14 Comments

Another very interesting article. Even for a Historian, it shows just how far back we can go (usually British history starts around the time of the Roman invasion with a few words about Celts). Civilisation is a cyclical phenomenon, that waxes and wanes with the times. Those who believe in a "End of History" type of world view - regardless of political orientation (Marxist or Fukuyamist) are dreamers, not realists.

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an outstanding read. thanks

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Amazing, thank you.

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Probably the first time in British history that population replacement has not been resisted but instead been heavily promoted. I bet Ukian historians living a thousand years from now will come up with all sorts of wild theories about why that was the case.

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it was probably similar in the Roman period - just something that happens when a country turns into a foreign province or satellite state in an era of cheap transportation.

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Great article as usual. The parallel development of incest in Egypt and Britain is fascinating, what is your theory? Why do you think Irish myths go back so far where elsewhere in Europe it doesn't?

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Irish mythology baffles me - I can’t explain it. For incest, I think it evolves from 1) a claim of royal divinity to build legitimacy over priestly class & 2) a way of standing above politics of the clans and nobles - a monarch would appear partial if he married the daughter of a notable family.

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Do you think the WHGs really wiped out the Magdalenians? Or was it more of a case of them having a better set of cultural toolkits for the changing niches?

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" Their lives were nasty, brutish, and short."

Were they? When one excludes death in childbirth or infant death, neolithic people had community, food, shelter, predictability within the scope of their lifetimes. If they made it to 5 years old then they made it to the 6th decade as a rule.

Sad to see the "Nasty Brutish and Short" trope rolled out.

Hunter Gatherer/Herders lived long healthy lives compared to farming people.

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most neolithic skeletons I've read about were from people under age 40. I don't think those who survived childhood lived long.

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Are you considering the Norse impact on the British Isles as part of the Anglo-Saxon invasions from a couple centuries earlier?

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I don’t think they had much of an impact outside of the Scottish islands

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Jun 5, 2023
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Would still be hard to detect even if they did. Normans were a mix of Vikings and the locals(mix of Gallo-Romans and Frankish). They would not be that different from the Anglo-Saxons genetically.

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Jun 5, 2023
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What is small? I recall (perhaps wrongly) Scots and Irish have up to16% Norwegian ancestry. Danish and Norwegian ancestry is ~5% it other parts of Britain. Ancient DNA from Scandinavia is used to differentiate Anglo Saxon heritage from Viking.

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