Read the text below and answer questions 35 to 40

1. A new study from archaeologists at University of Sydney and Simon
2. Fraser University in Vancouver, has provided important new evidence
3. to answer the question "Who exactly were the Anglo‐Saxons?" New
4. findings based on studying skeletal remains clearly indicate the Anglo‐
5. Saxons were a melting pot of people from both migrant and local
6. cultural groups and not one homogenous group from Western Europe.
7. Professor Keith Dobney said the team’s results indicate that "the
8. Anglo‐Saxon kingdoms of early Medieval Britain were strikingly similar
9. to contemporary Britain ‐‐ full of people of different ancestries sharing
10. a common language and culture." The collaborative study looked at the
11. three‐dimensional shape of the base of the skull. "Baased on this, we
12. collected 3D data from suitably dated skeletal collections from Britain
13. and Denmark, and then analysed the data to estimate the ancestry of
14. the Anglo‐Saxon individuals in the sample."
15. The researchers found that between two‐thirds and three‐quarters of
16. early Anglo‐Saxon individuals were of continental European ancestry,
17. while between a quarter and one‐third were of local ancestry. When
18. they looked at skeletons dated to the Middle Anglo‐Saxon period
19. (several hundred years after the original migrants arrived), they found
20. that 50 to 70 percent of the individuals were of local ancestry, while
21. 30 to 50 percent were of continental European ancestry, which
22. probably indicates a change in the rate of migration and/or local
23. adoption of culture over time. "These findings tell us that being Anglo‐
24. Saxon was more likely a matter of language and culture, not genetics."
25. Although Anglo‐Saxon origins can clearly be traced to a migration of
26. Germanic‐speaking people from mainland Europe between the 5th
27. and 7th centuries AD, the number of individuals who settled in Britain
28. is still contested, as is the nature of their relationship with the pre-
29. existing inhabitants of the British Isles, who were Romano‐Celts.
30. The ongoing and unresolved argument is whether hordes of European
31. invaders largely replaced the existing Romano‐British inhabitants, or
32. did smaller numbers of migrants settle and interact with the locals,
33. who then rapidly adopted the new language and culture of the Anglo‐
34. Saxons? "The reason for the ongoing confusion is the apparent
35. contradiction between early historical texts (written sometime after
36. the events that imply that the newcomers were both numerous and
37. replaced the Romano‐British population) and some recent
38. biomolecular markers directly recovered from Anglo‐Saxon skeletons
39. that appears to suggest numbers of immigrants were few," said
40. Professor Dobney. "Our new data sits at the interface of this debate
41. and implies that early Anglo‐Saxon society was a mix of both
42. newcomers and immigrants and, instead of wholesale population
43. replacement, a process of acculturation resulted in Anglo‐Saxon
44. language and culture being adopted wholesale by the local
45. population." "It could be this new cultural package was attractive,
46. filling a vacuum left at the end of the Roman occupation of Britain.
47. Whatever the reason, it lit the fuse for the English nation we have today
48. ‐‐ still comprised of people of different origins who share the same
49. language," Professor Dobney said.

Adapted from article available at:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210623144901.htm

Accessed on: July 13, 2021.