A new study sheds light on Scandinavia’s history of violence, which saw multiple waves of mass murder across Denmark in just 1,000 years.
An international team of researchers analyzed DNA samples from about 100 human remains found in southern Scandinavia through a process called shotgun sequencing. These ruins span approximately 7,300 years, from the Mesolithic period when hunter-gatherers were feared, to the Neolithic period when humans began to settle and agriculture flourished, to the early Bronze Age.
This study journal naturefound that the hunter-gatherers of present-day Denmark, far from coexisting peacefully, were wiped out by peasant settlers.
“This transition has so far been described as peaceful,” said paleoecologist Anne Birgit Nielsen of Lund University. “However, our study shows the opposite. In addition to violent deaths, new pathogens from livestock may have killed many foragers.”
Scientist examining DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) results on screen during laboratory experiment. (St. Petersburg)
The region the researchers focused on has a climate suitable for foraging and farming, and preserves human remains, allowing for detailed analysis of gene flow between populations and changes in vegetation. is possible.
New study reveals ancient humans emigrated to Denmark before being bludgeoned to death
The study found that farmers began settling the area around 5,900 years ago, killing hunters, gatherers and fishermen in the process.
Previous studies have shown that the first Scandinavians shared about 30% of their hunter-gatherer genomes, so it was previously thought that the two populations were admixed. But new research suggests that hunter-gatherer DNA was almost completely wiped out.
These early farmers, known as the Funnel Beaker culture, have no genetic relationship to modern Danes, but lived there for about 1,000 years before new waves of settlers arrived from the southern regions of Russia. This new group replaced Funnel Beaker, creating a new group called the “Single Grave Culture”, with an ancestral profile closer to modern Danes.
The Vittlap Man was first discovered in northern Denmark in 1915. (University of Gothenburg)
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Researchers hope these insights into ancient DNA may help explain modern health patterns, such as why multiple sclerosis is more prevalent in white Northern Europeans than in southerners.
