Neolithic and Bronze age migration to Ireland and establishment of the insular Atlantic genome

The Neolithic and Bronze Age transitions were profound cultural shifts catalyzed in parts of Europe by migrations, first of early farmers from the Near East and then Bronze Age herders from the Pontic Steppe. However, a decades-long, unresolved controversy is whether population change or cultural adoption occurred at the Atlantic edge, within the British Isles. We address this issue by using the first whole genome data from prehistoric Irish individuals. A Neolithic woman (3343–3020 cal BC) from a megalithic burial (10.3× coverage) possessed a genome of predominantly Near Eastern origin. She had some hunter–gatherer ancestry but belonged to a population of large effective size, suggesting a substantial influx of early farmers to the island. Three Bronze Age individuals from Rathlin Island (2026–1534 cal BC), including one high coverage (10.5×) genome, showed substantial Steppe genetic heritage indicating that the European population upheavals of the third millennium manifested all of the way from southern Siberia to the western ocean. This turnover invites the possibility of accompanying introduction of Indo-European, perhaps early Celtic, language. Irish Bronze Age haplotypic similarity is strongest within modern Irish, Scottish, and Welsh populations, and several important genetic variants that today show maximal or very high frequencies in Ireland appear at this horizon. These include those coding for lactase persistence, blue eye color, Y chromosome R1b haplotypes, and the hemochromatosis C282Y allele; to our knowledge, the first detection of a known Mendelian disease variant in prehistory. These findings together suggest the establishment of central attributes of the Irish genome 4,000 y ago.

Catalogue des tableaux, figures de bronze, de marbre, et de terre cuites par Le Quesnoy et autres Maîtres ; des Porcelaines et autres effets curieux du Cabinet de M***. Par P. Remy [avec dessins en remarque] / [exemplaire illustré par Gabriel de Saint-Aubin]

Référence bibliographique : Dacier 1931a, 1038

Notice des modèles et surmoulés en bronze,... Vente 11 août 1845...

[Vente (Art). 1845-08-11. Paris]

Catalogue des modèles... fonds de la fabrique de bronze de MM. Chardigny et Cie. Vente 14 déc. 1838...

[Vente (Art). 1838-12-14. Paris]

Catalogue des modèles et surmoulés de bronze... cessation de commerce de M. Dubois... Vente 27 janv. 1840...

[Vente (Art). 1840-01-27. Paris]

Notice des modèles en bronze,... fonds de M. Petit,... Vente 4 août 1845...

[Vente (Art). 1845-08-04. Paris]

McGill Bronze Medallion

Bronze medallion measuring 4cm. in diameter. This has Universitas Collegii McGill Monte Regio inscribed on the front along with a coat of arms underneath the words Medicinae Facultas. On the back it says: Prize for ophthalmology and oto-laryncology in memory of Samuel DeVeaux Woodruff [Thomas A. Woodruff graduated from McGill University. His specialty was ophthalmology].

Receipt from Pratt and Company for bronze knobs

Receipt from Pratt and Company for bronze knobs, Aug. 29, 1876.

Receipt from Pratt and Company for bronze escutcheons

Receipt from Pratt and Company for bronze escutcheons, Sept. 9, 1876.