the Saxons

The Anglo-Saxon migration

Linguistic evidence

Linguistics is a useful way of analysing the culture of a people, and to an extent political associations, in a period.[9] Studies into Old English, P- and Q-Celtic and Latin have provided us with evidence for contact between the Britons, the Gaels, and the Anglo-Saxons, or suggest lack of contact. Similarly, studies of place-names give clues about the linguistic history of an area. The place-name and linguistic evidence has been explained by saying that the Anglo-Saxons being politically and socially dominant in the south and east of Britain meant that their language and culture also became dominant.

Genetic evidence

Recent work analysing the Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA of people now living in Britain and on the continent has provided some insight into how population movements might have occurred during the sub-Roman period. A 2002 study from UCL indicated that there may have indeed been large scale Anglo-Saxon migration to central and eastern England (accounting for 50%-100% of the population at the time in Central England).[10] A more complete study in 2003 indicates that this result is regional to Central England, and that there may have been substantially less Anglo-Saxon migration to other regions of England, the study also provides evidence that all areas of the British Isles have a pre-Anglo-Saxon genetic component.[11]

Fresh interpretation of the above genetic evidence by Stephen Oppenheimer in his book The Origins of British, and new DNA sampling by Bryan Sykes for his book Blood of the Isles (Y-chromosome and mtDNA) suggest that the contribution of Anglo-Saxons and other late invaders to the British gene pool was very limited, and that the majority of English people (about 2/3) and British people (about 3/4) descend from paleolithic settlers that migrated from the western European Ice Age refuge,[12] this observation may support the idea of an ancient relationship between the populations of the Atlantic facade of Europe, though the eastern and south eastern coasts of Great Britain do not belong to this zone.[13] Sykes and Oppenheimer indicate than even in the east of England, where there is the best evidence for migration, no more that 10% of paternal lines can be designated as coming from an “Anglo-Saxon” migration event and that in the same English regions 69% of male lines are still of aboriginal British origin. It should be noted, however that Stephen Oppenheimer provides evidence for a pre-Anglo-Saxon genetic relationship between the modern populations of south and east England and the people living on the opposing North Sea regions, indicating a much older pre-Roman Germanic influence in south and east England.[14]