A genetic analysis of more than a thousand ancient British genomes shows the Roman conquest left only a small mark on the island's ancestry despite major cultural shifts.
Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute examined the genomes of 1039 individuals buried in Britain from the Bronze Age in 2550 BC through to AD 1150. The study found that most people living under Roman rule from AD 43 to 410 traced all their ancestry to Iron Age Britain, with only 20 percent showing detectable outside genetic input.