We already have reliable statistical tools to compare the genetics between groups of people who are genetically very different, like hunter-gatherers and early farmers, but robust analyses of finer-scale population changes, like the migrations we reveal in this paper, have largely been obscured until now. Twigstats allows us to see what we couldn't before, in this case migrations all across Europe originating in the north of Europe in the Iron Age, and then back into Scandinavia before the Viking Age.
By analyzing Ancient DNA with a novel method, researchers have reconstructed detailed patterns of population movements during the Iron Age, the fall of the Roman Empire, the early medieval 'Migration Period,' and the Viking Age. This research introduces Twigstats, a tool that measures subtle genetic variations with unparalleled precision.
Historical accounts by Roman authors like Tacitus often mention Germanic groups pressing against the Empire's borders. Now, genetic evidence confirms waves of migration from Northern Germany and Scandinavia into central and southern Europe, beginning in the early first millennium AD.
One striking case involved an individual in southern Europe with nearly 100% Scandinavian ancestry. These migrations began in the early first millennium AD as evidenced by Scandinavian-like ancestry found in individuals from southern Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, and southern Britain.
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