The study suggests one reason for this is that as the early farmers moved west across Europe, they mixed with Western hunter-gatherers, and I2A had perhaps already become common in them before reaching Britain. On the maternal side, this was more varied than the male side, including former associated mitochondrial haplogroups such as K1a, H1, H3, T2 and J1c, alongside some U5 lineages, linked to older hunter-gatherer ancestry. Around 2400 BC though, a massive genetic transformation occurred. This was when the Bell Beaker culture arrived. This period saw a large-scale influx of people with significant steppe ancestry, ultimately linked to populations from the Eurasian steppe, and it led to one of the most dramatic genetic turnovers ever observed in Europe, with over 90% of male lineages replaced over a few centuries in Britain. Earlier I2 haplogroups were almost completely replaced by R1b M269 lineages, especially R1b L21, which is common in Celtic Britain today. And we do have some specific examples from this time. The Amersbury Archer is a famous one, an early Bronze Age or Beaker man who lived around 2300 BC. He was found in the town of Amersbury, which is close to Stonehenge, along with a companion. From DNA analysis, we know they had steppe ancestry, and belonged to branches of R1b on the Y-DNA side. The archer belonged to R1b L151, a lineage linked to the Bell Beaker people, and ultimately to steppe migrations into Europe and Britain. Isotope evidence indicates he grew up in central Europe, likely the Alps, before moving to Britain. The companion belonged to R1b L21, which is actually downstream from L151, and is a common branch in Britain and Ireland today, as you can see. On the maternal side, the shift was much less dramatic, with earlier Neolithic former lineages like H, K, T2 and J persisting into the Bell Beaker period, as well as U5, alongside a modest increase in steppe-associated lineages like U4 and U2. Now I should note that individuals buried around the Stonehenge landscape during this period do not form a Euroform group however. This suggests that the Stonehenge area became a zone of interaction, where incoming populations and local communities mixed rapidly, which makes sense geographically. But how does the DNA of the people that built Stonehenge compare to the modern English genome? Well we know that the foundational genetics of English people, and many Western Europeans in general, is this mixture of Western hunter-gatherers, early European farmers and then steppe ancestry. And the later groups that built Stonehenge had a very similar genetic makeup. Yet the genetic profile of England was changed in a meaningful way through later migrations. We know during the middle to late Bronze Age, further migration into southern Britain occurred, bringing ancestry-related populations from Iron Age France. And this actually increased early European farmer ancestry in ancient England and Wales. Which brought ancient Britain's genomes a little closer to some of the earliest builders of Stonehenge, who mainly had Neolithic farmer ancestry. Yet later migrations changed this. Now the most obvious influence was that of the Anglo-Saxons, which brought continental or Germanic-like ancestry into the land we call England today because of these people. This brought in R1BU106 lineages, as well on the Y-DNA side, a common marker in England today. Many English people also have a little Scandinavian influence as well thanks to the Vikings during the Danelaw period, with haplogroups like I1 becoming a little more common. The likes of the Normans and the Romans never really left a meaningful genetic impact though, but they did bring in some isolated lineages in certain cases. Yet England today is not uniform of course. Southeastern and Eastern England tend to have higher levels of continental ancestry and are therefore the most different from Stonehenge-era populations. In contrast, southwestern and northwestern England, as well as regions along the Welsh border, tend to retain more of an older British genetic component. Populations in Wales, Scotland and Ireland are generally even closer genetically to prehistoric Britain, as they experience less of the later continental influence, with lineages like R1BL21 very common among these people today as you can see in this map. Yet there was some Scandinavian and sometimes Anglo-Saxon admixture in many of these places. So, overall, the DNA of the Stonehenge builders tells a fascinating story of change rather than continuity. The key point is that there was no single Stonehenge people genetically. The monument was built, altered and used across a period when Britain changed from mostly Neolithic former populations into a Bronze Age people, with substantial steppe ancestry. Over time, additional migrations further reshaped the genetic landscape, leading to the complex patterns seen in modern populations. Stonehenge, therefore, stands not just as a monument of stone, but as a marker of one of the most profound genetic transformations in British history. But what are the differences between English and French DNA? Well to find out, please click here. Thanks for watching, please subscribe and hit the bell, and let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and I'll see you next time.