By Tom Booth, Senior Research Scientist, Pontus Skoglund Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, London

Technological and methodological developments in DNA sequencing has facilitated the generation of genetic data from hundreds of ancient human burials dating to 4th - 2nd Millennia BC, from the beginning of the Neolithic to the end of the Bronze Age, including skeletons held in the collections at the Wiltshire Museum.

At the same time, there have been parallel developments in computational methods used for analysing these genetic data, resulting in ever-more sophisticated ways of exploring the results.

The latest  methodological developments largely pertain to identifying distant genetic relatives and bring out long-term networks of reproduction between individuals and groups.

These new analyses are helping to provide greater insight into the dynamics of migration and ancestry change that have already been identified at the beginning of the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic (Copper Age)/Bronze Age in Britain.

Here I will discuss how these analyses have been applied to existing human genetic data from Britain in 4th -2nd Millennia BC, and how the results have developed our understanding of migration, genetic change and social organisation in the Neolithic and Bronze Age.