January 2nd 2025.
Throughout British history, the Vikings have held a special place in the hearts and minds of the people. These Nordic raiders were known for their ruthless ways, plundering and slaughtering their way to conquer England. However, amidst all their warrior ways, it's possible that some Vikings may have felt a twinge of homesickness.
For centuries, it has been believed that the English are descendants of the Anglo-Saxons, who battled with Roman gladiators in the fourth century. And once the Danish Vikings arrived in the eighth century, their DNA became a part of the British gene pool, thanks to their wild and violent conquests.
But recent discoveries in York may change everything we thought we knew about the Vikings and their role in British history. York, a city famous for Viking presence, was captured by a surprisingly peaceful group of Viking farmers and craftsmen in 866. So it may not come as a surprise that a man's remains found in York showed 25% Scandinavian ancestry. However, what is surprising is that this man lived between the second and fourth centuries, long before the Vikings ruled, and was likely a Roman soldier or gladiator.
Further research by the Francis Crick Institute, a biomedical research center in London, revealed that the Danish Vikings were a driving force in a third wave of migration that took place between 500 and 800 AD. This migration saw people from northern Germany and Scandinavia, including the Vikings, moving to different parts of Europe. But what is even more fascinating is that there was evidence of a migration occurring in the opposite direction, with Europeans moving northwards into Scandinavia.
The team's findings, published in the journal Nature, are part of a large-scale study to map how human migration has shaped ancestry in Europe. By analyzing thousands of human remains from mainland Europe between 1 and 1000 CE, they were able to identify three distinct waves of migration after the fall of the Roman Empire.
But tracking these migrations and subtle changes in DNA over time can be a challenging task. That is where the institute's new DNA analysis technique, dubbed 'Twigstats', comes in. By looking at genetic mutations shared by 1,500 genomes from people who lived in Europe during the first millennium, researchers were able to create family trees and track even the tiniest changes in DNA. This technique revealed migrations originating from the north of Europe in the Iron Age, followed by a return to Scandinavia before the Viking Age.
Leo Speidel, the lead author of the study and a group leader at Riken, a research institute in Japan, explains, "'Twigstats' allows us to see what we couldn't before, in this case migrations all across Europe originating in the north of Europe in the Iron Age, and then back into Scandinavia before the Viking Age." This new method can also be applied to other populations around the world, potentially uncovering more mysteries about human migration.
Peter Heather, a professor of medieval history at King's College London and co-author of the study, adds, "Historical sources indicate that migration played some role in the massive restructuring of the human landscape of western Eurasia in the second half of the first millennium AD, which first created the outlines of a politically and culturally recognizable Europe. But the nature, scale, and even the trajectories of these movements have always been hotly disputed. 'Twigstats' opens up the exciting possibility of finally resolving these crucial questions."
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