To study the history of migration and movement in the Ukraine region, with a particular focus on migratory groups during the Iron Age and the Medieval period, scientists generated genomic data for 91 individuals dating from approximately 7000 BC to 1800 AD. Their results show that ancient populations had a diverse range of lineages as a result of frequent movements, assimilation, and contacts.
A map of the geographical locations of the ancient individuals in the study and a timeline showing the dates of individuals in the archaeological collections. Image credit: Sage et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adr0695.
For centuries, migration has occurred in the forest-steppe belt of Ukraine, moving in several directions.
These migrations were driven by various processes, including contacts and cultural conflicts between tribes, trade, demographic pressures, expansion of Bedouin spheres of influence and so on.
The main migration flows came from the Carpathians and the Danube, the South Ural and Volga region, Central Asia, and the North Caucasus, and intense population movements also occurred within the territory of Ukraine.
At the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Early Iron Age, the most archaeologically evident activities in the North Pontic steppe were associated with Cimmerians And their military campaigns in Asia Minor.
The Cimmerians followed them Scythians and Sarmatiansearly Iron Age political and military tribal confederations with various groups of local and East Asian origins, as previous ancient DNA (aDNA) studies have indicated. At this time, the northern Black Sea coast was covered by a network of urban Greek colonies.
In the forest-steppe zone, contemporary sedentary populations are associated with the earlier Chintz cultural circle (including the Lusatia and Vysotska cultures), as well as with Central European influences of the Hallstatt and La Tignes periods (Illyrians, Thracians, Celts).
According to written and archaeological sources, the peoples who are considered the ancestors of the Slavs are related to Zarobinetska culture -It was already present in the region of Ukraine during the Latin and Roman periods, from the 3rd century BC onwards.
The beginning of the Migration period in the region of Ukraine is associated with the arrival of Germanic tribes such as the Goths, and the formation of a multi-ethnic society Chernyakhiv cultureWhich included other peoples who already inhabited the region.
In the 2nd to 4th centuries AD, the Huns – nomads from Central Asia – appeared on the northern Pontic steppes, and their westward migration led to marked economic, cultural, and social changes in Europe.
This period is associated with the emergence of a new ethnolinguistic group, the Slavs, who spread across much of Eastern Europe during the 5th and 7th centuries AD.
In the 8th to 10th centuries AD, much of Ukraine was under the control of Khazar Khaganate.
In Ukrainian archeology, this is represented by Saltive cultureWhich is believed to have been shared by multiple ethnic groups (Alans, Bulgars, Turks, Slavs, Hungarians, etc.).
During the same period, there was a process of unification of Slavic tribes, and in the 9th century AD, a state emerged Kievan Rus It was formed.
The development of the Slavic state occurred against the background of constant nomadic raids from the east.
In the period from the 11th to the 13th century AD, waves of Pechenegs, Turks, and Cumans entered the northern Pontic region of Central Asia, the largest invasion in terms of military power and consequences being the invasion of the Mongols of the Golden Horde in the 13th century AD.
By the 15th century AD, remnants of the Golden Horde, such as the Nogai, were still living on the northern Pontic steppes.
From the sixteenth century c. AD, Slavs were the majority ethnolinguistic group in the region of Ukraine.
“We set out to study the genetic lineages of people living in the North Pontic region during these time periods and who are associated with different cultural groups,” said the study’s first author, Dr. Lehti Saag, a researcher at the University of Tartu and University College London. And colleagues.
For the research, the researchers extracted and sequenced DNA from tooth roots and bone fragments of 91 individuals from 33 archaeological sites in present-day Ukraine.
The samples included one individual from the Neolithic (7000 to 6000 BC), nine individuals from the Bronze Age and from the Final Bronze Age to the beginning of the Iron Age (3000 to 700 BC), and six individuals from the early Iron Age (900 to 700 BC). ), 29 individuals from the Scythian Early Iron Age (700 to 300 BC), six individuals from the end of the Early Iron Age (400 to 1 BC), 12 individuals from the Later Iron Age (1 to 400 AD), nine individuals from the Early Medieval (800 to 900 AD), and 19 individuals from the Medieval to Early Modern period (900 to 900 AD). 1800 AD).
Analysis of their DNA shows that ancient populations had a diverse range of lineages as a result of repeated movements, assimilation and contacts.
“From the Mesolithic period until the time of the Vysotska and Belozerska cultures at the end of the Bronze Age, their broad lineage resembles that of modern populations in the rest of Europe – first hunter-gatherers, then early farmers, and finally a mixture between early farmers and steppe herders,” the researchers said.
“From the Cimmerian period until the Middle Ages, the appearance of eastern nomads in the Pontic region became a regular event.”
“Their genetic makeup varied from Yamna resemblance superimposed on local populations, as with the Scythians and Cumans, to high degrees of East Asian ancestry and minimal local admixture, as with the Alan Bulgars and Nogai.”
“During that time, nomadic populations were recorded in the steppe region, while individuals from the rest of the Ukrainian region had mostly European origins, linked to their local ancestors, as well as Thracians, Greeks, Goths, etc.”
“The extensive migration and population mixing in the Ukraine region will have contributed to high genetic heterogeneity in geographically, culturally and socially homogeneous populations, with different genetic profiles present in the same location, at the same time, and among individuals with the same genetic profiles.” They added the Archaeological Society.
“It is important to note that our study focuses specifically on historically documented migratory groups rather than local populations, and that sampling is geographically skewed mostly toward the eastern part of Ukraine and temporally toward the Iron Age and Medieval period.”
“However, a broad local genetic profile, similar to modern Ukrainians, persists in the region through time as well within this sample set.”
“This lineage composition can be traced back to at least the Zrubna individuals and can be seen among the Vysotska and Lusatian individuals, the Scythians of the west and the contemporary agrarians of the east, among the Chernyakhiv people, as well as the Slavs of the Middle Ages and early modern period.”
“Despite clear signs of high migration activity, including from East Asia, as well as widespread admixture, we infer the presence of a major indigenous element in Ukrainian ancestry, at least since the Bronze Age.”
the Results Appears this week in the magazine Advancement of science.
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Why don’t you talk? et al. 2025. The North Pontic Crossroads: Navigating Ukraine from the Bronze Age to the Early Modern Period. Advancement of science 11(2); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adr0695