1. Population genomics of the Viking world
- Author
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Ashot Margaryan, Ole Kastholm, Gabriel Renaud, J. Víctor Moreno-Mayar, Lotte Hedeager, Katrine Iversen, Jüri Peets, Neil Price, Sturla Ellingvåg, Morten E. Allentoft, Otto Uldum, Thorfinn Sand Korneliussen, Søren M. Sindbæk, Sabine Sten, Ingrid Mainland, Jesper Stenderup, Kristian Kristiansen, Andres Ingason, Gordon Turner-Walker, Martin Sikora, Jörgen Gustafsson, Lara M. Cassidy, Marek Florek, Yvonne Magnusson, Maria Vretemark, Ceri Falys, Marie Louise Jørkov, Mark Redknap, Marie Allen, Ida Moltke, Tamara Pushkina, Jette Arneborg, Louise Loe, Tom Christensen, Daniel Lawson, Thomas Werge, Pasquale Favia, Ludovic Orlando, Helene Wilhelmson, Natalia Grigoreva, Ingrid Gustin, Wiesław Bogdanowicz, Italo M. Muntoni, Mikkel Winther Pedersen, Vayacheslav Moiseyev, Claude Bhérer, Peter de Barros Damgaard, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Raili Allmäe, Anna K. Fotakis, Birgitte Skar, Charlotte Hedenstierna Jonson, Allison M. Fox, Caroline Arcini, Fernando Racimo, Denis Pezhemsky, Gabriele Scorrano, Inge Lundstrøm, Eske Willerslev, Enrico Cappellini, Morten Søvsø, Anders Albrechtsen, Emil Jørsboe, Julie Gibson, Monika Bajka, Rui Martiniano, Jan Bill, Lisa Strand, Martyna Molak, Magdalena M. Buś, Jilong Ma, Símun V. Arge, Niels Lynnerup, Jade Cheng, Hildur Gestsdóttir, Linzi Simpson, Alexandra P. Buzhilova, Daniel G. Bradley, Per Holck, Dariusz Błaszczyk, Berit Schütz, Inna Potekhina, Simon Rasmussen, Maeve Sikora, and Rasmus Nielsen
- Subjects
0303 health sciences ,education.field_of_study ,060102 archaeology ,Population ,06 humanities and the arts ,Norwegian ,North Germanic languages ,language.human_language ,Diaspora ,Danish ,03 medical and health sciences ,Geography ,Bronze Age ,Early modern period ,language ,Viking Age ,Ethnology ,0601 history and archaeology ,education ,030304 developmental biology - Abstract
The Viking maritime expansion from Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) marks one of the swiftest and most far-flung cultural transformations in global history. During this time (c. 750 to 1050 CE), the Vikings reached most of western Eurasia, Greenland, and North America, and left a cultural legacy that persists till today. To understand the genetic structure and influence of the Viking expansion, we sequenced the genomes of 442 ancient humans from across Europe and Greenland ranging from the Bronze Age (c. 2400 BC) to the early Modern period (c. 1600 CE), with particular emphasis on the Viking Age. We find that the period preceding the Viking Age was accompanied by foreign gene flow into Scandinavia from the south and east: spreading from Denmark and eastern Sweden to the rest of Scandinavia. Despite the close linguistic similarities of modern Scandinavian languages, we observe genetic structure within Scandinavia, suggesting that regional population differences were already present 1,000 years ago. We find evidence for a majority of Danish Viking presence in England, Swedish Viking presence in the Baltic, and Norwegian Viking presence in Ireland, Iceland, and Greenland. Additionally, we see substantial foreign European ancestry entering Scandinavia during the Viking Age. We also find that several of the members of the only archaeologically well-attested Viking expedition were close family members. By comparing Viking Scandinavian genomes with present-day Scandinavian genomes, we find that pigmentation-associated loci have undergone strong population differentiation during the last millennia. Finally, we are able to trace the allele frequency dynamics of positively selected loci with unprecedented detail, including the lactase persistence allele and various alleles associated with the immune response. We conclude that the Viking diaspora was characterized by substantial foreign engagement: distinct Viking populations influenced the genomic makeup of different regions of Europe, while Scandinavia also experienced increased contact with the rest of the continent.
- Published
- 2019
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