Editing Stonehenge (section)

== Stonehenge-builders and DNA studies ==
{{See also|Neolithic Europe|Chalcolithic Europe|Genetic history of Europe}}

There is evidence to suggest that despite the introduction of farming in the British Isles, the practice of cereal cultivation fell out of favor between 3300 and 1500 BC, with much of the population reverting to a [[pastoralism|pastoralist]] [[subsistence pattern]] focused on hazelnut gathering and pig and cattle rearing. A majority of the major phases of Stonehenge's construction took place during such a period where evidence of large-scale agriculture is equivocal. Similar associations between non-cereal farming subsistence patterns and monumental construction are also seen at [[Poverty Point]] and [[Sannai Maruyama]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stevens |first1=Chris |last2=Fuller |first2=Dorian |title=Did Neolithic farming fail? The case for a Bronze Age agricultural revolution in the British Isles |journal=Antiquity |date=2015 |volume=86 |issue=333 |pages=707–722 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00047864|s2cid=162740064 }}</ref>

===Stonehenge I and II===
[[File:Expansion of farming in western Eurasia, 9600–4000 BCE.png|thumb|250px|The ancestors of the people who built Stonehenge I and II were [[Early European Farmers|Neolithic farmers]] originating from Anatolia who brought agriculture to Europe.<ref>{{cite news |first=Andrew |last=Curry |title=The first Europeans weren't who you might think |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/first-europeans-immigrants-genetic-testing-feature |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210319032852/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/first-europeans-immigrants-genetic-testing-feature |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 March 2021 |work=National Geographic |date=August 2019}}</ref>]]

Researchers studying DNA extracted from Neolithic human remains across Britain determined that the people who built Stonehenge I and II were closely related to Iberian and Central European Early and Middle Neolithic populations, modelled as having about 75% ancestry from [[Early European Farmers]] who came from the Eastern Mediterranean, travelling west from there, and 25% ancestry coming from [[Western Hunter-Gatherers]] from western Europe.{{sfn|Brace et al.|2019}} These farmers moved to [[Iberia]] before heading north, reaching Britain in about 4,000 BC. Most of the ancestry of British Neolithic farmers came from the people who followed this route, with a minor contribution from groups who followed the [[Danube]] into Central and Western Europe.<ref name="bbc.com">Paul Rincon, [https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47938188 Stonehenge: DNA reveals origin of builders.] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190905205630/https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47938188|date=5 September 2019 }} BBC News website, 16 April 2019</ref>{{sfn|Brace et al.|2019}} Their agricultural techniques seem to have come originally from [[Anatolia]],<ref name="bbc.com"/> and their mixture appears to have happened primarily on the continent before the Neolithic farmers migrated to Britain.<ref name="bbc.com" />{{sfn|Brace et al.|2019}}

At the time of their arrival, Britain was inhabited by groups of hunter-gatherers who were the first inhabitants of the island after the [[last Ice Age]] ended about 11,700 years ago.<ref name="nhm.ac.uk"/> The farmers replaced most of the hunter-gatherer population in the British Isles without mixing much with them.{{sfn|Patterson|2022}}{{efn|{{harvtxt|Patterson|2022}}: "Whole genome ancient DNA studies have shown that the first Neolithic farmers of the island of Great Britain who lived 3950–2450 BCE derived roughly 80% of their ancestry from Early European Farmers (EEF) who originated in Anatolia more than two millennia earlier, and 20% from Mesolithic hunter-gatherers (Western European Hunter-Gatherers: WHG) with whom they mixed in continental Europe, indicating that local WHG in Britain contributed negligibly to later populations."}}

Despite their mostly Aegean ancestry, the [[Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup|paternal (Y-DNA) lineages]] of Neolithic farmers in Britain were almost exclusively of Western Hunter-Gatherer origin.{{sfn|Olalde|2018}}{{efn|{{harvtxt|Olalde|2018}}: "Another striking observation is the haplogroup composition of Neolithic males in Britain (n<nowiki>=</nowiki>34), who displayed entirely I2a2 and I2a1b haplogroups. There is no evidence at all for a contribution to Neolithic farmers in Britain of the Y chromosome haplogroups (e.g., G2) that were predominant in Anatolian farmers and in Linearbandkeramik central European farmers."}} This was also the case among other megalithic-building populations in northwest Europe,{{sfn|Sánchez-Quinto|2019}}{{efn|{{harvtxt|Sánchez-Quinto|2019}}: "Whereas mtDNA lineages from megalith burials harbor haplogroups K, H, HV, V, U5b, T, and J (among others), males from megalith burials belong almost exclusively to YDNA haplogroup I, more specifically to the I2a sublineage, which has a time to most recent common ancestor of ~15000 BCE. This pattern of uniparental marker diversity is found not only among individuals buried in megaliths, but also in other farmer groups from the fourth millennium BCE, which display similar patterns of uniparental marker diversity ... The high frequency of the hunter-gatherer-derived I2a male lineages among megalith as well as nonmegalith individuals suggests a male sex-biased admixture process between the farmer and the hunter-gatherer groups. ... The I2 YDNA lineages that are very common among European Mesolithic hunter-gatherers are distinctly different from the YDNA lineages of the European Early Neolithic farmer groups, but frequent in the farmer groups of the fourth millennium BCE, suggesting a male hunter-gatherer admixture over time."}}{{sfn|Cassidy|2020}}{{efn|{{harvtxt|Cassidy|2020}}: "... the predominance of a single Y haplogroup (I-M284) across the Irish and British Neolithic population. ... provides further evidence of the importance of patrilineal ancestry in these societies."}} meaning that these populations were descended from a mixture of hunter-gatherer males and farmer females.{{efn|{{harvtxt|Sánchez-Quinto|2019}}: "Whereas mtDNA lineages from megalith burials harbor haplogroups K, H, HV, V, U5b, T, and J (among others), males from megalith burials belong almost exclusively to YDNA haplogroup I, more specifically to the I2a sublineage, which has a time to most recent common ancestor of ~15000 BCE. This pattern of uniparental marker diversity is found not only among individuals buried in megaliths, but also in other farmer groups from the fourth millennium BCE, which display similar patterns of uniparental marker diversity ... The high frequency of the hunter-gatherer-derived I2a male lineages among megalith as well as nonmegalith individuals suggests a male sex-biased admixture process between the farmer and the hunter-gatherer groups. ... The I2 YDNA lineages that are very common among European Mesolithic HGs are distinctly different from the YDNA lineages of the European Early Neolithic farmer groups, but frequent in the farmer groups of the fourth millennium BCE, suggesting a male hunter-gatherer admixture over time."}} The dominance of Western Hunter-Gatherer male lineages in Britain and northwest Europe is also reflected in a general 'resurgence' of hunter-gatherer ancestry, predominantly from males, across western and central Europe in the Middle Neolithic.{{sfn|Mathieson|2018 }}{{efn|{{harvtxt|Mathieson|2018}}: "We provide the first evidence for sex-biased admixture between hunter-gatherers and farmers in Europe, showing that the Middle Neolithic "resurgence" of hunter-gatherer-related ancestry in central Europe and Iberia was driven more by males than by females."}}

===Stonehenge III (megalithic structure)===
At the time the megalithic Stonehenge 3 II was constructed (2600–2400 BC) by Neolithic people, the [[Bell Beaker people]] arrived, around 2,500 BC, [[Pre-modern human migration|migrating]] from mainland Europe.<ref name="NHM">National History Museum (2021), [https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2021/february/ancient-burials-stonehenge-cultures-merged-in-bronze-age.htmlAncient ''Burials near Stonehenge reveal how cultures merged in the Bronze Age'']</ref> They lived side by side for ca. 500 years, with the Bell Beaker people probably incorporating the henge-structures into their belief-system.<ref name="NHM"/>

The earliest British individuals associated with the Beaker culture, most likely speakers of [[Indo-European languages]] whose ancestors migrated from the Pontic–Caspian steppe,<ref name="nhm.ac.uk">{{cite news |first=James |last=McNish |title=The Beaker people: a new population for ancient Britain |url=https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2018/february/the-beaker-people-a-new-population-for-ancient-britain.html |work=[[Natural History Museum, London|Natural History Museum]] |date=22 February 2018}}</ref> were similar to those from the Rhine.<ref name="Needham 2005">{{cite journal |last1=Needham |first1=S. |year=2005 |title=Transforming Beaker Culture in North-West Europe: processes of fusion and fission |journal=Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society |volume=71 |pages=171–217 |doi=10.1017/s0079497x00001006 |s2cid=193226917}}</ref> Eventually, there was again a large population replacement in Britain.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Barras |first1=Colin |title=Story of most murderous people of all time revealed in ancient DNA |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24132230-200-story-of-most-murderous-people-of-all-time-revealed-in-ancient-dna/ |work=[[New Scientist]] |date=27 March 2019}}</ref> More than 90% of Britain's Neolithic gene pool was replaced with the arrival of the Bell Beaker people,<ref>[https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/05/09/135962 ''The Beaker Phenomenon And The Genomic Transformation Of Northwest Europe'' (2017)]</ref> who had approximately 50% [[Western Steppe Herders|WSH]] ancestry.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Bianca Preda |date=2020-05-06|title=Yamnaya – Corded Ware – Bell Beakers: How to conceptualise events of 5000 years ago |url=https://www2.helsinki.fi/en/news/language-culture/yamnaya-corded-ware-bell-beakers-how-to-conceptualise-events-of-5000-years-ago |website=The Yamnaya Impact On Prehistoric Europe |publisher=University of Helsinki}}</ref>