The genetic history of Europe: From the first settlement of Europe to the medieval migration period

Ancient DNA offers insights into prehistoric events that are invisible through archaeology or modern genetics alone. Over the past decade, archaeogenetics has analyzed more than 15,000 ancient genomes spanning 45,000 years of western Eurasian prehistory, uncovering dozens of migrations that reshaped Europe.

This lecture will trace the earliest, unsuccessful attempts of modern humans to settle Europe after leaving Africa around 50,000 years ago, when they also interbred with Neandertals. We will then examine two major genetic turnovers of the Neolithic: first, the spread of early farmers from Anatolia about 8,000 years ago, who brought agriculture and domesticated animals, and later mixed with indigenous hunter-gatherers; and second, the arrival of mobile herders from the Pontic steppe around 5,000 years ago, who introduced pastoralism and possibly Indo-European languages.

We will conclude with migrations triggered by the collapse of the Roman Empire, showing how they further shaped Europe’s genetic landscape. Modern Europeans thus represent mixtures of multiple ancestral groups, reflecting that large-scale mobility has been the norm throughout history.