Origins of the peoples of Britain according to Cornelius Tacitus, a Roman, writing in the early 2nd century AD. He speculates on the origins of the peoples of Britannia that Romans encountered. In chapter 11 of his work The Agricola, Tacitus relates the following: whether natives or immigrants is an open question; their physical characteristics vary, and the variation is suggestive; the reddish hair and large limbs of the Caledonians proclaim a German origin; the swarthy faces of the Silures, the tendency for the hair to curl leads one to believe Spaniards crossed in ancient times [Tacitus says that the isle of Britain lies off the coast of Spain, clearly a spatial error]. The peoples nearest to the Gauls resemble them [the Gauls]. On the whole it seems likely that Gauls settled the island near their shores; both countries have the same ritual and religious beliefs; there is not great difference in language.

References:

• Cornelius Tacitus, The Agricola and The Germania, completed 98 AD, translated by H. Mattingly 1948, revised translation by S.A. Handford 1970, Penguin Classics. [1]
• Cornelius Tacitus, The Germany and the Agricola of Tacitus, the Oxford translation revised with notes, Edition: 10, Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon,Eric Casteleijn and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team, Project Gutenberg
• The Belgae were a group of nations or tribes living in north-eastern Gaul, on the west bank of the Rhine, in the 1st century BC, and later also attested in Britain. Wikipedia
• Brigantes, Wikipedia: A British Celtic tribe living between the Tyne and Humber rivers; from the Celtic goddess Brigantia
• Coritani, or Corieltauvi, were a people living in Britain prior to the Roman conquest, and thereafter a civitas of Roman Britain. Their territory was in what is now the English East Midlands, in the counties of Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Northamptonshire. Their capital was called Ratae Coritanorum (or Ratae Corieltauvorum), known today as Leicester. Wikipedia
• Dumnonii are thought to have occupied territory in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall and possibly part of Dorset. Wikipedia
• The Iceni or Eceni were a pre-Roman Celtic tribe who inhabited an area of Britain corresponding roughly to the modern-day county of Norfolk between the 1st century BCE and 1st century CE. Wikipedia
• The Ordovices were farmers and shepherds but had a strong military tradition and lived in fortified strongholds and hillforts. They were among the few British tribes that resisted the Roman invasion. Wikipedia
• Silures were a powerful and warlike tribe of ancient Britain, occupying approximately the counties of Monmouth, Brecon and Glamorgan. Wikipedia

  [1] Like many ancient documents, we don't have originals to consult. We don't have copies of originals. We have copies of copies of copies, etc. In the case of The Agricola, we have an incomplete 9th century AD text that was rediscovered in 1902, and three texts dated to the 15th century AD: two in the Vatican Library, one in the Toledo Chapter Library; the oldest text was found in the 20th century in the Library of Count Balleani at Jesi.

In the 2005 research paper by Maesschalck et al. in which they analyzed 12 Y-chromosome markers for donors in Flanders, Belgium they found the most common alleles for this population as follows:

Our particiants 1848, 43277, 45538 and 52298 are exact 12-marker matches to these most common alleles for a modern population in Flanders, Belgium. In the Maesschalck et al. paper, only 2 of the 99 people sampled were exact matches for all 12 markers having the most frequent alleles in this population.

Reference:

Announcement of population data: Y-chromosomal STR haplotypes in a Belgian population sample and identification of a micro-variant with a flanking site mutation at DYS19, Kris De Maesschalck, Elisabeth Vanhoutte, Katleen Knaepen, Nancy Vanderheyden, Jean-Jacques Cassiman, Ronny Decorte, Forensic Science International 152 (2005) 89–94.

It is of interest that the 2005 research paper by Ballard et al. found these same alleles as most prevalent in UK Caucasian males. Their prevelance is somewhat different, but the pattern is quite similar:

Thus our particiants 1848, 43277, 45538 and 52298 are exact 12-marker matches to these most common alleles for a modern population in Flanders, Belgium and in the UK among Caucasians. This suggest the males in the UK are not all that different in their Y-markers from the modern-day Belgians. IN the Ballard et al. paper, 3.2% of the UK Caucasian males had all of the most common alleles shown in the table above.

Reference:

Announcement of population data Y chromosome STR haplotypes in three UK populations, D.J. Ballard*, C. Phillips, C.R. Thacker, C. Robson, A.P. Revoir, D. Syndercombe Court, Forensic Science International 152 (2005) 289–305.

Also, in the 2006 paper by Hass et al., these same alelles are most common in Switzerland. 2.6% of the samples in the Hass et al paper had these most common ones:

Reference:

Announcement of Population Data Y-chromosome STR haplotypes in a population sample from Switzerland (Zurich area) , C. Haas *, T. Wangensteen, N. Giezendanner, A. Kratzer, W. Ba¨r Forensic Science International 158 (2006) 213–218.

This page was last updated by Jim Sims on Thu, August 3, 2006 17:19