Attention: You are using an outdated browser, device or you do not have the latest version of JavaScript downloaded and so this website may not work as expected. Please download the latest software or switch device to avoid further issues.

News > Research buzz > Ancient DNA unlocks new understanding of migrations in the first millennium

Ancient DNA unlocks new understanding of migrations in the first millennium

Waves of human migration across Europe during the first millennium AD have been revealed using a more precise method of analysing ancestry with ancient DNA.
3 Jan 2025
Research buzz

Researchers can bring together a picture of how people moved across the world by looking at changes in their DNA, but this becomes a lot harder when historical groups of people are genetically very similar. 

In research published in Nature, researchers report a new data analysis method called Twigstats, which allows the differences between genetically similar groups to be measured more precisely, revealing previously unknown details of migrations in Europe.

They applied the new method to over 1500 European genomes (a person’s complete set of DNA) from people who lived primarily during the first millennium AD (year 1 to 1000), encompassing the Iron Age, the fall of the Roman Empire, the early medieval ‘Migration Period’ and the Viking Age.

Read more about the team's work here: https://www.crick.ac.uk/news-and-reports/2025-01-01_ancient-dna-unlocks-new-understanding-of-migrations-in-the-first-millennium-ad 

Similar stories

Credit: Mingran Cao, Nature.

Researchers find that virgin female mice can become aggressive towards pups when hungry, but only in certain hormonal states. More...

By blocking interactions with a critical growth pathway, new drugs now entering clinical trials may finally disarm one o… More...

A team of scientists have, for the first time, directly visualised and quantified the protein clusters believed to trigg… More...

An international group of researchers have redrawn the idea of chromosome shape, finding that they’re not always stable … More...

By revealing the molecular mechanisms behind the peacekeeping abilities of specialised immune cells, scientists are unco… More...

Have your say

 
image

Contact us

The Francis Crick Institute
1 Midland Road
London
NW1 1AT

connect@crick.ac.uk