Dissertation Research: Social Relations and Ethnic Interactions in Post-Roman Britain: A DNA Analysis of Human Skeletal Remains

在特伦斯·达特洛伊博士的指导下，克里斯汀·弗莱厄蒂女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她将对英国北约克郡西赫斯勒顿遗址的一系列人类墓葬进行DNA分析，以确定个体的性别，并重建它们之间的遗传关系。英国已故的史前居民被归类为“凯尔特人”。这个国家被罗马政治精英和军队占领，他们在公元400年左右离开，留下了被称为“不列颠人”或“罗马人-不列颠人”的人口。在接下来的几个世纪里，盎格鲁-撒克逊人从欧洲大陆迁徙到英国，并迅速在英国文化上留下了强大的新文化印记。估计表明，移民的数量相当少(与大约400万的土著人口相比，可能不到25,000人)，史前学者希望了解土著群体和入侵群体之间的互动。弗莱厄蒂女士的研究针对的就是这个问题。Heslerton遗址由一个墓地和一个乡村组成，其中有重要的罗马-不列颠和盎格鲁-撒克逊元素。这座墓地(约公元475-625年)占地约1公顷，埋葬着约500个人，其中196人被挖掘出来。葬礼根据个人的社会地位或从属关系进行了部分安排。一排是携带武器的成年男性；另一排是青少年墓地，等等。一些死者被埋在棺材里，大约130个墓地里有墓地物品。因此，有可能进行详细的社会重建。通过结合Grave Good和DNA分析，弗莱厄蒂将能够研究围绕文化互动和支配种族关系的因素的一系列问题。关键问题包括：这个村庄在5世纪和6世纪是如何定居的？土著群体和移民群体的相对比例是多少？个人或群体的生物身份与墓葬中社会身份的表现相比如何？如何以及以何种方式推断这些数据，才能适用于英国目前和其他地方的移民过程？这项研究之所以重要，是因为它解决了人类学的一个核心问题。它提供了一个很好的例子，说明DNA分析如何用于社会科学研究，它将有助于培养一名有前途的学生。

Under the direction of Dr. Terence D'Altroy, MS. Christine Flaherty will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. She will conduct DNA analyses on a series of human burials from the site of West Heslerton in North Yorkshire, England to determine the sex of the individuals and to reconstruct genetic relations among them. The late prehistoric inhabitants of Britain are included under the broad cultural designation of `Celtic.` The country was occupied by Roman political elite and troops who departed ca. 400 AD leaving a population termed `Briton` or `Romano-Britain.` In the following centuries Anglo-Saxons migrated from the European mainland into Britain and rapidly placed a strong new cultural stamp on British culture. Estimates indicate that the number of immigrants was quite small (perhaps fewer than 25,000 in comparison to a native population of ca. 4 million) and prehistorians wish to understand the interactions between the native and invading groups. MS Flaherty's research is directed towards this question. The Heslerton site consists of a cemetery and a rural village with important Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon components. The cemetery (ca. 475-625 AD) is about one hectare in size and contains about five hundred individuals of which 196 were excavated. The burials were partially arranged according to the social status or affiliation of the individuals. One row contains adult males with weapons; another juvenile burials, etc. Some of the dead were buried in coffins and about 130 of the burials contain grave goods. Thus the potential exists for detailed social reconstruction. Through a combination of grave good and DNA analysis MS Flaherty will be able to examine a number of questions which revolve around cultural interaction and the factors which govern relations between ethnic groups. The key questions include the following: how was the village settled in the 5th and 6th centuries? What were the relative proportions of native and migrant groups? How does the biological identity of individuals or groups compare to the representation of social identity in the burials? How, and in what ways, can these data be extrapolated to apply to the migration process in Britain at this time and elsewhere? This research is important because it addresses a central anthropological question. It provides an excellent example of how DNA analysis can be used in social science research and it will assist in training a promising student.