Ancient DNA from the Middle Ages: The Impact of Slavic Migration on the Genetic Composition of Central and Eastern Europe
In a groundbreaking discovery, researchers have managed to shed light on one of the most significant demographic events in European history – the spread of the Slavs. This migration, which took place during the Migration Period around the early 1st millennium AD, has been pinpointed thanks to a new study involving an infant's DNA found in a very early Slavic context.
The Slavs, one of the earliest Slavic states, emerged during this time and is renowned for Saints Cyril and Methodius, who developed the first Slavic written language (Old Church Slavonic) and the Glagolitic script. The Slavs, however, knew little about their early origin in their own tradition. Modern scholars reconstruct their origins as emerging from the forest-steppe zone north of the Carpathians, with their expansion in Europe starting roughly in the 6th century.
This expansion, spreading south, west, and east, is understood as movements and cultural diffusion into previously Romanized and Germanic areas, eventually forming distinct Slavic nations. This process is identified through archaeological cultures such as the Prague-Korchak and Penkovka cultures and linguistic evidence of Slavic languages spreading in Central and Eastern Europe.
The study, which focuses on the Balkans and the Czech Republic, has provided insights into the formation of mixed communities. An example of this can be seen at the site of Velim in Croatia, where Slavic migration was a long process of integration, mixing, and adaptation. In South Moravia (Czech Republic), a population shift can be linked to the transition to a Slavic-influenced material culture, originating in today's Ukraine.
With these new findings, researchers can now bridge the gaps in written and archaeological records and trace the actual extent of Slavic migrations. The proportion of these Eastern European ancestors in today's Balkan population varies greatly but often makes up about half or less of the modern gene pool.
Interestingly, the northern Balkans, including Croatia, show a history of change and continuity, unlike Poland. Slavic migration presents a fundamentally different model of social organization, as a demic diffusion or grassroots movement.
This study solves the historical puzzle of the emergence of one of the world's largest linguistic and cultural communities in the Balkans and the Czech Republic. As we delve deeper into the past, these discoveries not only enrich our understanding of history but also highlight the complex intermingling of cultures that has shaped Europe as we know it today.
