I-Y33765 and ancient DNA - Spiginas 1

Most of what we know about the I-Y33765 clade is based on interpretation of results from Y-DNA samples taken from ten men. Four of these men live in England, and another four in Sweden.  The two remaining DNA donors both have family origins in England but their nineteenth century ancestors migrated either to the United States or to New Zealand.  An obvious, but very important, characteristic of all these men is that, when their DNA samples were collected they were all living.  In other words their Y-DNA is modern.  

In previous articles I have used results of their Y-DNA analysis and details of their documented genealogies to speculate on the geographic origins of the I-Y33765 clade.  In particular, I have used the genealogies of the four modern Swedish men to support a narrative in which I have linked the Viking age patriarch of our clade to the south eastern part of present-day Sweden and more specifically to the area of Tjust.  While it seems to me such speculation is helpful and productive it's credibility rests on the unproven assumption that the places of residence of the ancestors of modern Swedish Y-DNA donors during the seventeenth century will be approximately localised in the area inhabited, 1000 years earlier, by their shared Viking age patriarch.  Without some additional evidence that seems a large leap of faith.

Obviously, it would be very nice to have an ancient DNA sample from Sweden that is derived for Y33765, but the expense and difficulties of finding, extracting and sequencing ancient DNA make the existence of such optimal evidence rather improbable.  At present only two ancient DNA samples with Y-DNA identified as haplogroup I-L233 or one of it's downstream clades have been published; "Spiginas 1", an I-L233 late mesolithic adult male excavated in Lithuania in 1985 and "5860-13" (also known as VK22) an I-A8462 12th century adult male excavated in north-western Russia in 1938-40.  At first glance, a feature common to these specimens, and especially interesting in the context of the apparent modern locus of I-Y33765 in Sweden, is that both were found in regions that border the Baltic Sea. 

Figure 1: Geographic and phylogenetic relationship between Spiginas1, 5680-13 (VK22) and I-Y33765  

In this and the next article I intend to examine the published archaeology of both these I-L233+ men and see how this may help us test our present hypothesis that I-Y33765 originated in south-eastern Sweden.  

First, it seems appropriate to consider the older ancient DNA sample Spiginas 1.  This is the designation given to a 6000y old Mesolithic or Sub-Neolithic I-L233+ male hunter-gatherer excavated from a small cemetery in Western Lithuania in 1985-86.  His grave was closely grouped with three others (Spiginas 2, 3 & 4) on the former island of Spiginas in the marshy southern part of Lake Birzulis.  In the southeastern Baltic region there are no large stone-age burial sites and human remains are instead found singly or in small cemeteries, as at Spiginas and another island cemetery in Lake Birzulis, Duonkalnis, where 14 graves were excavated in 1985.  At Spiginas the four burials were on the summit of a glacial kame formation at an elevation of 163m above sea level and their radiocarbon date estimates span more than 4000 years (7780ybp, Kunda culture, Spiginas 4 to 3580ybp, Neolithic corded ware culture, Spiginas 2).  Two papers (Butrimas, 1992; Balcione, Cesnys & Jankauskas, 1992) describing the original archaeological investigations are written in Lithuanian and each has an English and Russian summary.

Figure 2: Mesolithic sites in the area of Birzulis Lake (from original paper by Butrimas,1992).

1, the sites of Swiderian culture; 2, early Mesolithic sites of Pulli type of the Kunda culture; 3, sites of the Middle and the Late Mesolithic; 4, sites of the early Mesolithic sites of Pulli type and of the Late Mesolithic; 5, sites of undetermined chronological determination; 6, Mesolithic graves; 7. Stray find location of bone point of Kunda type.  Sites: 1. Kulnikas   2. mesolithic graves of Spiginas island   3. Spigino sala   4. Spigino Ragas   5. Oznagaris1   6. Oznagaris2   7. Oznagaris3   8. Birzulio Sasmauka   9. Birzulio Sasmauka2   10. Dreniai   11. Lingenai   12. Duonkalnis   13.

According to the excavation report English abstract (Butrimas, 1992) the grave of Spiginas 1 "was destroyed during World War II, and only fragments of long bones and a skull have preserved. Two flint arrow heads of early Kungemosen microlith type were found among these bone fragments".  Translation of the Lithuanian text of Butrimas, 1992, dealing with the Spiginas 1 grave confirm that as a result of the war-time disturbance "fragments from this grave were dispersed over a fairly large area - 4 x 4m, but mainly within the presumed grave site. Blurred contours of the grave pit is exposed at a depth of 45-48cm.  In the pit two romboid flint (cross) arrowheads [see Figure 4]. At the north-east boundary of the grave was a small pebble covered in brownish ochre. Three more small ochre patches were observed in various areas of the grave [see Figure 3]. North of the grave there was a recent shell hole and disturbed ground.  Material from the grave pit was given to the Moscow Institute of Geological and Geochemistry Isotope Geochronology Laboratory (USSR).  The grave dated from 5020 +/ -200 ybp, 3070 +/- 200BC.  This radiocarbon date suggests that the grave is early Neolithic.  However, arrowheads and grave No4 date suggests this date underestimates the true age. Anthropologists believe that a 35-45y old man is buried."

Figure 3: Spiginas 1 grave situation plan (from original paper by Butrimas,1992). 1 - bone fragments  2 - flint  3 - ochre covered pebble  4 - ochre  5- disturbed ground  6 -  grave outline  (after Figure 3 from Butrimas, 1992.  Although no scale is specified in the original paper it seems possible that the plan represents the 4 metre by 4 metre area over which “fragments from this grave were dispersed”)

Figure 4: The two early Kungemosen microlith type rhomboid flint arrowheads from Spiginas 1 grave pit (Figure 5 from Butrimas, 1992).  These appear to have been “grave goods” but could possibly be the cause of injury or death of Spiginas 1?  The only source of flint in the Eastern Baltic is in Estonia and this is very poor in quality (Tringham, 1971, page 60)

Figure 5: Drawings of the two flint points from the Spiginas 1 grave pit. (Figure 10 from Ostrauskas, 1996)

The second original paper (Balcioniene, Cesnys & Jankauskas, 1992) gives more detail on the skeletal remains of Spiginas 1.  From the English summary,“In Grave 1 a male,35-45 years old, was buried.  Craniometric analysis was impossible; teeth were abrased to the 3^rd – 4^th degree.  M¹  had four tubereles and was quite massive.  Oesteometrical data are presented in Tabes 3 – 7.  No pathological changes were identified”.  Transaltion of the Lithuanian text indicates that “of the skeleton there remained a left maxillery fragment, right radial shaft, the right ulna, without the distal end of the femoral shaft, the distal end of the left tibia shaft, right and left fragment of the fifth metatarsal. …… tooth wear is consistent with a 35-45 year old".

Mittnik, A et al. (2018) use Spiginas 1 as one of ten samples representative of the Narva culture that occupied the eastern Baltic region from the late Mesolithic to the Middle Neolithic (Baltic EMN Narva).  They report his Y chromosomal haplogroup is I which they further refine to I2a1a2a1a based on L233:G→A (2x) (see their Supplementary Information, Supplementary Note 3. They also report he has one upstream mutation for haplogroup I2a1a2a (L1286: G→A at 1x) and one mutation for I2a1 (PF4004: T→C at 1x) and I2a (L460: A→C at 1x).  In addition they determined his mitochondrial DNA haplogroup was H11a (see their Table 1) and they note that while this haplogroup is “normally associated with the Neolithic expansion into Europe, but (he) shows no evidence of Neolithic farmer ancestry on the nuclear level suggesting that this haplogroup might have been present already in foraging groups”.  The woman who founded the H11a mitrochondrial haplogroup lived between 8000 and 4200 ybp (Behar et al., 2012).

Figure 6: Frequencies of four selected Y haplogroups in ancient DNA samples from Europe (from original paper by Jobling & Tyler-Smith, 2017).  The dark blue line shows the decline in haplogroup I2 from its significant proportion of the male population during the Mesolithic to a possible nadir approximating to the late Bronze age.

So, based on radiocarbon dating and the flint grave goods we can infer that Spiginas 1 lived in a late Mesolithic or early Neolithic hunter-gatherer society centered on Lake Birzulis.  Butrimas (2017) has speculated on the basis of archaeological, linguistic and historical evidence that the northern part of this lake represents a ritual complex of cemeteries, sacrificial hearths and funerary feast sites which date from the middle Mesolithic period to historical times.  He considers the four graves at Spiginas to be part of this ritualistic landscape.

At the time Spiginas 1 was buried at lake Birzulis the I2 Y-DNA haplogroup constituted a significant proportion of the European male population (see Figure 6).  The decline in haplogroup I2 from about 3000BC has been linked with the migration of populations from the Eurasian steppe which introduced significant cultural and genetic replacement, including R haplogroup Y-DNA (principally R1b) into central and western Europe and eventually the British Isles (Olalde et al., 2018).  In Scandinavia these migrations are characterized by the Corded Ware Culture (CWC) (also termed Battle-Axe Culture within Scandinavia) which in this region notably introduced R1a Y-DNA (Mittnik et al., 2018; Gunther et al., 2018) 

However, for the ancestral narrative of our I-Y33765 clade in SE Sweden, the significant neolithic culture is associated with the indigenous Scandinavian Hunter Gatherers (SHG).  These SHG peoples are derived from a mixture of Western (WHG) and Eastern Hunter Gatherer (EHG) populations (Gunther et al., 2018) in which the dominant male haplogroups are G and I2.  The Narva culture, of which Spiginas 1 is a member are genetically closer to WHG than EHG and hence Spiginas 1 can be considered genetically related to SHG men.

Within south eastern Sweden, Denmark and Estonia CWC sites are more usually associated with inland locations and with herding and farming while the SHG sites are typically coastal and involve a mobile maritime lifestyle that is called the Pitted Ware Culture (PWC).  The nomenclature "corded" or "pitted" refers to decorative characteristics of the pottery produced by the respective cultural groups.  The principle food source for PWC populations were seals and fish, giving them a nickname as "Inuit of the Baltic".  A recent study (Coutinho et al., 2020) of twelve male skeletons from three PWC sites on the island of Gotland was able to characterize the Y-DNA for eight of the individuals and each belonged to haplogroup I2.  Fifty percent of the total sample (n=6) were confirmed as haplogroup I2a (I-CTS595).  The radiocarbon dates for these individuals are estimated within the range 3000-2500 yBCE and so are not dissimilar to that quoted for Spiginas 1.  Also like the Spiginas grave PWC burial rituals involve single individual graves and include the use of red ochre.

Gotland is about 100km from the Swedish mainland but slate arrow points, found in some PWC graves on the island, seem to substantiate contact with mainland sources to obtain this material.  During the past century PWC sites have been recorded at many coastal locations bordering the Baltic (see Figure 7).  In Tjust, Smaland, Sweden, (see Figure 8) PWC sites have been excavated, at Hellero and Gardsholmens, north of Vastervik.  Finds from Vivastemala, which is just to the south of Vastervik have been important in interpreting Pitted Ware pottery in south-east Sweden because the styles found there in the late 1930's were very similar to those found at PWC sites in east central Sweden (Papmehl-Dufay, 2006).  Clearly, because of their maritime lifestyle, PWC populations would have appreciated the opportunities offered by the Tjust archipelago.   

Figure 7: Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) sites in Southern Scandinavia (after Douglas Price, 2015)

After about 2800yBCE there is archeological evidence for cultural contacts between CWC and PWC so that from about 2400yBCE, the PWC becomes absorbed into the late CWC or Battle Axe Culture (BAC). Further sources have suggested that the resulting Nordic Bronze Age population was the progenitor for the Germanic tribes which dispersed throughout Europe during the Migration Period.  

 

Figure 8: Pitted Ware sites in the Tjust archipelago

In summary, the Spiginas 1 individual is a representative of hunter-gatherer societies of the Baltic region.  His genomic DNA seems closer to WHG rather than EHG populations and his I2 Y-DNA haplogroup is found at high frequencies in pre-Neolithic samples from Europe but becomes progressively less common from the early Neolithic onward.  The coastline of south east Sweden was home to the last humans to adopt a hunter-gather lifestyle in Europe, the PWC, who had a mobile maritime lifestyle.  Genetic analysis of male PWC graves on Gotland shows a high frequency of the I2a Y-DNA haplogroup throughout the Neolithic. Several PWC sites have been excavated in the Tjust archipelago. 

References

Balcioniene, I.,Cesnys, G & Jankauskas, R.,(1992) Craniometry, Odontology, Osteometry and Paleopathology of the Mesolithic graves from Spiginas, Lietuvas Archeologia, v8,  p10-16

Behar, D.M. et al (2012) A “Copernican” reassessment of the human mitochondrial DNA tree from its root.  American J of Human Genetics, 90(4), 675-684

Butrimas, A (1992) Mesolithic Graves from Spiginas, Lietuvos Archeologia, v8,  p4-9

Butrimas, A (2017) From Mesolithic to Early Christianity: The development of the ritual Complex in the northern part of Lake Birzulis (Lithuania) according to archaeological, linguistic and historical research. Sociology and Anthropology, 5, 204-219

Cesnys, G.,Butrimas, A., (2009) Reinventing Mesolithic skulls in Lithuania: Donkalis and Spiginas sites.  Acta Medica Lituanica, 16, 1-8

Coutinho, A.,Gunther,T.,Munters,A.R.,Svensson,E.M.,Gotherstrom,A.,Stora,J.,Mailmstrom,H., & Jakobsson, M. (2020) The Neolithic Pitted Ware culture foragers were culturally but not genetically influenced by the Battle Axe culture herders. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 172, 638-649

Douglas Price, T (2015) Ancient Scandinavia, OUP, Oxford, 494pp

Gunther, T et al. (2018) Population genomics of Mesolithic Scandinavia: Investigating early post-glacial migration routes and high-latitude adaption.  PLOS Biology, 16, e2003703, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2003703

Jobling, M.A & Tyler Smith, C (2017) Human Y-chromosome variation in the genome sequencing era. Nature Reviews Genetics, 18, 485-497

Mittnik, A et al. (2018) The Genetic Prehistory of the Baltic Sea region, Nature Communications

Ostrauskas, T. (1996) The Mesolithic in Western Lithuania, Lietuvos Archeologia, v14,  p192-212

Papmehl-Dufay, L. (2006) Shaping an Identity. Pitted Ware pottery and potters in southeast Sweden. Theses and Papers in Scientific Archaeology 7, Stockholm University, Sweden, 329pp

Trinham, R.(1971) Hunters, Fishers and Farmers of Eastern Europe 6000-3000 BC, Hutchinson University Library, Hutchinson & Co, London

 

I-Y33765 and other Baltic Sea branches of I-Y4252

As at January 2022 FTDNA's Block Tree contained twenty branches immediately downstream of I-Y4252.  Similarly the YFull Tree v.9.05 contains sixteen clades at this position.  Bernie Cullen has written (2020) that "I-Y4252 had a rapid "star-like" expansion" and the number of "rays" emanating from this particular star have increased steadily since the discovery of I-Y4252 in 2014.  This trend will very likely continue as the number of Y4252 (+) men who have Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) results increase.  

It seems to me this burst of branching must indicate a period of enhanced reproductive success for the early group of I-Y4252 men.  Based on NGS results YFull date this phylogenetic expansion to about 2000ybp and it is worth noting that this makes it approximately concurrent with the geographical expansion of Germanic tribes in northern Europe which itself was triggered by social pressures and technological changes that developed within their society about this time. The modern incidence of I-Y4252 which is illustrated by the Phylogeographer Y Heatmap (Figure 1) shows that haplogroup is today distributed throughout the British Isles and across north-west Europe and southern Sweden, with two outliers centred on Dalmatia in the south and Lapland in northern Finland.  Again, this extended geographic spread within such a recent haplogroup suggests to me that the original ancestral cohort were able to migrate easily and that their descendants were comparatively successful within the environments they colonized.

 

Figure 1: Modern incidence of I-Y4252 in Europe (source:https://phylogeographer.com/scripts/heatmap.php ) 

Seven of these I-Y4252 clades contain samples with putative ancestral origins in areas that surround the Baltic Sea and in each case the branch has also recorded positive results from England (Table 1 and Figure 2).  

Table 1: Baltic Clades downstream of I-Y4252 as at January, 2022.  The "SNP" column shows the date at which the SNP that defines the clade was discovered.  The "Baltic Sample" column shows the YFull ID of men whose earliest documented direct-male ancestor lived near the Baltic Sea and the NGS test they have used.

In defining these Baltic clades I have included those branches which contain a sample with an ancestral location that is approximately within a distance of 200km (125 miles) of the shoreline of the Baltic Sea and also that contains a sample whose ancestral location is within England. I have used this methodology because it seems to me these several examples of geographically discrete, shared Y-DNA, support the idea of historical contacts between the Baltic Sea region and England.  

 

Figure 2: Distribution of the earliest known locations for the seven Baltic clades within I-Y4252

The areas bordering the Baltic Sea where I-Y4252 clades have been identified are extensive.  They stretch from north-western Germany and West Pomerania in the south, to Lapland on the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia in the north and from Denmark and southern Sweden in the west to north of St Petersburg at the eastern extremity of the Gulf of Finland.  It also seems to me that such an extensive distribution must reflect the importance of the sophisticated maritime culture that established long-distance trading contacts throughout the Baltic region during the Scandinavian bronze and early iron ages.

Each of these clades has a TMRCA during the first millennium (160 AD to 870AD) and so it would seem reasonable to conclude that their geographic distribution may be an echo of the contacts between England and the various parts of Scandinavia that occurred during the Dark Ages.   An exception to this is the I-FGC56815 branch (see Table 1) in which the clade that contains a supposed Baltic sample, I-FGC56855 (I-Y131221), has a significantly later TMRCA during the sixteenth century and consequently would seem to represent much later interactions.  

Poznik et al. (2016) have demonstrated that "at times of known migrations and technological innovations" the phylogeny of the Y chromosome contains several independent bursts or rapid expansions of male numbers and these authors suggest this is because "privileged male lineages could undergo preferential amplification for generations".  In a similar manner, Balaresque et al. (2015) observed that in Asian pastoral nomads Y-chromosome descent clusters may be associated with a greater ease of transmission of human Y-chromosomes through time and space as a result of gaining the skill to use horses for transport.  

It seems to me that an analogous burst of Y-chromosome mutations downstream of I-L233 happened during the Iron Age when Germanic tribes migrated out of Scandinavia concurrent with their development of an iron-riveted, clinker-built ship technology that facilitated swift movement on water over very considerable distances.  As a result, rivers, lakes, coastal voyages and even passage across open sea created well established routes by which their Y haplogroups became distributed throughout Europe.  Of special significance were the trans North Sea  routes that linked the British Isles and Scandinavia.

In addition it is worth noting that these demographic movements involved pagan tribal groups typified by the Anglo Saxons and Vikings who had a warrior, "raiding and trading" culture that radiated from communities bordering the Baltic sea.  In these groups social hierarchy tended to foster powerful male elites that practiced both polygamy and concubinage. It seems reasonable to think that these practices would further favour the proliferation and accelerated mutation of their Y-DNA.  Hence it may not be too surprising that we find so many Baltic clades within I-Y4252. 

Woolf (2015) suggests, based on archaeological evidence, that the development of the iron-rivet, clinker built ship technology was centered in Scania (southern Sweden) and Denmark.  The earliest surviving example of a Germanic vessel using the clinker technique comes from Nydam Moss, an archaeological site on the eastern side of the Danish peninsula just north of the modern border with Germany.  It dates from 320-350AD.   At Vendal and Valsgarde in the Swedish province of Uppland and in England at Sutton Hoo and Snape in Suffolk and at Sarre in Kent, sixth and seventh century ship burials have been excavated.  Those examples from Suffolk and Kent provide confirmation that the English "Saxon Shore" had extensive interactions with Scandinavia from 500-600AD (Brookes, 2007).  In this connection the ship burials at Gunnerstad, Gamleby, Tjust, Sweden, are worth mentioning as all four Swedish men derived for I-Y33765 have genealogy linking them to the surrounding area.

Figure 3: Proportions of major coin types from the 8th to 12th century found in countries bordering the Baltic Sea.  This illustration is based on data from Table 1, page 9, Talvio (2002).

Further archaeological evidence for contacts between England and the lands of the Baltic and Nordic regions is provided by coin finds (Talvio, 2002).  Interestingly, by comparing Figures 2 and 3, you will see that the proportion of English coins found in countries surrounding the Baltic Sea is higher in those areas where the Baltic clades observed downstream of I-Y4252 have also been recorded.  This would seem to support the idea that these areas had more contact with England during the Dark  Ages.  In 2008, a hoard of coins was found at Hellero, Vastra Ed, Tjust (Palm,2008).  This Swedish archaeological site is again close to the area where all four I-Y33765 Swedish men have documented direct-line male ancestry.  All the English coins in that hoard were made by mints operating in southern England at the end of the first millenium; in other words, in a similar area to where men on the English arm of I-Y33765 have their medieval ancestry.  

So, based on archaeological evidence, Viking Age contact can be substantiated that would inevitably introduce Y-DNA haplotypes from the Baltic region into England. The Baltic clades that proliferated downstream of I-Y4252  are examples of this process.     

 References

Balaresque, P. et al. (2015) Y-chromosome descent clusters and male differential reproductive success: Young lineage expansions dominate Asian pastoral nomadic populations. European Journal of Human Genetics 23, 1413-1422

Brookes, S. (2007) Boat-rivets in Graves in pre-Viking Kent: Reassessing Anglo-Saxon Boat-burial Traditions. Medieval Archaeology 51, 1-18

Cullen, B. (2020) Comment made in activity feed of I2a Project, FTDNA

Palm, V.,Nilsson, N.,Jonsson, K. (2008) Hellero - ytterligare en silverskatt fran Tjust, Smaland. Mynstudier, November 17-33

Poznik, G.D. et al.  (2016) Punctuated bursts in human male demography inferred from 1244 worldwide Y-chromosome sequences. Nat. Genet. 48(6), 593-599

Talvio, T (2002) Coins and coin finds in Finland AD 800-1200, Ed. Torsten Edgren, ISKOS, Finland.

Woolf, A. (2015) Sutton Hoo and Sweden Revisited In: The Long Seventh Century, Continuity and discontinuity in an age of transition. Ed.G.Alessandro. Peter Lang AG.

 

 

I-Y33765 draft tree March 11th 2022

Here is our latest draft phylogenetic tree for I-Y33765.

Click on image to enlarge

This chart includes a tenth man derived (+) for the I-Y33765 mutation, Clements YS51041.  He lives in the Midwestern region of the United States and has recently tested the SNPs Y33765 and BZ4354 at YSeq.  His result was derived (+) for Y33765 and ancestral (-) for the BZ4354 test.  This is consistent with his documented direct male ancestry which is from the parishes of Marksbury and Compton Dando in the lower Chew Valley, Somerset.  His ancestor, George William Clements (1809-1891) was born in the village of Draycott, Somerset and sailed with his family to New York, USA in 1842. This is a further example of the participation of I-Y33765 men in the nineteenth century migrations from Europe.

Genealogy for Clements YS51041 shows that he is an eighth cousin once removed with Clements B742594 (YS32054) and they consequently share a 19 generation pedigree. Their earliest known direct male ancestor is Francis Clement (circa1630-1708) who was Parish Clerk of Compton Dando during the closing years of the Commonwealth.  This pedigree implies that their Y-chromosomes are separated by 647 years, with an average generation time of 34.05y.  This well documented pedigree is of similar duration to the Jacobsson IN70815 - Hallberg YF80422  pedigree on the Swedish arm of I-Y33765 which I used in 2020 to estimate a clade specific mutation rate.  I hope that shortly I may be able to repeat this process using the new Clements pedigree and so obtain a comparison between SNP mutation rates in the English and Swedish populations of I-Y33765 men. 

Fourteenth Century evidence for the Cult of St Clement in north-east Somerset

In earlier posts I have discussed the Cult of St Clement and its supposed connection with the adoption of the Clement hereditary surname in England.  At that time I was unable to find any evidence for the Cult of St Clement in Somerset during the medieval period.  The purpose of this article is to correct this omission by considering a fourteenth century image of St Clement that has been on public display in north-east Somerset for over six hundred years. As a consequence of its prominent position it seems reasonable to think it was available to, and perhaps known by, generations of the Clement family who lived locally during that period.

The area of north-east Somerset in which the I-Y33765 Clement family originate is today within the Church of England Diocese of Bath & Wells which is centered on the medieval Bishops Palace and  Cathedral church in the City of Wells.  Wells is an ancient religious site (Rodwell, 1987). This is evident to the east of the present Gothic Cathedral where a group of natural springs, or wells, may have been venerated during the pre-Christian period and from which the settlement takes its name.  Near these springs archaeologist have found a late Roman mausoleum and a mid-Saxon Christian chapel together with the foundations of the first Cathedral which was built before the Norman invasion of England.  Inspite of this early Christian heritage Wells was never a monastic site and after 1088 the Bishop's seat was moved to the Abbey of the monks at nearby Bath.  However Wells has always been a focus for pilgrimage with many chantries which, together with its ownership of estates within the region, gave it both wealth and influence particularly after the Cathedra was eventually restored to Wells in 1274.

The Gothic Cathedral, which is broadly the structure we see today, was built between 1175 and 1490 (Harvey, 1987) and concurrent with this extended period of construction, between 1274 to 1347, we have documentary sources (South West Heritage, DD/HI/A/47 and DD/HI/A/48) that record the Clement family living about 19km (12miles) to the north, on the Wells to Bristol road, at Temple Cloud.  It was during this time, in the first half of the fourteenth century that the Lady Chapel was built and the Quiore extended (Ayres, 2004).  As part of these works the new windows were glazed with leaded stained glass.  Some of this medieval glass has survived the ravages of the intervening six centuries.  Among this group, a window now designated "South II" or "SII", situated in the upper celestory of the quoire, on the south wall at its eastern end, contains a named image of St Clement (see Figures 1 & 2).

Figure 1: The position of the St Clement image at Wells Cathedral. (a) External view looking at the south elevation of Wells Cathedral showing the celestory window, South II (SII) arrowed at the eastern end of the building (right). (b) Internal view of the quiore at Wells Cathedral with the celestory window SII arrowed, above and to the right of the High Altar.  (c) Plan of the eastern end of Wells Cathedral showing the six celestory windows in relation to the High Altar.  Windows NII & SII contain images of six Martyrs and windows NIII & SIII contain images of six Confessors. At Wells during medieval times, of the five Martyrs who are identified in Windows NII & SII, the Feast of St Clement, celebrated on the 23 November was the most important being celebrated by a service of nine lessons. 

According to Ayres (2004) the clerestory windows in the three new eastern bays of the Quiore were installed in the early 1340's.  In the most eastern bay, windows NII & SII contain almost complete medieval glass images of six named Martyrs.  Two show former Popes, St Clement and an unidentified martyred Pope.  Two are of beatified Anglo-Saxon Kings, St Oswald and St Ethelbert.  One is St George, England's patron saint and the final saint is St Blaise.  In the next bay, the stained glass images in windows NIII & SIII illustrate six Confessors, Pope Gregory, Abbot Giles, Bishop Richard, Bishop Brice, Father Andrew and an unidentified Bishop.  All the images show the figures standing under an ornate architectural canopy and originally all had their names inscribed as white capital letters in a box on the plinth at their feet.  Some of these names have been damaged to an extent that prevents the subject being identified with certainty.

Figure 2: Celestory window SII.   The window contains three stained glass panels each showing a full-length figure of a martyr standing beneath an ornate canopy with pinnacles. In order, left to right, the saints are; St Clement, St Oswald and St Ethelbert. 

The image of St Clement shows him dressed in mass vestments, wearing a conical papal crown and holding a cross attached to a staff in his right hand.  In his left hand he carries an inverted gold and white anchor, which in his iconography is a symbol representing the method of his martyrdom when he was supposedly thrown into the Black Sea tied to a ships anchor. 

Figure 3: Stained glass image of St Clement in Wells Cathedral created circa 1340.  The saint is shown dressed in mass vestments and wearing a conical papal crown.  He is carrying a green staff capped with a cross (left) and an inverted gold coloured anchor (right).

What seems to me particularly interesting about the St Clement window at Wells is its significant position within the Cathedral and the date at which it was commissioned and made.  

The location and associations of the saint's representation suggest that his cult was important to those members of the fourteenth century Cathedral community who commissioned his glass image to be made.  We can see that these worthy clerics chose St Clement to be in a group of six Martyrs who are positioned looking down upon the high altar of the Cathedral.  This group are placed to watch over the altar as eternal witnesses to the central Christian sacrament and ritual of the mass; that miracle of faith in which the bread and wine of the Last Supper are transformed into the body and blood of Christ.  The medieval Cathedral community placed St Clement in this privileged group along side two Saxon kings of England and facing a fellow martyred Pope, St Blaise and England's patron saint.  

Clearly we might expect that his image was included in this special location at a time when his cult was most popular in England.  However, according to Professor Crawford (2008), author of the definitive volume on the Cult of St Clement in England "the cult [of St Clement] faded in it's popularity in the thirteenth century......certainly there was a gap from about 1200 to maybe 1400 when the cult went into decline" (Crawford, 2019).  So, these comments make it noteworthy that in 1340-5, when the Quiore stained glass windows were installed, St Clement's cult was less popular in England and hence it may seem strange that the saint's image should be incorporated at that time in such a significant position within an important Cathedral. 

One explanation may be the springs after which Wells is named and the strong association between St Clement's cult and watery places.  However the springs at Wells are associated with St Andrew to whom the Cathedral itself is dedicated  and it consequently seems to me that this would be a rather tenuous connection when seeking to justify the prominent and significant position in which St Clement's image is displayed.  Another possibility is that St Clement's cult was particularly venerated in the area administered by the Bishop of Bath and Wells.  But, if this were so then surely there would be more evidence.  It seems to me very hard to make such a claim without some supporting evidence from Somerset parishes.  The only other pre-reformation stained glass image of the saint in the county is within the Rose Window at All Saints Church, Langport.  But this glass dates to the "revival" phase of St Clement's cult, circa 1450, and the saint's image is just one of the ten larger saints images portrayed in that window.  Similarly the Guild of Mariners chapel dedicated to St Clement in Bristol was founded in 1455 and so it too dates to the period of his later cult revival. Lastly an even later medieval statue of St Clement, circa 1500, is sited on the east elevation of the tower of the parish church dedicated to The Blessed Virgin Mary, Isle Abbots, Somerset. 

Whatever the true reason for commissioning St Clement's image in Wells Cathedral circa 1340, it seems to me reasonable to think that this beautiful example of medieval glass-work illustrates an active belief in the Cult of St Clement within the fourteenth century Christian tradition of north Somerset.  Having evidence that the cult was active in this area of the county at that time is important for our I-Y33765 Clement narrative since it is not until this date that hereditary surnames become common among the lower classes in England (Berg, 2019). 

In north Somerset our earliest evidence for the use of Clement as a family name agrees well with this timescale.  We have the name used by witnesses to a marriage settlement apparently dating from 1274 (South West Heritage, DD/HI/A/48/4) and to a land grant dated 1283 (South West Heritage, DD/HI/A/47/8).  Both witnesses are members of an extended Clement family who then lived at Temple Cloud, a settlement on the Bristol to Wells road, that abuts the Domesday Manor of Clutton.  The lord of this manor in 1060 was a Scandinavian thegn, Thorkel the Dane, and as I have explored in an earlier article, the Cult of St Clement had particular significance for the seafaring societies of Scandinavia.  In England and Denmark this was particularly the case during the reign of Cnut the Great (Crawford, 2008).  

So it seems possible that, bearing in mind the Scandinavian origins of our I-Y33765 clade, our Clement patrilineal family name could have become adopted because, even in the restrictive feudal society of thirteenth century Somerset, an active Christian faith and belief in St Clement's cult was able to evoke some subliminal folk memory of a distant ancestral homeland. On the other hand, it might seem more logical and safer to explain this interesting association of hagio-geography, Y-DNA and hereditary surname as an example of simple coincidence.

References

Ayres, T. (2004), The Medieval Stained Glass of Wells Cathedral, No.4 Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi, Great Britain, OUP / British Academy, 838pp

Berg, A. (2019), An Economic Theory of Surnames (July 11, 2019). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3418074 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3418074

Crawford, B.E (2008) The Churches Dedicated to St Clement in Medieval England: a Hagio-geography of the Seafarer's Saint in 11th Century North Europe, 237pp. Axioma, St Petersburg.

Crawford, B.E (2019)  The cult of St Clement and excavations at St Clements Church in Trondheim.  A lecture given on 18 February 2019 at the St Andrews Institute of Medieval Studies.  Sound recording available at https://soundcloud.com/user-37693948/barbara-crawford-excavations-at-st-clements-church-trondheim

Harvey, J.H. (1987), The Building of Wells Cathedral, Chapters 3 & 4, 52-101, In: Wells Cathedral, a History, Ed. LS Colchester, Open Books Publishing Ltd, Wells

Rodwell, W. (1987), The Anglo-Saxon and Norman Churches at Wells,1-23, In: Wells Cathedral, a History, Ed. LS Colchester, Open Books Publishing Ltd, Wells