#066 The changing faces of ancient Britain

Our previous two blog topics showed how echoes of the ancient past can still be experienced by observing and thinking imaginatively. We also introduced some of the latest academic findings on phenomena and change during the stone age. While researching some background to provide a timeline context, two incredible pieces of information came together in my understanding.

From studies of the Star Carr Mesolithic site (blog ref: http://stuwestfield.blogspot.com/2020/05/044-recreating-star-carr-mesolithic.html ), I was aware there has long been a debate about whether the incoming Neolithic people (around 4000BC) displaced or absorbed the indigenous British Mesolithic hunter fisher gatherers. This debate appears to be at least partially settled by DNA research showing that very little of the hunter gatherer genome was carried forward into subsequent populations.

Star Carr, 11000 years ago. Image by Dominic Andrews - york.ac.uk

This indicates that the hunter gatherers were marginalised and outcompeted. At least partly by the felling of forests and land clearance to make way for Neolithic farming practices. Thus taking away the hunter gather tribes traditional food sources. In addition, the Neolithic encroachment may have been accompanied by violence and hostile resistance. The two cultures could not practically co-exist on the same land and were fundamentally incompatible. This polarisation likely made any form of tribal integration unacceptable and taboo. And appears to go a long way in explaining the DNA findings.

We found that British Mesolithic hunter gatherer types were closely related to other hunter gatherers living previously in Western Europe, and shared some aspects of their appearance. Like their Mesolithic continental relatives, they had typically dark skin with light blue eye pigmentation. - Dr Yoan Diekmann (UCL Genetics, Evolution and Environment) ucl.ac.uk news 15 April 2019

Star Carr digital reconstruction
Image: Marcus Abbott, The Jessop Consultancy

However, hunter gather populations can only sustainably occupy country at a lower density than Neolithic farming communities with their more intensive food production methods. So even if there was some mixing, the relative population sizes would produce a significant diminishing of hunter gatherer ancestry over time.  

Recent genome studies of ancient European populations have enabled reconstructions with reasonably accurate estimates of skin, hair and eye colour. The Neolithic population that the Whitehawk Woman belonged to, for instance, generally had lighter skin and darker eyes than Mesolithic occupants, such as Cheddar Man. But were darker than Ditchling Road Man, who arrived with the first wave of light skinned, light eyed Beaker People from continental Europe around 2400BC. (ref:  National Geographic 24/01/2019 - These facial reconstructions reveal 40000 years of English (sic) ancestry. Kristin Romney)

The second connection I made was that the process of migration and population replacement appears to have happened again, 1600 years later. Signifying the end of the Neolithic period and establishment of the Bronze Age.

The Beaker culture originated in Iberia and spread to Central Europe without a significant movement of people. Skeletons from Beaker Burials in Iberia and not generally close to Central European Beaker skeletons. Beaker culture was taken up by a group of people living in Central Europe who's ancestors had previously migrated from the European Steppe. This group continued to migrate west, finally arriving in Britain. (ref: nhm.ac.uk - Beaker People A New Population For Ancient Britain, James McNish) 

Bronze Age woman facial reconstruction by Hew Morrison: 'Ava' Caithness,
circa 2250BC. She had no, or few, genetic connections to local Neolithic people.
Her parents or grandparents lived in the Netherlands before her birth. She was
possibly one of the Beaker People culture. Her straight black hair, brown eyes and a
Mediterranean complexion, compared with the fair pigmentation of Ditchling Road Man,
shows a marked variation of appearance across the Beaker culture tribes.
(Smithsonian Magazine)
 

DNA results of the skeletal remains from the population before and after the arrival of the Beaker People was astonishing. Only 10% of the Neolithic people's DNA was retained! Essentially, there was a near complete population turnover.

But what happened to the Neolithic communities that came together to build iconic megaliths, like Stonehenge and who's visible influence can be seen in the multitude of stone circles and chambered tombs across the British Isles and Ireland? 

Their organisational skills and ability to draw people together for a common cause had been amply demonstrated in their constructions. They also had grown into a large, cohesive, population so they were not at the same numerical disadvantage that the Hunter Gatherers had been. 

A number of theories abound, linked to worsening agricultural conditions and decrease in cereal production. Including, an increase in communicable diseases caused by people and animals living in close quarters. There is contemporary evidence of a plague like pandemic, occurring at various global locations. With populations weakened and perhaps questioning their beliefs and cosmology, the Neolithic culture rapidly collapsed.

Bell Beaker and other Bronze Age artefacts
Image: Junta de Castilla y Leon, Archivo Museo Numantico, Alejandro Plaza

Meanwhile, there were massive migrations from the Eurasian Steppe, into Eastern and Central Europe. These people brought the Beaker Culture and the ability to make superior tools from metal, like swords and daggers. If not passively filling the power vacuum left by diminished Neolithic societies, the Beaker People may have forcibly usurped them, accelerating the process of migration and acquisition of territory.

Hadza at sunset - Image: The Dorobo Fund

This made me question other periods of seismic cultural change and the impacts which are still being seen today. I was drawn to the great Bantu migration. Which, from its origins in West Africa, spread across almost the whole of the sub-Saharan continent.

In particular, I wanted to look more closely at tribes in East Africa and how they were affected by the great migration or later interacted with the then settled Bantu cultures. Indigenous hunter gatherer groups like the Hadzabe. The Wachagga of Kilimanjaro, whos ancestry traces back to the early Bantu. And the Masai pastoralists who arrived in East Africa much later.

And then, in some cases, to see how traditional ways of life meet with globalisation.

Masai - Image: Jimmy Nelson Foundation

And so in the next blog, together, we'll imaginatively journey to from West to East Africa and into Tanzania. A country which, through people and places, I feel a deep spiritual affinity.

Stu Westfield
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