By Duncan Sayer, Professor in Archaeology, University of Lancashire In 2022, archaeologists worked on the ancient DNA from a number of early medieval cemeteries, and found two individuals that stood out. One was from Updown Eastry in Kent, known as Updown girl, and the other was a young man from Worth Matravers in Dorset. Both were dated to the 7th century and both appeared to have west African heritage.
Two recent papers on these findings, along with other discoveries, highlight that English people from this time...