A new study from Lund University in Sweden is challenging long-held beliefs about the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies in Scandinavia. Analyzing DNA extracted from skeletons and teeth dating back 7,300 years, researchers found evidence of not one but two almost complete population replacements occurring in what is now Denmark.
The first change took place around 5,900 years ago with the arrival of the first farmers to the region. Previously thought to be a peaceful exchange, the study indicates the farmers expelled the indigenous hunter-gatherer populations who had lived in Scandinavia. Within just a few generations, the hunter-gatherer population had nearly vanished.
This transition has been presented as peaceful in the past, but our study points to violence being involved, says Anne Birgitte Nielsen, a researcher at Lund University who led the DNA analysis. She notes the hunter-gatherers likely also succumbed to diseases brought by the incoming farmers and their domesticated animals.
Around 4,850 years ago, another shift occurred when a pastoralist group with origins in Southern Russia, known as the Yamnaya people, migrated to Scandinavia. Like the first farmers, they appear to have replaced the existing population through both violence and the spread of new pathogens.
The Yamnaya were seminomadic herders who roamed the grasslands, domesticated livestock, and used horses and carts to travel vast distances. Those who settled in Scandinavia mixed with the local populations of Neolithic farmers and peoples from Eastern Europe. Today, the genetic profile of these steppe herders dominates the DNA of modern Danes, while traces of the original early farmers have all but disappeared.
Once again we see a very rapid renewal of the population with hardly any descendants of the preceding groups, says Nielsen. Limited DNA evidence from Sweden also points to a similar fate for the indigenous populations there. In other words, many Swedes also trace their ancestry to these pastoral migrants.
The study overturns previous theories of peaceful encounters and intermingling between groups. It improves understanding of historical migration patterns and helps interpret archaeological and paleoecological data showing shifts in vegetation and land use over time. Ultimately, gaining clearer insights into our genetic heritage may aid medical research seeking to explain disease patterns today and into the future.
Sources
Lund University | Allentoft, M.E., Sikora, M., Fischer, A. et al. 100 ancient genomes show repeated population turnovers in Neolithic Denmark. Nature 625, 329–337 (2024). doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06862-3
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