First farmers in Britain were horsemen from the Steppes

Neolithic stone figures made by the Yamnaya from the Pontic steppe, who formed the second wave of migrants
Neolithic stone figures made by the Yamnaya from the Pontic steppe, who formed the second wave of migrants
DMYTRO SMOLYENKO/BARCROFT MEDIA/GETTY IMAGES

The origins of agriculture in western Europe can be traced to two waves of migration from modern-day Turkey and Ukraine that began about 8,500 years ago, researchers in Sweden have said.

Farmers from Anatolia, that area of Turkey west of a line drawn from the southeastern shores of the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, were the first to move northwest, according to the team at the University of Uppsala, who used ancient DNA and carbon-dated plant remains to show how plant cultivation was introduced to areas then still inhabited by hunter-gatherer societies.

That led to the Neolithic revolution, during which societies began forming permanent settlements and farming animals. The migration and the changes it brought with it reached as far northwest as the British Isles.