Dr Ceiridwen Edwards

Leverhulme Research Fellow in Ancient DNA Studies

Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art
Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Rd, Oxford, OX1 3QY

phone: 01865 285203

fax: 01865 285220

email: ceiridwen.edwards@rlaha.ox.ac.uk

Research Interests

  • Ancient DNA
  • Pre- and post-glacial mammals in the British Isles and (re)colonisation signatures
  • Phylogeography of European mammals
  • Biodiversity and climate change
  • Population genetics and conservation
  • Animal domestication

Current Research


Mass migration & apartheid in Anglo-Saxon Britain?: an ancient DNA re-evaluation

Recently, there has been renewed interest in migration and residence patterns, partly influenced by development of new isotopic and DNA techniques for examining mobility directly from remains of people themselves. Ancient DNA data will be combined with stable isotope analysis to study the Romano-British to Anglo-Saxon transition. Even with historical accounts detailing the arrival of the Germanic Anglo-Saxons into Lowland Britain, there are still many unanswered questions, most notably what happened to the indigenous people? – were they absorbed or displaced by this migration event? Geneticists have attempted to look at this question using modern mitochondrial and Y-chromosome DNA data, with estimates of ~25–100% contribution to the modern male English gene pool. However, this methodology is problematic, not least because, by using modern DNA, subsequent migrations will overlay any original Anglo-Saxon introgression. This becomes problematic when Danish incursions are considered – their male source populations are essentially genetically identical to that of the Anglo-Saxons, while mitochondrial patterns are similar across Europe. We also have to consider how the bottleneck caused by the Black Death in the 14th century AD has affected modern genetic affinities. The only way to begin to determine how many Anglo-Saxons migrated to Britain, or if an apartheid system was indeed in place, is to look directly at contemporaneous British populations.

Qualifications

Ph.D. Genetics (2003)
Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin
Thesis title: "Genetic variation in domesticated cattle and wild aurochsen using ancient and modern DNA"
M.Sc. in Biomolecular Archaeology (1998)
Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield
B.Sc. (Hons.) in Genetics (1996)
Department of Biology, University of York

Publications

Contributions to Edited Books

In press
Bower, M. A., Edwards, C. J., Evans, C. & Downes, C. S., Horse husbandry in Iron Age and Romano-British East Anglia: ancient DNA analysis of horses at Langdale Hale, Cambridgeshire: in “The Archaeology of the Lower Ouse Valley, Volume I.”, pp , McDonald Institute Monograph Series: Cambridge.
Schlumbaum A. & Edwards C.J. , Ancient DNA research on wetland archaeological evidence.: in “Menotti, F. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Wetland Archaeology ”, pp , Oxford University Press.
2009
Edwards, C. J. & Bradley, D. G., (2009), Human colonisation routes and the origins of Irish mammals: in “McCartan, S., Schulting, R., Warren, G. and & Woodman, P. (eds.) Mesolithic Horizons: Papers presented at the Seventh International Conference on the Mesolithic in Europe, Belfast 2005 ”, pp 217-22, Oxbow: Oxford.
Tresset, A., Bollongino, R., Edwards, C. J., Hughes, S. & Vigne, J.-D., (2009), Early diffusion of domestic bovids in Europe: an indicator for human contacts, exchanges and migrations?: in “Hombert, J.-M. and d’Errico, F. (eds.) The Origin of Man, Language and Languages”, pp 69-90, McDonald Institute Monograph Series: Cambridge.
2007
Edwards, C. J. & Bradley, D. G., (2007), Ancient DNA analysis of aurochsen: in “Whittle, A. (ed.), The Early Neolithic on the Great Hungarian Plain: Investigations of the Körös Culture Site of Ecsegfalva 23, Co. Békés”, pp 327-329, Institute of Archaeology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences: Budapest.

Journal Articles & Conference Proceedings

In press
Bower, M. A., Campana, M. G., Nisbet, R. E. R., Weller, R., Whitten, M., Edwards, C. J., Stock, F., Barrett, E., O’Connell, T. C., Hill, E. W., Wilson, A. M., Howe, C. J., Barker, G. & Binns, M, Truth in the Bones: resolving the identity of two founding elite Thoroughbred racehorses, Eclipse and Bend Or, Archaeometry,
Edwards C.J., Ancient DNA and analyses of mammalian remains from Ireland, Irish Naturalists' Journal,
McDevitt A.D., O’Toole P., Edwards C.J. and Carden R.F. , , Landscape genetics of red deer (Cervus elaphus, L. 1758) in Killarney National Park, Irish Naturalists' Journal,
2012
Campana, M.G., Lister, D.L., Whitten, C.M., Edwards, C.J., Stock, F., Barker, G. and Bower, M.A., (2012), Complex relationships between mitochondrial and nuclear DNA preservation in historic DNA extracts, Archaeometry, 54,193-202
2011
Bower, M.A., Campana, M.G., Whitten, M., Edwards C.J., Jones H., Barrett E., Cassidy R., Nisbet, R.E.R., Hill, E.W., Howe, C.J. & Binns, M. , (2011), The cosmopolitan maternal heritage of the Thoroughbred racehorse breed shows a significant contribution from British and Irish Native mares, Biology Letters, 7,316-320
Edwards, C.J., Gunja, C., Kantanen, J., Perez-Pardal, L., Tresset, A., Stock, F.European Cattle Genetic Diversity Consortium, Gama, L.T., Penedo, M.C.T., Bradley, D.G., Lenstra, J.A. and Nijman I.J., (2011), Dual origins of dairy cattle farming - evidence from a comprehensive survey of European Y-chromosonal variation, Public Library of Science One, 6,e15922
Edwards, C.J., Suchard, M.A., Lemey, P., Welch, J.J., Barnes, I., Fulton, T.L., Barnett, R., O'Connell, T.C., Coxon, P., Monaghan, N., Valdiosera, C.E., Lorenzen, E.D., Willerslev, E., Baryshnikov, G.F., Rambaut, A., Thomas, M.G., Bradley, D.G. and Shapiro, B., (2011), Ancient hybridization and an Irish origin for the modern polar bear matriline, Current Biology, 21,1251-1258
Hall, S.J.G., Lenstra, J.A., Deeming, D.C. , The European Cattle Genetic Diversity Consortium, (2011), Prioritization based on neutral genetic diversity may fail to conserve important characteristics in cattle breeds, Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics, ,(published online, 15th August)
2010
Campana, M.G., Bower, M.A., Bailey, M.J., Stock, F., O’Connell, T.C., Edwards, C.J., Checkley-Scott, C., Knight, B., Spencer, M. & Howe, C.J., (2010), A flock of sheep, goats and cattle: ancient DNA analysis reveals complexities of historical parchment manufacture, Journal of Archaeological Science, 37,1317-1325
Campana, M.G., Whitten, C.M., Edwards, C.J., Stock, F., Murphy, A.M., Binns, M.M., Barker, G.W.W. and Bower, M.A., (2010), Accurate determination of phenotypic information from historic Thoroughbred horses by single base extension, Public Library of Science One, 5
Edwards, C.J., Magee, D.A., Park, S.D., McGettigan, P.A., Lohan, A.J., Murphy, A., Finlay, E.K., Shapiro, B., Chamberlain, A.T., Richards, M.B., Bradley, D.G., Loftus, B.J. & MacHugh, D.E., (2010), A complete mitochondrial genome sequence from a Mesolithic wild aurochs (Bos primigenius), Public Library of Science One, 5,e9255
2009
Kantanen, J., Edwards, C. J., Bradley, D. G., Viinalass, H., Thessler, S., Ivanova, Z., Kiselyova, T., Kinkulov, M., Popov, R., Stojanovik, S., Ammosov, I. & Vilkki, J., (2009), Maternal and paternal genealogy of Eurasian taurine cattle (Bos taurus), Heredity, 103,404-415
Lei, C. Z., Su, R., Xie, W. M., Bower, M. A., Edwards, C. J., Weining, S., Wang, X. B., Li, F., Liu, R. Y., Zhang, Y. S., Zhang, C. M., Chen, H. & Liu, L., (2009), Multiple maternal origins of living native horse and ancient horse populations in China, Animal Genetics, 40,933-944
McDevitt, A. D., Edwards, C. J., O'Toole, P., O'Reilly, C. & Carden, R. F., (2009), Genetic structure of, and hybridization between, red (Cervus elaphus) and sika (Cervus nippon) deer in Ireland, Mammalian Biology, 74,263-273
Stock, F., Edwards, C. J., Bollongino, R., Finlay, E. K., Burger, J. & Bradley, D. G., (2009), Cytochrome b sequences of ancient cattle and wild ox support phylogenetic complexity in the ancient and modern bovine populations, Animal Genetics, 40,694-700
2008
Finnegan, L. A., Edwards, C. J. & Rochford, J. M., (2008), Mitochondrial phylogeography of the Irish red squirrel population: what can it reveal of the postglacial colonisation of Ireland?, Conservation Genetics, 9,1099-1109
Ho, S. Y. W., Larson, G., Edwards, C. J., Heupink, T. H., Lakin, K. E., Holland, P. W. H. & Shapiro, B., (2008), Correlating Bayesian date estimates with climatic events and domestication using a bovine case study, Biology Letters, 43,70-374
2007
Edwards, C. J., Baird,J. F. & MacHugh, D. E., (2007), Taurine and zebu admixture in Near Eastern cattle: a comparison of mitochondrial, autosomal and Y-chromosomal data, Animal Genetics, 38,520-524
Edwards, C. J., Bollongino, R., Scheu, A., Chamberlain, A., Tresset, A., Vigne, J.-D., Baird, J. F., Larson, G., Ho, S. Y. W., Heupink, T. H., Shapiro, B., Freeman, A. R., Thomas, M. G., Arbogast, R.-M., Arndt, B., Bartosiewicz, L., Benecke, N., Budja, M., (2007), Mitochondrial DNA analysis shows a Near Eastern Neolithic origin for domestic cattle and no indication of domestication of European aurochs, Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B, 274,1377-1385
Larson, G., Albarella, U., Dobney, K., Rowley-Conwy, P., Schibler, J., Tresset, A., Vigne, J.-D., Edwards, C. J., Schlumbaum, A., Dinu, A., Balasescu, A., Dolman, G., Tagliacozzo, A., Manaseryan, N., Miracle, P., Van Wijngaarden-Bakker, L., Masseti, M., B, (2007), Ancient DNA, pig domestication, and the spread of the Neolithic into Europe, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104,15276-15281
2006
Bollongino, R.∗, Edwards, C. J.∗, Alt, K. W., Burger, J. & Bradley, D. G., (2006), Early history of European domestic cattle as revealed by ancient DNA, Biology Letters, 2,155-159 (∗joint f
McGahern, A. M., Bower, M. A., Edwards, C. J., Brophy, P. O., Sulimova, G., Zacharov, I., Vizuete-Forster, M., Levine, M., Shuicheng, L., MacHugh, D. E. & Hill, E. W., (2006), Evidence for biogeographic patterning of mitochondrial DNA sequences in Eastern horse populations, Animal Genetics, 37,494-497
McGahern, A. M., Edwards, C. J., Bower, M. A., Heffernan, A., Park, S. D. E., Brophy, P. O., Bradley, D. G., MacHugh, D. E. & Hill, E. W., (2006), Mitochondrial DNA sequence diversity in Irish extant populations and ancient horses, Animal Genetics, 37,498-502
2005
Lister, A. M., Edwards, C. J., Nock, D. A. W., Bunce, M., van Pijlen, I. A., Bradley, D. G., Thomas, M. G. & Barnes, I., (2005), The phylogenetic position of the ‘giant deer’ Megaloceros giganteus, Nature, 438,850-853
McEvoy, B. & Edwards, C. J., (2005), Reappraising the Viking image, Heredity, 95,111-112
2004
Edwards, C. J., MacHugh, D. E., Dobney, K. M., Martin, L., Russell, N., Horwitz, L. K., McIntosh, S. K., MacDonald, K. C., Helmer, D., Tresset, A., Vigne, J.-D. & Bradley, D. G., (2004), Ancient DNA analysis of 101 cattle remains: limits and prospects, Journal of Archaeological Science, 31,695-710
2003
Edwards, C. J., Connellan, J., Wallace, P. F., Park, S. D. E., McCormick, F. M., Olsaker, I., Eythórsdóttir, E., MacHugh, D. E., Bailey, J. F. & Bradley, D. G., (2003), Feasibility and utility of microsatellite markers in archaeological cattle remains from a Viking Age settlement in Dublin, Animal Genetics, 34,410-416