Bellbeaker DNA reveals origins of Stonehenge replacement migrants. DNA analysis of 112 ancient individuals from Netherlands, Belgium, Western Germany (8500-1700 BC) Bellbeaker population formed from mixing local hunter-gatherer descendants with steppe-related migrants around 2500 BC Formed in lower Rhine-Meuse region, not from Iberia as previously thought
Bellbeaker people formed in the lower Rhine-Meuse region around 2500 BC — not Iberia as thought. When they reached Britain around 2400 BC, they replaced 90-100% of local Neolithic ancestry within 200 years. This sweeping replacement may have been aided by disease, per study published in Nature 🧬
Key Facts
- DNA analysis of 112 ancient individuals from Netherlands, Belgium, Western Germany (8500-1700 BC)
- Bellbeaker population formed from mixing local hunter-gatherer descendants with steppe-related migrants around 2500 BC
- Formed in lower Rhine-Meuse region, not from Iberia as previously thought
- When Bellbeaker people arrived in Britain around 2400 BC, they replaced 90-100% of local Neolithic ancestry
- Migration happened within approximately 200 years
- Replacement may have been triggered by disease/plague to which continental Europeans had immunity but Britons did not
- Published in journal Nature
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