An international team of researchers coordinated by scientists from Stanford University, including Prof. Arkadiusz Sołtysiak and Prof. Tomasz Waliszewski from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Warsaw (UW), has investigated and determined the extent and consequences of migration within the Mediterranean basin and central Europe during the Roman Empire. The findings of the research team of scientists have been published in the journal ‘eLife’, reports UW.
DNA findings shed new light on the population history of Europe in the first millennium AD.
The team of scientists sequenced 204 new genomes from 53 archaeological sites from 18 countries. The vast majority of the samples came from individuals buried during the height of the Empire and its political heirs from the first to seventh centuries AD. At least 8 per cent of the specimens examined were not from the areas in which they were buried.
This relatively low rate compared to expectations suggests limited migration of people between regions of the world at the time.
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