A genetic history of the Balkans from Roman frontier to Slavic migrations
Olalde I, Carrión P, Mikić I, Rohland N, Mallick S, Lazaridis I, Mah M, Korać M, Golubović S, Petković S, Miladinović-Radmilović N, Vulović D, Alihodžić T, Ash A, Baeta M, Bartík J, Bedić Ž, Bilić M, Bonsall C, Bunčić M, Bužanić D, Carić M, Čataj L, Cvetko M, Drnić I, Dugonjić A, Đukić A, Đukić K, F
Abstract
The rise and fall of the Roman Empire was a socio-political process with enormous ramifications for human history. The Middle Danube was a crucial frontier and a crossroads for population and cultural movement. Here we present genome-wide data from 136 Balkan individuals dated to the 1st millennium CE. Despite extensive militarization and cultural influence, we find little ancestry contribution from peoples of Italic descent. However, we trace a large-scale influx of people of Anatolian ancestry during the Imperial period. Between ~250-550 CE, we detect migrants with ancestry from Central/Northern Europe and the steppe, confirming that “barbarian” migrations were propelled by ethnically diverse confederations. Following the end of Roman control, we detect the large-scale arrival of individuals who were genetically similar to modern Eastern European Slavic-speaking populations, who contributed 30-60% of the ancestry of Balkan people, representing one of the largest permanent demographic changes anywhere in Europe during the Migration Period. Keywords: Balkan peninsula, Cosmopolitanism, the Roman Empire, Great Migration Period, demographic changes, population dynamics
This page indexes the study's public bibliographic record. The full text belongs to the journal; follow the DOI above to read it at the source.