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The Scots: A Genetic Journey

The Scots: A Genetic Journey: Episode 1

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Factual: Science & Nature: Science & Technology

Episode 1

BBC Radio Scotland - The Scots: A Genetic Journey, Episode 1

Alistair Moffat discovers how the story of where we all come from is written in our genes.

In a new series coinciding with the publication of the 2011 census, Alistair Moffat explores the history of where we all came from, with the help of new DNA science.

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In episode one of the series, historian Alistair Moffat enlists the help of historical geneticist Jim Wilson to tell the story of where we, the Scottish people, all came from originally. It turns out that much of the history of population in Scotland can be found inside of us - written in our genes - and that we are all, in fact immigrants.

The programme travels from Cramond, outside Edinburgh, where the oldest traces of human settlement were discovered in a car park, dating back to 9000BC, to East Barnes in East Lothian where the first signs of human migration after the Ice Age reveal that those pioneering people came up from the South, from as far away as Iberia.

BBC Radio Scotland

In a series coinciding with the publication of the 2011 census, Alistair Moffat explores the history of where we all came from, with the help of new DNA science.

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