Ancient DNA, three instruments · Updated 19 October 2026
An ancient DNA ancestry test, from the file you already have
No new sample, no kit in the post. The raw file a testing company already gave you, or your whole-genome VCF, modelled against published ancient genomes, three different ways.
Three tests, one file
Ancient Ancestry (qpAdm)
A formal admixture model against the Allen Ancient DNA Resource, reviewed and approved by a person, published with its p-value, per-source standard errors, z-scores and confidence intervals, the full outgroup set and the model record, all on screen.
Input: Raw DNA export or whole-genome VCFRead the method page
Ancestry Map (Global25)
Distances, admixture models and an individual-sample PCA across six eras from the Late Bronze Age to today, plus the free Notable Matches lens against 254 famous ancient individuals.
Input: Your Global25 coordinate row, or your raw file, and the coordinates are obtained for youRead the method page
Ancient Matches
Your genome scanned against every individual in the ancient panel, one person at a time, with every shared stretch painted onto your chromosomes and placed on a map.
Input: Raw DNA export or whole-genome VCFRead the method page
One genome, three readings
Take one file, from someone whose four grandparents were born in northern Italy, and read it all three ways. Ancient Ancestry, our qpAdm report, might model its Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer era with an Anatolian Neolithic farmer group, a Western hunter-gatherer group and a Yamnaya-related steppe group, against a right set of a dozen outgroups: something like 62% farmer, 8% hunter-gatherer and 30% steppe, each with a standard error of a few percent, at a p-value of 0.31, so the model stands. A rival model that swaps the steppe source for an Iranian-related one comes back at 0.002 and is rejected.
Ancestry Map, our Global25 report on the official row, ranks the closest populations of the Late Bronze Age, say a Bell Beaker group from northern Italy at 0.028 and a Bronze Age group from the Alps at 0.031, and fits the row as a mixture with a stated fit distance. Ancient Matches lists the 200 ancient individuals who share the most DNA with the file, the longest stretches painted on the chromosomes, with an Iron Age burial from the Po valley near the top.
The honest reading uses all three: the model says which mixture the data allow and which they reject, the distances say where the row sits in the reference space, and the matches say who carries the same alleles over long stretches. None of them makes that Iron Age burial a relative.
What makes it an ancient-DNA test
A consumer ancestry estimate compares you with living people, grouped by where their grandparents were born. An ancient-DNA test compares you with people who were excavated: individuals whose genomes were sequenced from bone and tooth and published with their site, their date and their archaeological context. That changes what a result can mean, a match is placed in time as well as in space, and it changes what a result can never mean, because the panel is a sample of the dead rather than a family tree.
Ancestrify runs three such tests. Ancient Ancestry uses qpAdm, a formal statistical test: it can reject a proposed model, and every published model carries the p-value that does so. Ancestry Map uses Global25, a coordinate fit: fast, era-by-era, with a fit distance rather than a p-value. Ancient Matches works at the level of individual people and the stretches of chromosome you share with each. They answer different questions, which is why they are sold separately and why qpAdm vs Global25 exists.
What ancient ancestry means
A family tree doubles every generation. Thirty generations back, around the year 1200, yours has more places in it than there were people alive in your region; three thousand years back it spans most of a continent. So ancient ancestry is never descent from one person or one tribe. It is resemblance: which sampled ancient populations, in which era, carry the allele frequencies that best explain the ones in your file.
That sets the honest limits. No result can say you descend from the Yamnaya. A qpAdm result can say that a model with 45% Yamnaya-related ancestry fits your genome and a model without it is rejected; a Global25 result, that your coordinates sit closest to Bronze Age Central Europeans; an Ancient Matches result, that you share stretches of DNA with an Iron Age individual at a rate consistent with a shared ancestral population. Each is a statement about resemblance, made by a different method.
The facts
- Input
- A raw-data export (.txt, .csv, .zip or .gz, up to 50 MB), or a whole-genome sequencing VCF up to 1 GB (+€10) on Ancient Ancestry and Ancient Matches
- qpAdm reference panel
- Allen Ancient DNA Resource (AADR) v66, ~23,265 samples, ~6,015 population labels
- Global25 reference set
- 30,386 individual samples across 1,535 curated populations
- Eras
- Ancient Ancestry: two, Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer, and Classical Antiquity. Ancestry Map: six, from the Late Bronze Age to the Modern Era
- Catalog
- Every sovereign state, 199 countries and 1,119 regions, for both Ancient Ancestry and Ancestry Map
- Data location
- European Union (Germany and Finland), under GDPR
- Who does the work
- One person. Every qpAdm model is reviewed and approved by that person before it is published
- Delivery
- An interactive on-screen report and server-rendered videos. There is no PDF
How to read a result honestly
Read the fit before the proportions: the p-value and standard errors for qpAdm, the fit distance for Global25, the length and count of the shared stretches for Ancient Matches. A weight of 12% with a standard error of 9% means anywhere from nothing to a fifth. Then read what was offered as well as what was used: a two-source model always finds two sources, so every Global25 era lists the populations its model rejected beside the ones it used.
Check that the era matches your question, because a Classical Antiquity model cannot speak for the Neolithic, and check the panel's reach for your region: the published record is dense for Europe and West Asia and thin for much of Africa, the Americas and Oceania. Then read the methods against each other. A source that qpAdm accepts, the coordinate fit uses and the match list is full of is a robust finding; one that appears in only one of the three is a question, not an answer.
A report will never name a population or a buried individual as your ancestor. A source population in a qpAdm model is a reference the model was tested against; a close Global25 distance is a position in a reference space; a shared stretch in Ancient Matches is evidence that you and that person draw on the same ancestral population. None of these is descent from anyone in particular, and the reports say so beside the number.
Nor will it present a coordinate fit as a statistical test. Global25 percentages always exist, whether or not the model makes sense; qpAdm is the method that can say no, and Ancient Ancestry, the report built on it, takes longer because every model is reviewed and approved by a person before it is published.
What to check in any ancient DNA test
Six things separate a result you can check from one you can only believe. Look for them in any test before you pay; under each is what an Ancestrify report shows.
- A test that can say no
- Every qpAdm model is published with the p-value that could have rejected it, beside each source's weight, standard error and z-score. Global25 and Ancient Matches state a fit distance and segment evidence, never presented as a test
- Every source, used or not
- Each Global25 era lists the whole panel its model was offered, split into the populations it used and the ones it rejected; each qpAdm model shows its full right set
- Named, dated references
- qpAdm names its panel, the Allen Ancient DNA Resource v66; every ancient reference stands for excavated individuals published with their site and date; every result is stated era by era
- Official coordinates only
- Ancestry Map runs only on the official Global25 row from Davidski's independent service, pasted or obtained for you; Ancestrify never computes or simulates one
- What your file supports
- The free raw DNA file check says what a file can support before you order, and the qpAdm model record states the SNP count behind every model
- One-time price, your file
- Every analysis is a one-time payment with no subscription; your file is stored in the European Union under GDPR, and you can delete it yourself at any time
Free before you pay
The Ancestrify Lab is free. The raw DNA file check tells you what your file can support before you order anything; the distance, admixture and PCA tools run in your browser with no account; the AdmixTools 2 Lab runs real qpAdm on the public panel; and the live demo shows every report with example data.
Questions
What is an ancient DNA test?
A test that compares your genotypes with genomes sequenced from archaeological remains, people who lived thousands of years ago, rather than with a panel of living reference populations. You do not send in a new sample: the analysis runs on the raw DNA file a consumer testing company already gave you, or on a whole-genome sequencing VCF.
Is 23andMe an ancient DNA test?
No. 23andMe, AncestryDNA and MyHeritage compare you with living reference populations and give you the raw file. An ancient DNA test is what you run on that file afterwards, against genomes sequenced from excavated individuals.
Which raw DNA files can I use?
A raw-data export from 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, FamilyTreeDNA or a similar company, as a .txt, .csv, .zip or .gz file up to 50 MB. Files are validated by their content rather than by vendor, so exports following the usual microarray text layout work even where the company is not named. A whole-genome sequencing VCF (tellmeGen, Dante Labs, Nebula and similar) up to 1 GB is accepted on Ancient Ancestry and Ancient Matches for a €10 add-on.
Which of the three products should I choose?
Ancient Ancestry (qpAdm) if you want a model that can be statistically rejected and is published with its p-value, standard errors and z-scores. Ancestry Map (Global25) if you already have a coordinate row, or want one obtained for you (+€15), and want distances, admixture and PCA across six eras. Ancient Matches if you want to know which individual ancient people you share stretches of DNA with, rather than what proportion of your ancestry comes from which population.
Which ancient DNA test gives a p-value?
A qpAdm test, such as Ancient Ancestry, because only a formal model can be rejected. Every published qpAdm model carries its p-value with each source's weight, standard error and z-score and the full right set, at every tier. A Global25 fit reports a fit distance and Ancient Matches the evidence of each shared stretch; neither can reject a model.
How accurate is an ancient DNA test?
As accurate as its statistics say. A qpAdm model states its p-value and standard errors, and a rejected model is the method working. A Global25 fit is accurate to its panel and its fit distance, and a shared stretch to its length and marker density. None of them can identify an individual ancestor, because none of them measures that.
Why does the result not match my 23andMe or AncestryDNA estimate?
Because the two answer different questions. An ethnicity estimate compares you with living reference populations, grouped by where their grandparents were born, and describes the last few centuries. An ancient DNA test compares the same file with genomes thousands of years old and reports era by era. They disagree by design, not by error.
Will the test tell me who my ancestors were?
No test can, and this one never claims to. A source population in a model, a close distance or a shared stretch of DNA is evidence that you draw on the same ancestral population as those people, never proof that any of them was your ancestor. Every report says so where the number appears.
Can it find my living relatives?
No. Ancestrify keeps no relative-match database and never compares your file with other customers' files. Ancient Matches compares it only with ancient individuals from published burials, and a shared stretch there is evidence of a shared ancestral population, not a family link. Relatives are found through your testing company's own match list.
How many countries and populations are covered?
The catalog covers every sovereign state, 199 countries and 1,119 regions, for both Ancient Ancestry and Ancestry Map. Ancestry Map draws on 30,386 individual samples across 1,535 curated populations; Ancient Ancestry's qpAdm models are built on the Allen Ancient DNA Resource v66, roughly 23,265 samples across roughly 6,015 population labels.
How much does an ancient DNA test cost?
Ancient Ancestry from €29.99 in four depth tiers up to €59.99, Ancestry Map €29.99 and Ancient Matches €29.99, each a one-time payment with no subscription. Optional one-time add-ons include the whole-genome VCF upload (€10) and, for an Ancestry Map that starts from a raw file, the Coordinate Concierge (€15).
Can I try it before paying?
Yes. The Ancestrify Lab's in-browser tools, distance, admixture, PCA, averaging and the authenticity check, need no account, the raw DNA file check tells you what your file can support, and the live demo runs the real report components on example data. Nothing is ordered on any of them.
Bring the file you already have.
Three ancient-DNA tests, each a one-time payment, each honest about what a number can and cannot mean.