Iron Age DF27

Gundestrup cauldron (dated between 200 BC-300 AD).  Late La Tène period or early Roman Iron Age.

Urnfield culture developed out of Tumulus culture (c. 1600 to 1200 BC) in central Europe.  The Iron Age Hallstatt culture developed out of the Urnfield culture of 1200 BC.  Atlantic Bronze Age societies were located in the west of Europe along the Atlantic coast from Iberia, France, Britain and Scandinavia.  Urnfield kept to the east in more landlocked central Europe.  What is now northern and western France was at that time a central point in the Atlantic Bronze Age maritime network - on the seaways leading north and south.  The two Bronze Age societies, Atlantic and Urnfield, interacted there.  In the Late Bronze Age, Urnfield wagons, chariots and horse gear were adopted by Atlantic regions.  Atlantic societies became more influential in the Early Iron Age after the wide adoption of locally available iron across Europe and the disruption of earlier Urnfield trade monopolies inland.  In turn Atlantic culture and weapon styles then influenced central Europe.

Given the gene flow characterized between French IA groups, we tested for equivalent biological interactions with groups from other western European areas. We have seen that PCA and qpAdm analyses highlighted special affinities between IA groups from southern France and Spain and from north-western France and England.

qpWave analyses performed between regional groups and other European contemporaneous groups highlight clustering of northern France and north Europe (England and Sweden) IA groups whereas the Gauls of southern France stand out from this cluster but appear closer to the Celtiberians from Iberian Peninsula.

we were able to detect mobility at the individual scale between regions and gene flow with neighbouring groups from England and Spain. Of great interest, these genetic outliers were not always distinguishable from an archaeological perspective, which could mean that they were fully integrated within the community.

Indeed, we were able to detect specific affinities between northern/north-western France and England IA communities and between southern France and Spain communities. This result is consistent with archaeological evidence, such as the presence of roundhouses and so-called ‘Durotrigian’ buried in Urville (Normandy) and the definition of the ‘Ibero-languedocian’ complex in the South. Globally, the results proposed reinforce the idea that ‘Celts’ derived from local BA populations that evolved progressively between regional groups sharing some common cultural traits and linked through a network of cultural and biological exchanges.

Origin and mobility of Iron Age Gaulish groups in present-day France revealed through archaeogenomics, Claire-Elise Fischer et al., iScience, 2022, link

The seeds of Proto-Celtic might have developed in the Tumulus culture but this is many centuries before Celtic is first attested anywhere and, as mentioned, there is much debate about the origin of languages.  In Algarve, southwest Portugal, early Celtic text was carved in the Phoenician alphabet on a stone dating from around the same time that Hallstatt Celts were living in central Europe.  In northwest Europe there may have been an unknown but widespread early shared language (Northwestblock theory) that gave birth to Proto-Celtic and Proto-Germanic.  Proto-Germanic contains loans from Celtic that followed Grimm's and Werner's laws, indicating that contacts took place before Proto-Germanic became linguistically defined.  The Celtic lexicon also shows early contact with Proto-Germanic.  The Hilversum culture, with links to the Atlantic Middle Bronze Age maritime world of the Wessex culture in England and Amorica in western France, is one of the material cultures proposed to have spoken a 'Nordwestblock' language - it being Indo-European but neither Germanic nor Celtic.  Italic languages may have split at about the time of the Urnfield culture and Celtic, Goidelic and Brythonic could have diverged later in the Iron Age.  

In CELTO-GERMANIC Later Prehistory and Post-Proto-Indo-European vocabulary in the North and West, 2020, Professor John Koch suggests that:

it seems likely that Pre-Germanic and Pre-Italo-Celtic simply continued to be close long into the Bronze Age. That state of affairs continued to the time when copper from the Atlantic facade was traded to Scandinavia.', pdf

See also Rock art and Celto-Germanic vocabulary: Shared iconography and words as reflections of Bronze Age contact, John Koch, 2019, link.  From that article:

An intriguing fact about the Celtic languages of Western Europe and the Germanic languages of the North is that these two Indo-European branches share a sizeable body of inherited vocabulary that is absent from most or all of the other branches (Hyllested 2010).

Also, 

Parallels between Iberian warrior stelae and Scandinavian rock art were noted years ago (Almagro Basch 1966). Only recently have shared motifs (e.g. shields,spears, swords, horned helmets, mirrors, bows and arrows, chariots with two-horse teams, dogs, mirrors, &c.) begun to be recognized more fully and closely dated to the span 1300–900 BC (Ling & Koch 2018)., link

They conclude:

At this preliminary stage of the investigation, we can note details consistent with our hypothesis that the Late Bronze Age — when copper from the Iberian Peninsula reached Scandinavia and Scandinavian rock art and Iberian warrior stelae shared elements of iconography — was also the horizon to which many Celto-Germanicisms can be most plausibly attributed.

An interesting feature noted about the warrior figures in Iberian and Scandinavian rock art is that the Iberian warriors appear to be 'standing to attention' in stationary, upright poses while their Scandinavian equivalents, with the same weapons and headgear, are running, animated and very active.

Towards the end of this lecture (March 2021) Professor David Reich of Harvard University suggests that southern Britain (England and Wales) experienced a 50% rise in migrant farmer/southern continental European ancestry in c. 1200 BC - 900 BC, a significant event that did not happen in northern Britain.  It is suggested that the time period possibly coincides with the development of Proto-Celtic language.  The Late Bronze Age Atlantic network exerted great influence in northwestern Europe from about 1600 BC and seafarers, probably speaking a widely-understood formal trading language, are likely to have brought a mix of R1b-P312 subclades, along with southern Early Neolithic Farmer (EEF) autosomal ancestry, to northwest Europe and Scandinavia.  At the same time steppe autosomal admixture from the north may have moved south along the maritime networks to southwest Europe.  If so, alliances through intermarriage and fostering might have been taking place along the Atlantic coastal networks.

As mentioned, 22 burials dated between the Late Bronze Age (1300-700 BC) and the Middle Iron Age (400-100 BC) on the Isle of Thanet, a landing site in the maritime network just off the coast of southeast England, had around one quarter Iberian/Western Mediterranean origins and one third with Scandinavian origins.

Regarding the Patterson et al. paper, Professor Reich said: 

These findings do not settle the question of the origin of Celtic languages into Britain. However, any reasonable scholar needs to adjust their best guesses about what occurred based on these findings.

Our results militate against an Iron Age spread of Celtic languages into Britain - the popular 'Celtic from the East' hypothesis - and increase the likelihood of a Late Bronze Age arrival from France, a rarely discussed scenario called 'Celtic from the Centre.', link

The paper Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age, Nick Patterson et al., 2021, Nature, and one called Genetic Change and population movement C. 1200 BCE: a view from the North and West, Ian Armit et al. (not yet published), with Nick Patterson and David Reich as co-authors, look at potential large scale population change in the southern British Isles in the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age: 

The new study, led by the University of York, Harvard Medical School, and the University of Vienna, shows that people moving into southern Britain around 1300‒800 BC were responsible for around half the genetic ancestry of subsequent populations., link 

The paper Imputed genomes and haplotype-based analyses of the Picts of early medieval Scotland reveal fine-scale relatedness between Iron Age, early medieval and the modern people of the UK., Adeline Morez et al., 2022, link, examines the ancestry of the Picts of early medieval Scotland (ca. AD 300-900) and contains some late Iron Age samples.

The Late Bronze Age collapse in the 12th century BC left Mediterranean cultures in turmoil with invasions and migrations taking place there.  Iberian groups lived in defended settlements specialising in trade to the northeast along the Atlantic in the Late Bronze Age.  New arrivals in Britain appear to be of similarly high Bell Beaker R1b-P312 ancestry to those already living there but with elements of southern Neolithic 'farmer' admixture (EEF).  The point of departure for the migrating population could have been the southern English Channel and southeastern North Sea coasts - from what is now France and Belgium/the Low Countries/Rhine Basin.  A group from central continental Europe (groupe Rhin-Suisse-France orientale or 'RSFO') was in a period of demographic and economic growth in around 1300-1000 BC when they moved north and west and influenced, and interacted with, the Atlantic groups.  In the Late Bronze Age this mixed RSFO population with origins in eastern France/Germany may have crossed the English Channel to southern Britain, link.  After 900 BC the RSFO influence waned and Atlantic prestige recovered in northwest Europe with the coming of the Early Iron Age and the adoption of iron-making technology.  The paper The origin and legacy of the Etruscans through a 2,000-year archeogenomic time transect, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 2021 found that early Etruscans (c. 900 BC - 0 AD) were nearly all R1b

The much earlier traveller from the very beginnings of the Bronze Age, the Boscombe Bowman (R1b-P310 plus an intriguing but uncertain FGC11381+ SNP result), buried near Stonehenge in about 2300 BC, also had high levels of non-steppe Neolithic European farmer ancestry - as did his near contemporary the Amesbury Archer, buried nearby.  Although he had steppe ancestry like other Bell Beaker males, the Boscombe Bowman had much higher levels of southern farmer DNA than the mainly steppe R1b-L21 burials in the Bronze Age British Isles - suggesting, along with tooth isotope data, that he travelled to the ancient pilgrimage site at Stonehenge from a different part of Europe.  Similarly high non-steppe farmer admixture is potentially being picked up later in some burials from the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age migration covered by the Patterson et al. paper. 

803 burials were studied for ancient DNA in the paper Large-Scale Migration into Southern Britain During the Middle to Late Bronze Age, Nick Patterson et al., 2021, Nature.  Western Mediterranean and Scandinavian-origin burials were identified at Cliffs End Farm, Thanet.  The site, on an island in the North Sea, was a trading hub/landing point on the Atlantic Maritime network.  I14861/3673 (900-800 BCE) was a genetic outlier from Cliff Ends Farm who had high EEF and was found to be DF27>ZZ12>Z46512>FGC23071 in FTDNA preliminary analysis.  From the Supplementary Information; 

this individual spent their childhood outside of Britain (Millard 2014). δ18O phosphate values are comparable to those obtained for many skeletons excavated across continental Europe (McGlynn 2007), including those of a possible Alpine origin (e.g. northern Alps) (Oelze 2012). While a ‘Scandinavian’ origin for I14861 was previously suggested (Millard 2014) and cannot be excluded, we propose a continental/Alpine origin would be more consistent with the genetic findings of this study (i.e. high EEF ancestry).

He is the 'Bundle Burial' referred to in Reconstructing cross-channel connectivity in later prehistoric Kent using aDNA and isotope analysis, Madeleine Bleasdale et al., 2022: 'non-local oxygen isotopes of premolar (2-6 years) and M3 ( 8-15 years) suggest an origin north or east of Britain, possibly Scandinavia or the northern Alps'.  They also highlight his high EEF value 'consistent with a Continental/Apline origin'.  The studies show a North-South and South-North geneflow along the Atlantic Maritime Network with an associated DF27 yDNA signal.

Other R1b-P312 burials were identified at that site but with no SNP definition found below that SNP, i.e. samples I14742 (1011-860 calBCE), I14743 and I14859 (779-524 calBCE):

whose isotopic signature suggests a non-local origin. This individual was placed in the grave over the partial remains of a horse.

The earliest potential ZZ19 burial in this paper is Skeleton RL 90.30.1.6 (P2434) I15033 [P312 in the Patterson et al. paper, Alex Williamson: ZZ19] from Port Blanc megalithic complex, Brittany, France dated 1891–1743 cal BCE (c. 1817 BC).

A much later La Tène burial (dated 120 BC - 80 BC) in a Necropolis at Urville-Nacqueville, Manche, Normandy, namely UN85, from the paper Origin and mobility of Iron Age Gaulish groups in present-day France revealed through archaeogenomics, iScience, Volume 25, Issue 4, 15 April 2022, link, was found to be DF27*.  Some other burials were undefined below P310.  The notes say, 'Type of burial: Inhumation ("Durotrigian").  Common or rare burial for the context: Unusual (mostly cremation)'.  The Durotriges were one of the Celtic tribes living in Britain who traded across the English Channel prior to the Roman invasion., link.

Large-Scale Migration into Southern Britain During the Middle to Late Bronze Age is the first study to reveal prehistoric DF27>ZZ12>Z46512>FGC78762>ZZ19 burials in Britain, listed below.  Immediately downstream of ZZ19 are two large 'brother' branches, Z31644 and Z34609.  Z34609 is the ancient branch that Rox2 descends from.  Initial scans of the raw data were made by Alex Williamson (link).  Six are currently ZZ19* (i.e. no reads for SNPs downstream of ZZ19).  It's therefore possible at least some of those six ZZ19* burials could be Z24609+ upon further investigation.  Seven samples are ZZ19>231644, one is Z34609. 

ZZ19*

I13754/Sk87 [P312>L238>Z2245 in the Patterson et al. paper.  Alex Williamson (AW) says ZZ19, see below] Pocklington (Burnby Lane), East Riding of Yorkshire, England, c. 400-50 BCE

I21313/C29 [P312 in the Patterson et al. paper, AW: ZZ19] Casterley Camp, Wiltshire, England. 354–57 cal BCE

I22065/427 [P312 in the Patterson et al. paper, AW: ZZ19] Burstwick, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. 351–55 cal BCE - (21-38 year old male)

I13728/900 (4591) [P312 in the Patterson et al. paper, AW: ZZ19] Trumpington Meadows, Cambridgeshire, England. 381–179 cal BCE 

I19046/1226; Burial F.511 [P312 in the Patterson et al. paper, AW: ZZ19] Marshall’s Jaguar Land Rover New Showroom (JLU15), Cambridgeshire, England. 383–197 cal BCE

I15033/RL 90.30.1.6 (P2434) [P312 in the Patterson et al. paper, AW: ZZ19] Port Blanc, Quiberon, Morbihan, France. 1891–1743 cal BCE

ZZ19>Z31644+ burials

Some DF27>ZZ12 subclades are still missed and labelled as P312 in published papers.  Other P312 subclades are more easily identifiable by the technology but DF27's presence is often underrepresented.  Preliminary analysis by Alex Williamson and FTDNA revealed some additional DF27 and further detail on some of the others already mentioned, including a Z2571>CTS11567 burial.  I13759 (Burnby Lane, Pocklington) is ZZ19>Z34609>Z2571>CTS11567>BY3865 after preliminary FTDNA analysis, see below.  The Patterson et al. paper, 2021, agrees.  Z2571 is the early branch that Rox2 shares with CTS11567.  

Seven are potentially Z31644+:

15502 [n/a in Patterson et al. paper.  FTDNA: ZZ19>FT96564] Nunburnholme Wold hilltop settlement, near Pocklington, East Yorkshire (196–4 CE)

I12413/Sk3 [DF27 in the Patterson et al. paper.  FTDNA: ZZ19>BY56764] Pocklington (Burnby Lane), East Riding of Yorkshire, England. 400-50 BCE

I14327/4295 [DF27>ZZ19>R-Y3267 in the Patterson et al. paper] East Coast Pipeline, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. 340–47 cal BCE

I16450/Sk 2080 [DF27>ZZ19>R-Y14529 in the Patterson et al. paper] Trethellan Farm, Newquay, Cornwall, England. IA inhumation cemetery 3rd century BCE–1st century CE

I20989/DA78 [P312 in the Patterson et al. paper.  AW: A17603] Danebury, Nether Wallop, Hampshire, England (Iron Age hillfort). 354–59 cal BCE

I6769/SB551A [P312 in the Patterson et al. paper.  AW: BY168376] Harlyn Bay, St. Merryn, Padstow, Cornwall, England. Infant, 754–416 cal BCE

I13682/M4 [P312 in the Patterson et al. paper.  AW: BY168376, as 16769, above] Kingsdown Camp, Mells Down, Somerset, England (tooth under mound, 793–544 cal BCE)

ZZ19>Z34609+ burial

I13759/Sk129 [ZZ19>Z2572 in Patterson et al. FTDNA: ZZ19>CTS11567>BY3865] Pocklington (Burnby Lane), East Riding of Yorkshire, England. 400-50 BCE

Unfortunately many burials in the paper (over 200) could only be identified to the P310 and P312 level.

Map, above, 'Celtic-looking' place names from An Alternative to ‘Celtic from the East’ and ‘Celtic from the West’, Patrick Sims-Williams, (pdf)

The technologically sophisticated but non-literate people who were first attested as 'Celts' lived just north of the Alps in around 800-600 BC but people speaking early Celtic-related dialects might have also been in a preexisting Proto-Celtic zone to the north/northwest/Atlantic at an earlier time.  Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC, said that Celts lived beyond the Pillars of Hercules (Strait of Gibraltar) next to a people called the Kunetes.  Professor John Koch, in BBC documentary, The Celts: Blood, Iron and Sacrifice, 2015, claims that in Fonte Velha necropolis on the Algarve in southwest Portugal, evidence of early Celtic writing is found on a stone carved during the same time period as the Hallstatt Celts of central Europe.  Koch points out a carved reference to the Celtic god Lugh, written in the ancient rune-like alphabet of Phoenician Mediterranean seafarers with links to Iberia.  Although the script is Phoenician, the text is Celtic.  Regarding Lusitanian inscriptions in Iberia, there has been support for either a connection with the ancient Italic languages or Celtic languages.  

The language was spoken in the territory inhabited by Lusitanian tribes, from the Douro to the Tagus rivers, territory that today falls in central Portugal and western Spain., link

 The Lusitanian language may in fact have been basal Italo-Celtic, a branch independent from Celtic and Italic, and splitting off early from Proto-Celtic and Proto-Italic populations who spread from Central Europe into western Europe after new Yamnaya migrations into the Danube Valley. Alternatively, a European branch of Indo-European dialects, termed "North-west Indo-European" and associated with the Beaker culture, may have been ancestral to not only Celtic and Italic, but also to Germanic and Balto-Slavic., link

See also Tartessian: Celtic in the South-west at the Dawn of History, John Koch, 2013:

To recognize the Tartessian language as Celtic has profound historical implications. By a century or more, it is the earliest attested Celtic language. Its early date and its extreme situation on Europe’s south-western edge call for reconsideration of the standard account of the origins of the Celts and the Celtic languages in central Europe., link

Celts formed wealthy principalities that traded with the Greeks and Etruscans until their hillforts were destroyed in about 500 BC.  In the fifth century BC a new culture, La Tène, emerged.  They had connections with the Atlantic system via the rivers that feed the Seine and built strongholds and used warfare to expand across much of Europe.  La Tène culture brought with it new types of graves and distinctive art forms.  Imaginative swirling abstract depictions of natural vegetation and lines that resembled stylized animals and humans adorned their weaponry and jewellery. 

In around the fifth century BC, Jastorf culture formed at the end of the Mediterranean-influenced Nordic Bronze Age and had risen to prominence on the southeastern coast of the North Sea basin.

The Nordic Bronze Age maintained close trade links with Mycenaean Greece, with whom it shares striking similarities.

The people of the Nordic Bronze Age exported amber in exchange for metals and had become expert metalworkers.  Late Bronze Age/early Iron Age mariners would have followed the same coastal Atlantic sea routes, i.e. from the Mediterranean and Iberia to Scandinavia and the Baltic, as those used by the Maritime Bell Beakers many centuries before.  A Jastorf tribe, the Nierburg group, bordered La Tène proper.

The Nienburg group has characteristics of material culture closer to Celtic cultures, and shows evidence of significant contact with the Hallstadt and La Tène cultures.

The language of the Western Hallstatt/Atlantic tribes influenced but did not replace the Proto-Germanic language of the early Jastorf culture.  Jastorf was at first restricted to what would be the homeland of the Angles and Saxons in northern Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein.  Several dialects might have been spoken across the region.  As well as evidence of much earlier influence  between the Celtic and Germanic languages, perhaps in the Bronze Age, there is a shared lexicon of religion and ritual between Proto-Celtic and the beginnings of Proto-Germanic that is unique to them.  There were further borrowings between the languages later in the Iron Age.  

Celtic culture was a big influence on the early North Sea Germanic cultures and began to diffuse to the British Isles with the prestigious Atlantic-influenced Hallstatt C culture that crossed from the southern English Channel and southeastern North Sea coasts to exert its influence in what would become southern and eastern England - as well as moving up towards Scandinavia along the east of the North Sea basin.  That period followed a decline in population numbers from disruption caused by the Late Bronze Age Collapse.  Iron Age settlements stretched up the coast of Norway at strategic points on the ancient Atlantic maritime route.  By 400-200 BC, Iron Age people with links to a La Tène culture of the European mainland are found in the archaeological records of Yorkshire, northeast England.  A large new Arras culture cemetery was discovered in 2014 in Pocklington, Yorkshire.  The excavations there have uncovered more than 160 Middle Iron Age skeletons and more than 70 square barrows as well as many artifacts.  Intact human skeletons are rare in this period.

Large-Scale Migration into Southern Britain During the Middle to Late Bronze Age is interesting for those of us with roots in Yorkshire, given the potential continental Belgic/La Tène Iron Age links.  It includes results from the large Pocklington cemetery at Burnby Lane where a chariot burial dated c. 250 BC was uncovered.  Another more spectacular warrior's chariot burial was excavated nearby at The Mile, north of Pocklington in 2018.  

The skeleton of the “warrior” man was placed in a crouched position in the cart of the chariot with a remarkably well-preserved bronze shield [a unique La Tène repoussé shield, see image below], decorated in La Tène style, and a beautifully highly decorated brooch., link.  

He was given a spectacular send-off, with his body placed in the chariot behind the horses, placed to look as if they were leaping out of the grave. The type of burial has no parallels in the UK. Intriguingly, a similar-looking chariot burial with horse skeletons, dating to the third or fourth century BC was discovered in 2013 in Svestari in north-east Bulgaria., link

Fewer than 30 Iron Age chariots have been found in Britain, 90% of them in East Yorkshire.  There were similar chariot burials in Holland at this time, one was uncovered directly across the North Sea at Heumen.  Vere Gordon Childe and others pointed to the similar burial rites of the people of the Aisne-Marne region of northern France and the Belgian Ardennes.

Parisi figurine, above, found at Withernsea, East Yorkshire

La Tène culture began in ancient Gaul just before the Arras culture appeared in Yorkshire.  According to Wikipedia:

Though there is no agreement on the precise region in which La Tène culture first developed, there is a broad consensus that the centre of the culture lay on the northwest edges of Hallstatt culture, north of the Alps, within the region between in the West the valleys of the Marne and Moselle, and the part of the Rhineland nearby., link

The Arras culture's burial practices were unlike those of surrounding British tribes (Brigantes) but were similar to continental La Tène culture burials, although with a local British influence.  The closely-similar funerary rites suggest that there were Iron Age links between eastern Yorkshire and northern Gaul.  An East Yorkshire tribe named the Parisi are linked with the Arras culture.  The Arras/Parisi territory in eastern Yorkshire was small but they had some of the best level agricultural land in Yorkshire, produced their own metalwork and were culturally and technologically advanced.  The landscape was ideally suited to the use of wagons and chariots.  The Parisi may have been a seafaring Belgic/Gallic La Tène people who settled in the north after about 300 BC.  Parisi are more confidently attested as living in Yorkshire in the 1st century AD and later in the Iron Age the new Roman administration took over the Parisi lands in Yorkshire.  The Roman conquest of Britain wasn't completed until about 87 AD.

The Yorkshire Parisi shared their name with the Parisii of northern France and may have a shared common origins with that tribe, either in France, Yorkshire or perhaps at some other location prior to the two branches separating.  The Parisii lived in the Paris Basin in France and gave their name to the nation's capital, Paris - the area is attested as Lutetiam Oppidum Parisiorum by Caesar (Parision in the fifth century AD, Paris in 1265).  The Rivers Oise and Marne flow into the Seine in the Parisii tribal lands from the northeast, from Belgium and Germania - near the La Tène heartlands.  Paris, on the River Seine, was a hub in an ancient trade route using river travel between Germania and Hispania/Occitania, link.  The Suessiones and the Catalauni were situated not far from the territories of the Parisii in France and they appear to have had connections with southern Britain.  From High King Diviciacus of the Suessiones 90-60 BC and Geoffrey of Monmouths King Digueillus 95-115BC, William Pullen: 

The Kingdom of Suessiones was a large confederation of tribes living in northern Gaul, between the English Channel, the west bank of the Rhine, and the northern bank of the river Seine, from at least the third century BC.

Julius Caesar describes Gaul at the time of his conquests (58–51 BC) as divided into three parts, inhabited by the Aquitani in the southwest, the Celtae the biggest central part, and the Suessiones in the north. Each of these three parts was different in terms of customs, laws, and language.

Diviciacus or Divitiacus was a king of the Belgic nation of the Suessiones in the early 1st century BC. Julius Caesar, writing in the mid-1st century BC, says that he had within living memory been the most powerful king in Gaul, ruling a large portion not only of Gallia Belgica but also of Britain., link

Julius Caesar on Britain, 54BC Commentarii de Bello Gallico: 

The interior portion of Britain is inhabited by those of whom they say that it is handed down by tradition that they were born in the island itself: the maritime portion by those who had passed over from the country of the Belgae for the purpose of plunder and making war; almost all of whom are called by the names of those states from which being sprung they went thither, and having waged war, continued there and began to cultivate the lands., link

The greater yDNA diversity among East Yorkshire Arras burials, including the unlabeled 400-50 BC DF27>ZZ19 burials from the paper Large-Scale Migration into Southern Britain During the Middle to Late Bronze Age, Nick Patterson et al., 2021, lends weight to the idea that the distinctive Parisi of East Yorkshire migrated there in the Iron Age from continental Europe.  Autosomal DNA is said to show overlap between the paper's Early Iron Age English burials and those with European Iron Age admixture, link.  Some East Yorkshire burials plot together in a region of this PCA that overlaps with Czech La Tène burials.  Other PCAs show the Arras culture burials plotting half way between ancient La Tène and Nordic Iron Age burials.  Concerning the East Yorkshire Arras culture burials the Patterson et al. 2021 paper states:

regional differentiation in IA Britain, as measured by FST, is higher between East Yorkshire and other groups than it is between any other pair of IA populations in England and Wales in our dataset. Comparative data from the continent could make it possible to determine if this is due to isolation of IA East Yorkshire from the rest of southern Britain, or later streams of migration specifically affecting East Yorkshire.

The preprint (not peer reviewed) Haplotype-based inference of recent effective population size in modern and ancient DNA samples, Romain Fournier et al., 2022 refers to the East Yorkshire Arras burials in its analysis and revealed evidence of a population contraction in the earlier half of the Iron Age and of their isolation from other Iron Age tribes.  It reports:

 We applied the HapNe-LD method to aDNA sampled from four different sites for which large cohorts from similar time strata were available. We first analyzed a group of recently published individuals excavated in Pocklington, Yorkshire, UK. The archeological context suggests that this group belongs to the Arras culture, which is distinctive relative to other Iron Age cultures in the UK but shows similarities with contemporary cultures in the Paris Basin and Ardennes/Champagne regions of France. These individuals were found to be unusually highly drifted from nearby groups, although their F-statistics do not highlight significantly divergent admixture histories. This suggests that these groups share common origins but may have been isolated for some time. To test this, we compared the effective population size for 24 individuals from the Arras culture to that of 49 other Iron Age individuals from Southern England. For the Arras, we detected a significant recent population contraction, starting between 500 and 1,000 BCE, which was not observed in individuals from Southern England. This is consistent with isolation of the Arras group from other Iron Age individuals in the South of England, possibly also reflecting isolation by distance due to the stronger geographic localization for the Arras samples.  Link

ARRAS CULTURE/PARISI, EAST YORKSHIRE

Seven DF27 results from the Patterson et al. paper come from East Yorkshire Iron Age burials linked to the Arras culture.  Not only are they the first group of DF27>ZZ12 burials to be found together in the same cultural context from one region of England, all but one are downstream of DF27>ZZ12>Z46512>FGC78762>ZZ19.  

This is interesting given the scarcity of DF27 burials found in Bronze Age ancient DNA studies of Britain so far (before 2021).  No ZZ19 had previously been found in Britain/Ireland before the medieval period (i.e. a ZZ19+ Viking burial VK261 from a mass grave in Dorset, 10th-11th century AD, see Medieval DF27 page).  Six East Yorkshire Iron Age burials appear to be ZZ19 after preliminary analysis and the seventh is DF27>FGC67076>BY11969.  For an idea of timescale, the ZZ19 SNP was at that time already ancient and was 'born' about 2000+ years before the Arras culture first appeared in Yorkshire.  In terms of size, ZZ19 is a large subclade that makes up 38% of DF27>ZZ12 in the FTDNA database (June 2022).

The Supplementary Information did not give much context for the individual skeletons.  There were three types of barrows at the Burnby Lane cemetery.  Of the larger ones (nine with a shallow central burial within an enclosure), six had their human remains destroyed and truncated by ploughing.  The enclosures were about 7 metres across and appear to be the earliest examples.  There were 48 square Group 2 barrows with deeper burials that were usually inserted between the larger Group 1 barrows.  Group 2 barrows made up the largest group within the cemetery.  26 smaller Group 3 barrows post-date the other groups and were circular in shape - placed between Group 2 barrows.  In one instance a circular Group 3 barrow cuts into an earlier square barrow.  There were also 41 'flat' burials with no surrounding ditches - again, ploughing might have destroyed some of the ditches.  Evidence showed that at least some of the flat burials pre-dated the square barrows, Peter Halkon, 2017, link.  There appeared to be separation between those with many fine grave goods (round barrows) and those with few (rectangular barrows), link.

From the paper's Supplementary Information:

The site is a palimpsest of burial activity spanning the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Anglian periods. Eighty-three barrows were identified in the Iron Age cemetery (Period 2), placing this site amongst the larger excavated cemeteries of the Arras culture (c. 400–50 BCE). Whilst the barrows themselves were mainly square or rectangular in shape, seven circular barrows were also recorded. Additional detail in relation to the typological characteristics of the barrows at Pocklington can be found in Stephens and Ware (2020, 20–1), but, in summary, barrows of Groups 1–3 (after Dent 2010; Halkon 2013) were recorded, with Group 2 barrows numerically dominant (48 examples).

Also: 

In addition to the items above, a number of weapons burials were also identified at Burnby Lane. These included the burial of a (male?) individual (36–45? years old) who was placed on top of a rectangular shield; a (male) speared-corpse burial of an individual aged 18–25 years, interred with sword; and a cart or chariot burial with two mature ponies in association (ibid., 26–7). The AMS dating of one of these ponies indicates barrow construction c. 250 cal BCE.

Three burials have been identified as DF27>ZZ19 at Burnby Lane Arras cemetery, Pocklington, East Yorkshire in Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age.  Petrous bones from 35 individuals were successfully analysed for aDNA.  20 were female and 15 were male.

Of the 15 male burials tested at Burnby Lane, 10 were L21, 4 were DF27 and 1 (I13758/Sk116) was U152>L2.  There is no information as to which graves the burials came from or their context.

DF27>ZZ12>Z46512>FGC78762>ZZ19 burials (c. 400–50 BCE):

I13759/Sk129: Patterson et al. R1b1a1b1a1a2a6/Z2572.  FTDNA preliminary analysis agrees (ZZ19>Z34609>Z2571>CTS11567>BY3865).

I13754/Sk87: Patterson et al. L238>Z2245.  Alex Williamson analysis ZZ19*.

I12413/Sk3: Patterson et al. DF27.  FTDNA preliminary analysis ZZ19>Z31644>FGC787637>BY14233>FGC18052>BY56764.

In addition to the three ZZ19 burials at Burnby Lane, Pocklington, there was also a DF27>FGC67076>BY11969 burial, I14105/Sk61, identified by Alex Williamson's analysis.  That burial is labelled P312 in the paper.

Associated with Pocklington is a nearby East Yorkshire hilltop cemetery with a burial determined to be ZZ19>Z31644>FGC78763>FGC13128>FT21556>BY33283>FT96564 from FTDNA preliminary analysis, i.e. sample 15502 (196 cal BCE–cal CE 4) from Nunburnholme Wold.  

Nunburnholme Wold is a prominent hilltop on the western escarpment of the Yorkshire Wolds near Pocklington, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. A cemetery of around 50 square-ditched barrows was revealed through aerial and geophysical survey to the east of and associated with a palimpsest of enclosures connected by drove ways, surrounding an ovoid open area of some 250x150m, at the hilltop’s highest point (Halkon 2019). This feature was interpreted as a central meeting place for a whole region. A square-ditched barrow excavated in 2014 (Halkon et al. 2014) contained the skeleton of a female aged 45+ years, tightly crouched with her head to the north, placed within a box-like wooden structure with the remains of a suckling pig at her feet. This burial was dated to 2100±30 BP (Beta-516926; 334–42 cal BCE). A petrous bone from this individual (Barrow BE) was successfully analysed for aDNA and yielded sample I5503 (female).

 Her maternal DNA was U5b1c2.  Regarding the DF27>ZZ19 male burial, i.e. 15502:

aged between 17 and 22 years (Halkon et al. 2015). It too had been placed within some kind of wooden box or shuttering. With its head to the north and facing east, the corpse had been placed on its back and the knees may have been raised. Part of a young pig had been laid across this individual’s lap. The provision of pork is usually taken as a mark of high status within Arras Culture burials. As in 2014, the bones themselves, which initially appeared to be quite robust, were found to be very fragile on lifting.

The DF27>ZZ19 men at Pocklington, dated at 400-50 BCE, had no relatives at the site.  The DF27>FGC67076>BY11969 man, I14105/Sk61 mentioned below, did have relatives there among the women and L21 men.  

Sample I14105 is a second or third degree relative of I13751 and I5508, who is a second or third degree relative of I14108.  Supplementary Information.

Elsewhere in East Yorkshire there were two more DF27>ZZ12>Z46512>FGC78762>ZZ19 burials:

I22065/skeleton 427:  Found an Iron Age square barrow at Burstwick, East Riding of Yorkshire.  From Supplementary Information, Large-Scale Migration into Britain During the Middle to Late Bronze Age:

In the western enclosure, a central grave contained a crouched skeleton 427. This was accompanied by a bent iron sword, an iron spearhead and a shield represented by an iron boss in a circular patch of dark soil over the pelvis. This skeleton also had an articulated pig vertebral column laid in front of it. Petrous bone from skeleton 427, a young middle adult (21–38 years), provided sample I22065 (male) dated 2147±24 BP (SUERC-80670; 351–55 cal BCE).

I22065 is listed as P312 in the paper but Alex Williamson found him to be DF27>ZZ19*.  They were unable to get aDNA from the other burial: 

skeleton 411 with its head to the south and accompanied by two iron arrowheads, a fragment of iron sheet and a small copper-alloy tack. An articulated pig vertebral column had been placed in front of the body.

I14327/skeleton 4224:  From Iron Age square barrow, East Coast Pipeline, East Yorkshire.  From the Supplementary Information:

In Field 16 was another multi-phased enclosure complex of Iron Age and Romano-British date. 

To the north of the enclosure complex the pipeline easement revealed the truncated remains of three square barrows. The first had a central grave containing skeleton 4224 laid in a contracted position on its left side with the head to the south and facing west. The burial was accompanied by a pottery jar and an iron Bow Brooch. A second grave was found close to the south-western corner of the barrow, containing skeleton 4295, a mature adult found lying in a flexed position.

Petrous bones from the skeleton provided sample I14327 (male) dated to 2113±29 BP (SUERC-52028; 340–47 cal BCE).  In the Patterson et al. paper I14327 is listed as DF27>FT318890>R-Y3267.  FTDNA preliminary analysis said: ZZ19>Z31644>A131>A432>FGC70972>BY41416.  

The second square barrow had a central grave containing a flexed inhumation 4181 placed on its left side with the head at the north end, facing east. The arms were bent above the head. The individual, who was aged 36–45 years, was accompanied by parts of two pigs, and two copper alloy Glastonbury type/La Tène type II brooches. Petrous bone from skeleton 4181 provided sample I22052 (female), dated to 2128±27 BP (SUERC-52024; 344–52 cal BCE).

It was announced in April 2021 that a unique Roman mansion had been uncovered at Eastfield, near Scarborough on the North Sea coast of Yorkshire.  This location is at the northern periphery of what was once Parisi territory and is a significant new find of national importance.  The third to forth century Roman buildings or 'sanctuary' were above earlier Iron Age ditches.  The substantial stone buildings were 'designed by the highest-quality architects in northern Europe in the era and constructed by the finest craftsmen' according to Karl Battersby from North Yorkshire county council.  Some rooms were designed to be heated but, apparently, never were.

Incidentally, a DF27 result from the La Tène period, i.e. burial UN85 dating to around 150 BC, was found in Normandy: 'La Tène necropolis of Urville-Nacqueville. This site, located in the Cotentin, is interpreted as a commercial and craft centre (Lefort et al., 2015) and is therefore a prime site for the study of trans-Manche exchanges during the Iron Age.'  Link  PECH8 , an Iron Age sample found at Pech Maho oppidum in Sigean in southwest France, dated to 600 - 300 BC (not radiocarbon C14) is R-P310/R-L52.

Pocklington warrior's shield:  link