2024-03-17 23:10:25
Groundbreaking research has overturned earlier beliefs by showing that Scandinavia’s first farmers wiped out indigenous hunter-gatherers through violence and disease 5,900 years ago. A second invasion by the Yamanian culture 4,850 years ago further shaped the genetic landscape of the region, challenging theories of peaceful transition and enhancing our understanding of ancient migrations and genetic inheritance.
Following the arrival of the first farmers in Scandinavia 5,900 years ago, the hunter-gatherer population was wiped out within a few generations, according to new research from Lund University in Sweden, among others. The results, which challenge the previously dominant view, are based on DNA analysis of skeletons and teeth found in what is now Denmark.
The extensive research was published as four separate articles in the journal Nature. An international research team, in which the University of Lund in Sweden is a member, was able to draw new conclusions about the effects of migration on ancient populations by extracting DNA from skeletal parts and teeth of prehistoric people.
The study shows, among other things, that in Denmark there were two almost complete population changes during the last 7,300 years. The first population change occurred 5,900 years ago when a population of farmers, with a different origin and appearance, drove out the gatherers, hunters and fishermen who once inhabited Scandinavia. Within a few generations, almost the entire hunter-gatherer population was wiped out.
“This transition was previously presented as quiet. However, our research indicates the opposite. In addition to violent deaths, it is likely that new animal pathogens ended up gathering a lot,” says Ann Birgit Nielsen, a geology researcher and head of the Carbon Dating Laboratory at Lund University.
Second population change and its effect
A thousand years later, about 4,850 years ago, another population change occurred when people with genetic roots in the Yamanaya – with a cattle herder originating in southern Russia – arrived in Scandinavia and wiped out the previous farming population. Again, this could have involved both violence and new pathogens. These big-boned people led a semi-nomadic life on the prairies, domesticated animals, kept domestic cattle, and traveled across vast areas by horse and cart. The people who settled in Aclimino were a mix between Yemeni and Neolithic people in Eastern Europe. This genetic profile is dominant in today’s Denmark, while the DNA profile of the first farming population has been effectively wiped out.
“This time there was also a rapid population turnover, with almost no descendants from the previous ones. We don’t have that much DNA material from Sweden, but what we have points to a similar course of events. In other words, many Swedes are also largely descendants of these semi-nomads,” says Anne Birgit Nielsen, who contributed quantitative pollen data showing how the vegetation changed in relation to population changes.
The results not only invalidate previous theories about amorous and peaceful encounters between groups of people. The research also provides an in-depth understanding of historical migration flows, and interpretation of archaeological findings and changes in vegetation and land use found in paleoecological data.
“Our results help to improve our knowledge of our heredity and our understanding of the development of certain diseases. Something in the long run can be useful, for example in medical research,” concludes Ann Birgit Nielsen.
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