3000-year-old skeletons’ links to the Mores of Sarclet

SIR – AS many of you will know it is possible now to have the male Y-DNA tested for the paternal ancestral line. Last year 20 Caithness men were in fact tested by EthnoAncestry, as arranged by Lesley Riddoch.

In 2008 I asked my older brother to take the test with EthnoAncestry. I was curious as I have my ancestral More family traced via documents, registers, etc, back to Sarclet in the early 1700s (prior to that is not yet absolutely proven).

I always thought I would find a link to Orkney, Shetland and Norway but the results from the Y-DNA were completely unexpected. I hasten to add another More relation (third cousin) from the original Sarclet branch was also tested a few years back and we have the same match.

This is a part quote from our More paternal test results: “Your Y chromosome is inferred to be I2b2 L38+. Your ancestor probably outwintered the last great ice age (18,000 years ago) in the northern Balkans where an epi-Gravettian culture is attested archaeologically. From here your group spread northwards to repopulate northern Europe.

“Different sub-groups of I2b2 are common in continental Europe today including one that is indigenous to the British Isles but your Weser sub-group was carried to the British Isles much later by the Anglo-Saxons and Danes.

“Your sub-group is the most divergent branch within that group and one of the rarest; it indicates male line descent from proto-Germanic peoples in northern Europe. It is still most common there, accounting for up to four per cent of all chromosomes in northern Germany and around, but declining sharply in all directions. It is nevertheless found across Europe at low frequencies, spread in the migration period and before.”

Also: “I-L38 migrated in the late Iron Age with Celtic La Tène people, through Belgium, to the British Isles.”

This More Y-DNA is the same as 3000-approximately-year-old skeletons which were found in Lichtenstein Caves in the Harz Mountains, Germany. The skeletons were uncovered in 1980s and were in a good condition to enable testing to be carried out a few years back.

Quote: “An archaeological find at Lichtenstein Cave, near Dorste, Lower Saxony, Germany, uncovered bronze artefacts and the remains of approximately 40 people from the Bronze Age. The bones had been relatively well preserved for approximately 3000 years due to the consistent cool temperature and inaccessibility of the cave, which is very narrow with a low ceiling.

“Many of the bones were covered with gypsum sinter, a type of calcium phosphate from saturated water that dripped in the cave. This gypsum sinter layer was undisturbed, indicating that nobody had entered the cave for approximately 3000 years.

“Bronze Age human remains are seldom found in central Europe since cremation was commonly practised. When the site was first excavated in the 1980s, it was thought to represent a site of human sacrifice. However, lack of signs of violence on the bones plus the mixture of different genders and a wide range of ages at death suggest a different explanation.

“DNA analysis indicates that the remains form an extended family clan, covering at least three generations. This suggests that the site is actually a family burial chamber. Analysis of further finds of this sort may lead to a re-evaluation of the frequency of human sacrifice in Bronze Age Europe and alternative burial practices.”

For more information contact me at tricia.barnett@btinternet.com

Tricia Barnett (née More),

39 Waterloo Drive,

Banbury.

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