Analysis of ancient DNA shows that people who replaced Britain's population around 2400 BC came from the river deltas of the Low Countries. These migrants, linked to the Bell Beaker culture, carried a unique mix of hunter-gatherer and early farmer ancestry preserved in wetland regions. Within a century, they accounted for 90 to 100 percent of Britain's genetic makeup, displacing the Neolithic farmers who built Stonehenge.
Around 4600 years ago, a mysterious group associated with the Bell Beaker culture arrived in Britain, rapidly replacing the existing population. This culture, named for its distinctive pottery shaped like an inverted bell, first emerged in western Europe during the early Bronze Age, likely originating in Portugal or Spain. However, the new study pinpoints the British migrants' origins to the wetlands of the Rhine-Meuse delta in the borderlands of the Netherlands and Belgium.
David Reich at Harvard University and colleagues examined the genomes of 112 individuals from the Netherlands, Belgium, and western Germany, spanning 8500 to 1700 BC. The DNA revealed a resilient population of hunter-gatherers who thrived in the region's rivers, marshes, and peat bogs, relying on fish, waterfowl, game, and plants. Unlike much of Europe, where Neolithic farmers from Anatolia spread from around 6500 BC and diluted hunter-gatherer ancestry, these wetland communities maintained a strong hunter-gatherer genetic signature for millennia.
Their Y chromosomes, inherited from fathers, stayed predominantly hunter-gatherer for about 1500 years after farmers arrived, while mitochondrial DNA and X chromosomes showed some influx of farmer women. Team member Luc Amkreutz at the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden noted that the flooded landscape was challenging for farmers but ideal for these adaptable groups, who "were carving their own path, from a position of strength."
Around 3000 BC, Yamnaya herders from the steppes of modern Ukraine and Russia began migrating westward, influencing much of Europe through the Corded Ware culture. Yet, in the delta, their genetic impact was minimal, with only isolated traces like one Yamna-linked Y chromosome. By 2500 BC, Bell Beaker people introduced steppe ancestry, but the locals retained 13 to 18 percent of their distinctive hunter-gatherer-early-farmer blend.
These same genetics appear in the migrants who reached Britain circa 2400 BC. "Our models indicate that at least 90 per cent, but up to 100 per cent, of the original ancestry was lost [from Britain]," Reich explained. The replacement was swift and dramatic, possibly aided by diseases like the plague, to which continental populations may have had prior exposure. Archaeological evidence shows continuity in British monuments such as Stonehenge and Avebury, which were expanded post-arrival. The newcomers also brought metalworking, including gold hair ornaments nearly identical to those found in Belgium, as noted by Michael Parker Pearson at University College London.
