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The researchers from Britain and the United States found that the remains of Britain’s early farmers were genetically similar to those discovered in what is now Spain and Portugal, indicating this population travelled east to west through the Mediterranean, and then up to Britain.

This points out the need to investigate all regions with ancient data to understand the shaping of modern human genetic diversity

Along with farming, the Aegan migrants also introduced the building of megaliths, large monuments made from stones. The stonehenge in Wiltshire is an example.

Strikingly, the newcomers appear to have arrived first on the western coast before spreading to other parts of Britain, suggesting they didn’t cross the English Channel using the shortest possible course but instead braved the wilder Atlantic route.

“This route is a continuation of the Mediterranean coastal dispersal route but of course in much more complicated maritime circumstances,” said Carles Lalueza-Fox of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona, Spain.

Lalueza-Fox, who wasn’t involved with the study, said the findings match what is known about the spread of megalithic structures along Europe’s Atlantic coast. Perhaps the best-known of these structures is Stonehenge in Britain.

“This work highlights the complex population turnovers affecting a rather marginal area of Northwestern Europe and points out the need to investigate all regions with ancient data to understand the shaping of modern human genetic diversity,” said Laluelza-Fox.

In their paper, Thomas and his colleagues also note the “considerable variation in pigmentation levels in Europe” during the Stone Age as shown from the genetic samples they examined.

Whereas Britain’s outgoing hunter-gatherers — including the oldest known Briton, “Cheddar Man” — likely had blue or green eyes and dark or even black skin, the farming populations migrating across Europe are believed to have had brown eyes and dark to intermediate skin.