Ancient DNA reveals West African ancestry in 7th-century skeletons from England Archaeologists have unearthed surprising genetic evidence that two individuals buried at opposite ends of the south coast of England in the 7th century CE had recent West African ancestry. The findings, published in Antiquity, contradict centuries of traditional beliefs about the extent of migration and cultural connections in the Early Middle Ages. The discovery comes from DNA analysis of two Anglo-Saxon cemetery burials: one at Updown in Kent, in the southeast of England, and another at Worth Matravers in Dorset, in the southwest. The majority of individuals interred there had northern European or West British and Irish ancestry, as was the norm. However, one person in each cemetery was different...