Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
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The Truth About Ancient Briton DNA - England’s Forgotten Ancestors…
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:24 Who Were the Ancient Britons?
2:16 The Britons and Gauls (and Druids)
3:47 Get Member-Only Videos
3:55 Genetic Makeup & DNA Haplogroups of the Britons
7:52 Closest Modern Population to Ancient Britons?
When you think of England’s ancestors, you would be forgiven for thinking about the Anglo-Saxons. After all, England literally means the land of the Angles. Yet there was a people long before this Germanic wave arrived, the Ancient Celtic Britons. But who actually were these people, what did their DNA look like, and how does their genetics still shape the DNA of England and Britain today?
Now the Britons lived in what is now England, Wales, and southern Scotland before and during the Roman occupation of Britain. For reference, the Romans arrived in earnest around 43 AD, after some initial expeditions a little earlier. These Britons were not a single unified people however. They were a collection of tribes that often shared similar languages, religious beliefs, and social structures. And if you look at this map, you can some of these groups. The Brigantes were powerful in ancient northern England, the Iceni in East Anglia, and the Silures in south Wales. The language they spoke, Common Brittonic, or dialects of this language at least, is the ancestor of the modern Welsh, Cornish, and Breton tongues.
Sources:
Caesar – The Conquest of Gaul (1982: Pengiun Books)
Patterson, N., Isakov, M., Booth, T. et al. Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age. Nature 601, 588–594 (2022). doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04287-4
Schiffels, S., Haak, W., Paajanen, P. et al. Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon genomes from East England reveal British migration history. Nat Commun 7, 10408 (2016). doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10408
Olalde, I., Brace, S., Allentoft, M. et al. The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe. Nature 555, 190–196 (2018). doi.org/10.1038/nature25738
Celtic Britons - Wikipedia
Martiniano, R., Caffell, A., Holst, M. et al. Genomic signals of migration and continuity in Britain before the Anglo-Saxons. Nat Commun 7, 10326 (2016). doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10326
Briton | Celtic Culture, Roman Invasion & Anglo-Saxon Settlement | Britannica
Christiana L Scheib et al. Low Genetic Impact of the Roman Occupation of Britain in Rural Communities, Molecular Biology and Evolution, Volume 41, Issue 9, September 2024, msae168, doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msae168
Creative Commons Imagery:
Hel-hama File:Britain peoples circa 600.svg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons
SKIBLY101 File:DF13 EUROPE.png - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons
Notuncurious File:Roman.Britain.campaigns.43.to.60.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons
Notuncurious File:Britain.south.peoples.Ptolemy.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons
Kabuto 7 File:Ancient Celt with carnyx (Ancient Briton).jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons
QuartierLatin1968 File:Map of Celtic Nations-flag shades.svg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons
Notuncurious File:Britain.north.peoples.Ptolemy.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons
Wojciech Pędzich, Robert Molyneaux File:Yamnaya phenotype, Reconstruction, male, grave Novooleksiivka; Ukraine.png - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons
Matteo De Stefano/MUSE File:Homo sapiens - Neolithic - reconstruction - MUSE.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons
Celtic Britons – English Ancestry – British Ancestry - Ancient Britain – Roman Britain – Julius Caesar Britain – Britons – Kingdom of Strathclyde – Ancient Britons – Druids – Gaul – Welsh Ancestry - British History
#british #ancestry #english
Join This Channel to Get Member-Only Videos: youtube.com/channel/UCCS3M_uNHH2iOJkpGhkO2SA/join
Subscribe to Celtic History Decoded - youtube.com/channel/UCCS3M_uNHH2iOJkpGhkO2SA?sub_confirmation=1
The Truth About Ancient Briton DNA - England’s Forgotten Ancestors…
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:24 Who Were the Ancient Britons?
2:16 The Britons and Gauls (and Druids)
3:47 Get Member-Only Videos
3:55 Genetic Makeup & DNA Haplogroups of the Britons
7:52 Closest Modern Population to Ancient Britons?
When you think of England’s ancestors, you would be forgiven for thinking about the Anglo-Saxons. After all, England literally means the land of the Angles. Yet there was a people long before this Germanic wave arrived, the Ancient Celtic Britons. But who actually were these people, what did their DNA look like, and how does their genetics still shape the DNA of England and Britain today?
Now the Britons lived in what is now England, Wales, and southern Scotland before and during the Roman occupation of Britain. For reference, the Romans arrived in earnest around 43 AD, after some initial expeditions a little earlier. These Britons were not a single unified people however. They were a collection of tribes that often shared similar languages, religious beliefs, and social structures. And if you look at this map, you can some of these groups. The Brigantes were powerful in ancient northern England, the Iceni in East Anglia, and the Silures in south Wales. The language they spoke, Common Brittonic, or dialects of this language at least, is the ancestor of the modern Welsh, Cornish, and Breton tongues.
Sources:
Caesar – The Conquest of Gaul (1982: Pengiun Books)
Patterson, N., Isakov, M., Booth, T. et al. Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age. Nature 601, 588–594 (2022). doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04287-4
Schiffels, S., Haak, W., Paajanen, P. et al. Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon genomes from East England reveal British migration history. Nat Commun 7, 10408 (2016). doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10408
Olalde, I., Brace, S., Allentoft, M. et al. The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe. Nature 555, 190–196 (2018). doi.org/10.1038/nature25738
Celtic Britons - Wikipedia
Martiniano, R., Caffell, A., Holst, M. et al. Genomic signals of migration and continuity in Britain before the Anglo-Saxons. Nat Commun 7, 10326 (2016). doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10326
Briton | Celtic Culture, Roman Invasion & Anglo-Saxon Settlement | Britannica
Christiana L Scheib et al. Low Genetic Impact of the Roman Occupation of Britain in Rural Communities, Molecular Biology and Evolution, Volume 41, Issue 9, September 2024, msae168, doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msae168
Creative Commons Imagery:
Hel-hama File:Britain peoples circa 600.svg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons
SKIBLY101 File:DF13 EUROPE.png - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons
Notuncurious File:Roman.Britain.campaigns.43.to.60.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons
Notuncurious File:Britain.south.peoples.Ptolemy.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons
Kabuto 7 File:Ancient Celt with carnyx (Ancient Briton).jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons
QuartierLatin1968 File:Map of Celtic Nations-flag shades.svg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons
Notuncurious File:Britain.north.peoples.Ptolemy.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons
Wojciech Pędzich, Robert Molyneaux File:Yamnaya phenotype, Reconstruction, male, grave Novooleksiivka; Ukraine.png - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons
Matteo De Stefano/MUSE File:Homo sapiens - Neolithic - reconstruction - MUSE.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons
Celtic Britons – English Ancestry – British Ancestry - Ancient Britain – Roman Britain – Julius Caesar Britain – Britons – Kingdom of Strathclyde – Ancient Britons – Druids – Gaul – Welsh Ancestry - British History
#british #ancestry #english
