Articles
3 articles on medieval-europe, ancient-DNA research written up for readers who want the evidence, not just the headline.
Medieval Europe is where ancient DNA meets written history: cemeteries can be tied to named peoples, dated closely, and read for who moved, who married whom and which ancestry a community kept. The genomes here come from a Jewish community in fourteenth-century Erfurt, Avar-period settlements in Central Europe, and Viking-age burials across Scandinavia and beyond. What they show is descent and social organisation, not a modern identity.
The articles explain what the medieval Erfurt genomes settled about the Levantine and southern European halves of Ashkenazi ancestry, reconstruct Avar-period families, marriage networks and neighbouring communities of different ancestry across Central Europe, and read the 442-genome Viking study for regional Scandinavian ancestry, family expeditions, migration and Viking identities that went beyond genetic ancestry, a reminder that a medieval label was worn rather than inherited.
Why Ashkenazi genomes read as their own category on consumer tests, what the medieval Erfurt genomes settled, and how a qpAdm model separates the Levantine and southern European halves of Ashkenazi ancestry.
Ancient DNA reconstructs Avar-period families, marriage networks and neighboring communities with different ancestry across Central Europe.
A 442-genome Viking study reveals regional Scandinavian ancestry, family expeditions, migration and Viking identities beyond genetic ancestry.