Ancient Irish Genomes Reveal Massive Migrations To The British Isles

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The Ballynahatty skull was excavated from a Neolithic tomb chamber in 1855. Daniel Bradley/Trinity College Dublin

Researchers sequencing the genomes from prehistoric Irish individuals for the first time – a female farmer and three men who lived several thousand years ago – reveal genetic changes that parallel the onset of the Neolithic and Bronze Age transitions in Ireland. The findings are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week.