Romani DNA

Close by Norwich Castle you'll find a blue plaque which, unlike most of their kind, doesn't actually name the person it commemorates. In fact it marks a new finding about bones that were excavated in the 1990s.

The latest research techniques have allowed archaeologists to isolate DNA from the tooth pulp of a young Saxon man and he was found to possess a genetic marker from the Romani people - the earliest evidence for their presence anywhere in the UK. 

The plaque reads:
Romani DNA
A skeleton discovered during excavations of an 11th century graveyard near this spot has been found to have a mitochondrial DNA marker unique to the Romani people. This is the earliest evidence for a person of Romani descent in the British Isles, and is 400 years earlier than any documentary reference to their presence.