Editing Amesbury Archer (section)

==DNA analysis==

The DNA of the Archer's skeleton was difficult to analyse at first and had to be omitted from a 2018 study of 226 Bell Beaker burials from across Europe, although DNA from the nearby 'Companion' was included in the study.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://doi.org/10.1038/nature25738 | doi=10.1038/nature25738 | title=The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe | year=2018 | last1=Olalde | first1=Iñigo | last2=Brace | first2=Selina | last3=Allentoft | first3=Morten E. | last4=Armit | first4=Ian | last5=Kristiansen | first5=Kristian | last6=Booth | first6=Thomas | last7=Rohland | first7=Nadin | last8=Mallick | first8=Swapan | last9=Szécsényi-Nagy | first9=Anna | last10=Mittnik | first10=Alissa | last11=Altena | first11=Eveline | last12=Lipson | first12=Mark | last13=Lazaridis | first13=Iosif | last14=Harper | first14=Thomas K. | last15=Patterson | first15=Nick | last16=Broomandkhoshbacht | first16=Nasreen | last17=Diekmann | first17=Yoan | last18=Faltyskova | first18=Zuzana | last19=Fernandes | first19=Daniel | last20=Ferry | first20=Matthew | last21=Harney | first21=Eadaoin | last22=De Knijff | first22=Peter | last23=Michel | first23=Megan | last24=Oppenheimer | first24=Jonas | last25=Stewardson | first25=Kristin | last26=Barclay | first26=Alistair | last27=Alt | first27=Kurt Werner | last28=Liesau | first28=Corina | last29=Ríos | first29=Patricia | last30=Blasco | first30=Concepción | journal=Nature | volume=555 | issue=7695 | pages=190–196 | pmid=29466337 | pmc=5973796 | bibcode=2018Natur.555..190O | display-authors=1 }}</ref><ref name=Fitz>Andrew Fitzpatrick et al. [https://the-past.com/feature/family-ties-deciphering-the-dna-of-the-amesbury-archer-and-the-companion/ "Family ties: deciphering the DNA of the Amesbury Archer and the Companion"]. ''Current Archaeology'' 31 Jan 2022.</ref> Later, a successful sample was taken from the Archer and analysed. It appears that both the Archer and the Companion in the male line (Y-chromosome) had [[Eurasian nomads|Steppe ancestry]], the Archer being classified as R1b1a1b1a1a<ref>According to the most recent nomenclature.</ref> ([[haplogroup R-L151]]) and the Companion as R1b1a1b1a1a2c1 ([[haplogroup R-L21]]). The two men were not related in the 1st or 2nd degree, although a more distant relationship, such as great-grandfather / great-grandson, is possible.<ref name=Fitz />
 
A further finding was that the Archer had a greater amount of [[Early European Farmer]] ancestry ({{circa|45}}%) than the Companion ({{circa|33}}%).<ref name="NickPatterson2021">Nick Patterson et al. [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04287-4 Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age] // Nature, 22 December 2021</ref>

It had already been shown<ref>Evans, J. A., Chenery, C. A. & Montgomery, J. "A summary of strontium and oxygen isotope variation in archaeological human tooth enamel excavated from Britain". ''J. Anal. At. Spectrom''. 27, 754–764 (2012) (cited in Patterson et al 2021).</ref> from strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of the Archer's 2nd premolar and 3rd molar teeth (which mineralise at different ages) that the Archer spent his childhood in Central Europe, probably in the Western Alps. By contrast the Companion appears to have been born in Wessex, but spent part of his childhood in Europe, perhaps in the same region of the Western Alps.<ref name=Fitz />