For the people who lived in Barton in the eleventh century, the sea to the east was not a barrier.

It was a road.

Ships crossed to the Danish coast, to Norway, to the Flemish ports, to the Rhineland.

Goods moved: English wool and silver outward, Scandinavian furs and Baltic timber inward, Flemish cloth arriving from the south.

People moved along the same routes.

This maritime context helps make sense of several aspects of Conquest Man’s profile.

His DNA showing substantial continental European ancestry is consistent with Barton being a place where people with continental origins lived and settled.

The Humber ports attracted traders, merchants, craftsmen, and settlers from across the North Sea world throughout the medieval period.