Uncovering the legacy of the Roman Empire: Balkan genome reveals ancient migrations

A multidisciplinary study reveals the genomic history of the Balkans, highlighting the profound impact of Anatolian and Slavic migrations during and after the Roman Empire. This study highlights the shared demographic history of the Balkans.

A multidisciplinary study led by the Spanish Institute of Evolutionary Biology (a joint center of the Spanish National Research Council and the University of Pompeu Fabra), the University of Belgrade in Serbia, the University of Western Ontario in Canada, and Harvard University in the United States reconstructed the Balkan peninsula’s origins in the first AD A thousand years of genomic history, a time and place of profound demographic, cultural and linguistic change.

The team recovered and analyzed whole-genome data from 146 ancient people unearthed mainly from Serbia and Croatia, more than a third of which came from the Roman military frontier at the large archaeological site of Viminacium in Serbia. They compared these data with those from Serbia and Croatia. Essia’s data were analyzed jointly. Rest of the Balkans and nearby areas.

This work was published in the journal cell, emphasizes the cosmopolitanism of the Roman frontier and the long-term consequences of the immigration that accompanied the collapse of Roman control, including the arrival of peoples speaking Slavic languages.archeology DNA reveals that despite the borders of nation-states that separate them, the populations of the Balkans are shaped by common demographic processes.

During the Roman Empire, large numbers of people poured into the Balkans from the east – mainly from the eastern Mediterranean and even East Africa.

After Rome occupied the Balkans, it turned this border area into a crossroads, eventually giving birth to 26 Roman emperors, including Constantine the Great, who moved the capital of the empire to the Balkans when he founded the city of Constantinople. east.

The team’s analysis of ancient DNA shows that people of Anatolian descent made a significant demographic contribution during the period of Roman control, leaving a long-lasting genetic imprint on the Balkans. This lineage shift is very similar to what previous research has shown occurred in the great Roman cities (the original core of the empire), but it is worth noting that this situation also occurred in the periphery of the Roman empire.

Particularly surprising is the lack of evidence of genetic influence on the Balkans by immigrants of Italian ancestry: “During the imperial period we find an influx of Anatolian ancestry into the Balkans, but not of Italian descent, Basque “These Anatolians are deeply integrated into local society,” says Íñigo Olalde, Inigo Basque researcher at the Regional University (UPV/EHU) and co-lead author of the study. Rich sarcophagus containing a man of local origin and a woman of Anatolian origin buried together.”

The team also found sporadic cases of long-distance movement from distant areas, such as an adolescent boy whose ancestral genetic profile was closest to the Sudan region of sub-Saharan Africa and whose childhood diet differed significantly from other regions. Personal analysis.He died in the 2nd century AD and was buried with an oil lamp, representing the Jupiterone of the most important gods of the Romans.

“We don’t know whether he was a soldier, a slave or a trader, but genetic analysis of his tomb suggests he may have spent his early life outside the borders of the empire in what is now Sudan, and then followed the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE) Principal Investigator and Director of the Museum of Natural History, Carles Lalueza-Fox, said: Science Barcelona (MCNB).

“Archaeogenetics is an indispensable complement to archaeological and historical evidence. When we combine written records, archaeological remains such as funerary objects and human bones, and ancient genomes, we see a new, richer picture.” co-authors , said Kyle Harper, a historian of the ancient Roman world at the University of Oklahoma.

The Roman Empire swallowed up “barbarian” peoples long before it collapsed.

The study identified individuals of mixed northern and eastern steppe ancestry in the Balkans in the third century AD, long before the final collapse of Roman imperial control. Anthropological analysis of their skulls shows that some of them had artificially deformed skulls, a practice typical of certain groups on the steppe, including a group labeled “Huns” by ancient authors.

These results reflect the integration of people from beyond the Danube into Balkan society in the centuries before the empire’s fall.

“The borders of the Roman Empire were not like the borders of today’s nation-states. The Danube was the geographical and military frontier of the empire. But it was also an important communication corridor that penetrated the movement of people attracted by the wealth that Rome invested in its border areas, ” said co-author Michael McCormick, Francis Goelet Professor of Medieval History at Harvard University.

The Slavic population changed the demographic composition of the Balkans.

The Roman Empire permanently lost control of the Balkans in the sixth century, and this study reveals the subsequent mass arrival of individuals genetically similar to modern Slavic-speaking populations in Eastern Europe. Their genetic fingerprint represents 30-60% of the ancestry of today’s Balkan peoples, representing one of the largest permanent demographic changes in early medieval Europe.

The study is the first to identify sporadic arrivals of individual immigrants that preceded later population movements, such as women of Eastern European ancestry buried in high imperial cemeteries. Then, starting in the sixth century, the number of immigrants from Eastern Europe began to increase. As in Anglo-Saxon England, the region experienced some of the highest levels of demographic change in Europe, accompanied by changes in language. “Based on our ancient DNA analysis, the arrival of Slavic-speaking peoples in the Balkans took place over several generations and involved entire family groups, both male and female,” said Pablo Carrion, researcher and co-director of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology. (Pablo Carrión) explains. author of the study.

The establishment of the Slavs in the Balkans was greatest in the north, with a genetic contribution of 50-60% in today’s Serbia, while it gradually decreased towards the south, accounting for 30-40% in mainland Greece and 20% in mainland Greece. Aegean islands. “The major genetic impact of Slavic immigration is seen not only among current Slavic-speaking populations in the Balkans, but also in places where Slavic languages ​​are not spoken today, such as Romania and Greece,” said the study’s co-senior author, a professor of genetics. David Reich said. Professor at the Blavatnik Institute of Harvard Medical School and Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Bringing together historians, archaeologists and geneticists.

The study involved an interdisciplinary collaboration of more than 70 researchers, including archaeologists, anthropologists, historians and geneticists who excavated the site.

“This work exemplifies how genomic data can help move beyond contentious debates about identity and ancestry that were inspired by historical narratives rooted in nascent nationalism in the nineteenth century and that have led to conflict in the past. “Lalueza-Fox said. The team also generated genomic data from diverse present-day Serbs that can be compared with ancient genomes and other present-day groups in the region.

“We found that there was no genome database of modern Serbs. So we sampled people who self-identified as Serbian based on shared cultural characteristics, even if they lived in Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro or North Macedonia, etc. Different countries,” said co-author Miodrag Grbic, a professor at the University of Western Ontario. Canada.

Analysis with data from other modern humans in the region, as well as ancient people, showed that the genomes of Croatians and Serbs are very similar, reflecting a shared heritage of similar proportions of Slavic and local Balkan ancestry.

“When analyzed alongside archaeological data and historical records, ancient DNA analysis contributes to a richer understanding of Balkan history,” Grbic said. “The picture that emerges is not one of divisions, but of a shared history. Iron Age peoples across the Balkans It was also influenced by immigrants during the Roman Empire and later by Slavic immigrants. Together, these influences formed the genetic identity of the modern Balkans – regardless of national boundaries.”

More information about this study:

Reference: “Genetic History of the Balkan Migration from the Roman Border to the Slavs” by Iñigo Olalde, Pablo Carrión, Ilija Mikić, Nadin Rohland, Swapan Mallick, Iosif Lazaridis, Matthew Mah, Miomir Koraćino, Sneneana Golubović, Sof – Radmiro Vic, Dragana Vulovich, Timka Alihodzic, Abigail Ashe, Miriam Baetta, Yuraj Batik, Zelika Bedi Chi, Maja Bilic, Clive Bonsal, Maja Boncic, Domagoj Buzanic, Mario Karic, Lia Kataj, Myrna Ci Viko, Ivan Delnik, Anita Dugonjic, Anna Dukic, 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. Osterholtz, Julianne M. Paige, Dinko Tresić Pavičić, Zrinka Premuiž, Itra Rajić Šikahći Pavičić, Zrinka Premuil​​an, Makahićah Šahitaizah Radovanović, Mirjana Roksandic, Alena Š efčáková , Sofia Stefanović, Maria Teschler-Nicola, Domagoj Tončinić, Brina Zagorc, Kim Callan, Francesca Candirio, Olivia Cerrone/Daniel Fernandez/Aisling Kearns/Aisling Kearns/ Aisling Kearns Annemarie Lawson/Kirsten Mandel/Anna Wagner/Fatma Zalzala/Anna Zetter/Zeljko Tomanovic/Dusan Keka Revic/Mario Novak/Kyle Harper/Michael McCormick/Ron Pihaci/Miodrag Gelbic/Karls Lalueza- Fox and David Reich, December 7, 2023 cell.
DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.10.018