A comprehensive DNA analysis of the Balkan population from 1 to 1000 CE calls into question presumed Roman influence, revealing no Italian genetic traits. Instead, the study reveals significant ancestry from western Anatolia, Europe, and the Pontic-Kazakh steppe, with notable Slavic migration shaping modern Balkan genetics. Credit: SciTechDaily.com
A groundbreaking study overturns previous assumptions about Roman influence in the Balkans, showing a diverse genetic heritage primarily influenced by Slavic migrations rather than Italian ancestry.
Despite the considerable military and cultural influence of the Roman Empire on the neighboring Balkan Peninsula, a DNA Analysis of individuals who lived in the region between 1 and 1000 CE found no genetic evidence of Iron Age Italian ancestry. Instead, a study published Dec. 7 in the journal Cell revealed successive waves of migrations from western Anatolia, central and northern Europe, and the Pontic-Kazakh steppe during the reign of the Empire.
The impact of Slavic migration
Beginning in the 7th century CE (coinciding with the fall of the Western Roman Empire), large numbers of people emigrated from Eastern Europe, probably due to the arrival of Slavic-speaking populations , which resulted in current Balkan residents making up 30% of the Balkan population. 60% Slavic ancestry observed among current Balkan peoples.
Skull of an individual of ancestral East African origin found at Viminacium, with the oil lamp representing an eagle found in his tomb. Credit: Miodrag (Mike) Grbic
“We found this genetic signal of Slavic migration everywhere in the Balkans,” explains lead author and paleogenomicist Carles Lalueza-Fox of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE: CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra) and the Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona. “This could have important social and political implications given that the Balkans have a long history of conflict over their perceived identity. »
Most studies of ancient DNA focus on prehistory – before the written record – but ancient DNA methods can also provide insight into more recent historical periods, particularly when used in combination with information historical and archaeological.
Ancient DNA: a window into history
“Ancient DNA can give a lot of information about historical periods, especially for regions where historical sources are rare or where we don’t know whether the sources are biased or not,” says the first author and population geneticist. Iñigo Olalde from the University of the Basque Country. Country (UPV/EHU). “For example, most historical sources from the Balkans are written on the side of the Romans, because the Slavs were not writing at that time.”
Exploring the demographic history of the Balkans
Previous studies have focused on the ancestry of people who lived in Italy and England during and after the fall of the Roman Empire, but little is known about the demographics and ancestry of the Balkans at this time. “This region was one of the distant frontiers of the Roman Empire, which makes it interesting to study because it is clearly a place where people would be expected to come into contact with people outside of Empire, which allows you to test things like globalization,” says Olalde.
To explore the population history of the Balkans and examine the influence of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, researchers extracted DNA from 136 ancient individuals discovered at 20 different sites across the Balkans, defined like the region bounded by the Adriatic and the central Mediterranean. , and the Aegean Sea as well as the middle and lower Danube and the Sava rivers. These sites included large Roman cities, military fortresses, and small rural towns. The team focused on three periods: during the expansion and height of the Roman Empire (1–250 C.E.), during the late Imperial period (ca. 250–550 C.E. ) and after the collapse of the Western Empire (550 to 1000 CE).
Methodology and surprising discoveries
To provide cultural and historical context to the genetic data, the team collaborated with local archaeologists and historians. For each grave, they documented the type of burial, as well as any objects buried alongside the individuals, such as coins, jewelry, pottery, tools and weapons. The researchers also used radiocarbon dating to verify the ancient individuals’ age of 38, which generated isotopic data that provides a window into the diets of these individuals.
This photograph shows a Roman aqueduct which supplied water to Viminacium, a large Roman city. Credit: Carles Lalueza-Foz
Researchers were surprised to find no evidence of Iron Age Italian ancestry in Balkan populations at the height of the Roman Empire. Instead, they showed that there was an influx of people from western Anatolia, another part of the Roman Empire, during this period. They also found evidence of individual migrations to the Balkans, both within and outside the Roman Empire. Notably, a 16-year-old man discovered in a necropolis of a large Roman city was of 100% East African origin. The individual was buried with an oil lamp representing Jupiter– eagle-related iconography, but isotopic analysis of its teeth indicated that it had consumed marine protein sources during its childhood and therefore probably grew up in a remote location.
“This was the only individual from East Africa that we analyzed, and it was also clearly aberrant in diet compared to the rest of the individuals buried in the same necropolis, which tells us that this individual clearly grew up outside the borders of the Roman Empire,” explains Lalueza-Fox.
End of the imperial period and Slavic influence
During the late Imperial period, between 250 and 550 CE, researchers detected migrants of mixed ancestry from Northern Europe and the Pontic-Kazakh steppe. “We found that these two ancestors – Central/Northern European and Sarmatian-Scythian – tended to come together, suggesting that these were likely multi-ethnic confederations of people on the move,” says the lead author and geneticist. of populations David Reich of Harvard. University.
However, these sources of ancestry disappeared after 700 CE. Beginning around 600 CE, shortly after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, there was a significant influx of individuals from Eastern Europe. After 700 CE, Balkan individuals had a very similar ancestral composition to present-day groups in the region, suggesting that these migrations led to the last major demographic shift in the region. These migrations coincide with recorded Slavic migrations, but DNA analysis provides insight into the scale of these migrations that is impossible to glean from historical resources.
Future directions and study improvements
“There have been debates about the impact of these migrations and the extent to which the spread of the Slavic language was largely through cultural influences or movements of people, but our study shows that these “migration has had a profound demographic effect,” says Reich. “More than half of the ancestry of most Balkan peoples today comes from Slavic migrations, with about a third having Slavic ancestry even in countries like Greece where no Slavic languages are spoken today . »
The team is already planning what it calls “version two” of the study, which will take advantage of improvements in older DNA technologies. “We are now able to sequence hundreds of individuals at the same site, so we can move to another level of resolution and start to better understand the social interactions and relatedness between different individuals,” Olalde explains.
Reference: “A genetic history of the Balkans from the Roman frontier to the Slavic migrations” by Iñigo Olalde, Pablo Carrión, Ilija Mikić, Nadin Rohland, Swapan Mallick, Iosif Lazaridis, Matthew Mah, Miomir Korać, Snežana Golubović, Sofija Petković, Nataša Miladinović- Radmilović, Dragana Vulović, Timka Alihodžić, Abigail Ash, Miriam Baeta, Juraj Bartík, Željka Bedić, Maja Bilić, Clive Bonsall, Maja Bunčić, Domagoj Bužanić, Mario Carić, Lea Čataj, Mirna Cvetko, Ivan Drnić, Anita Du gonjić, Ana Đukić, Ksenija Đukić, Zdeněk Farkaš, Pavol Jelínek, Marija Jovanovic, Iva Kaić, Hrvoje Kalafatić, Marijana Krmpotić, Siniša Krznar, Tino Leleković, Marian M. de Pancorbo, Vinka Matijević, Branka Milošević Zakić, Anna J. Osterhol tz, Julianne M. Page Callan, Francesca Candilio, Olivia Cheronet, Daniel Fernandes, Aisling Kearns, Ann Marie Lawson, Kirsten Mandl, Anna Wagner, Fatma Zalzala, Anna Zettl, Željko Tomanović, Dušan Keckarević, Mario Novak, Kyle Harper, Michael McCormick, Ron Pinhasi, Miodrag Grbić, Carles Lalueza -Fox and David Reich, December 7, 2023, Cell.
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.10.018
This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the “la Caixa” Foundation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia , THE National Institutes of Healththe John Templeton Foundation, the Allen Discovery Center, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.