02-28-2008, 09:01 PM
Quote:1) genetics - a lot of this idea seems to hang on modern studies of modern dna, whatever that's worth. But contrary to the media, most scientists are careful to make big claims, and they tell us clearly enough that it's impossible to say when a certain group of Germanic ancestors actually entered the British Isles: it's impossible to see the difference between a 5th-c. Saxon or a 10-th-c. Dane. therefore, no answers are available to those who want to know if Germanic ancestors could have entered Britain say 10.000BC or 400BC.DNA studies actually can tell you if a group of population entered Britain 10.000 years ago or just 2.000 years ago, even if they shared the same haplogroup in 8.000 years for sure they have developed into different subclades, for instance R1b1c4 developed some 3.000 years ago and is probably a good marker of Basque population.
Nowdays the problem is not in the genetic research, that is quite advanced and can distinguish with great finesse population groups developed only some centuries ago, the problem for historical research is in the sample, it is very difficult to select a large one that is also representative.
AKA Inaki
