TY - JOUR
T1 - Capturing the fusion of two ancestries and kinship structures in Merovingian Flanders
AU - Sasso, Stefania
AU - Saag, Lehti
AU - Spros, Rachèl
AU - Beneker, Owyn
AU - Molinaro, Ludovica
AU - Biagini, Simone A
AU - Lehouck, Alexander
AU - Van De Vijver, Katrien
AU - Hui, Ruoyun
AU - D'Atanasio, Eugenia
AU - Kushniarevich, Alena
AU - Kabral, Helja
AU - Metspalu, Ene
AU - Guellil, Meriam
AU - Ali, Muhammad Q A
AU - Geypen, Jan
AU - Hoebreckx, Maxim
AU - Berk, Birgit
AU - De Winter, Natasja
AU - Driesen, Petra
AU - Pijpelink, April
AU - Van Damme, Philip
AU - Scheib, Christiana L
AU - Deschepper, Ewoud
AU - Deckers, Pieterjan
AU - Snoeck, Christophe
AU - Dewilde, Marc
AU - Ervynck, Anton
AU - Tambets, Kristiina
AU - Larmuseau, Maarten H D
AU - Kivisild, Toomas
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2024 the Author(s).
PY - 2024/7/2
Y1 - 2024/7/2
N2 - The Merovingian period (5th to 8th cc AD) was a time of demographic, socioeconomic, cultural, and political realignment in Western Europe. Here, we report the whole-genome shotgun sequence data of 30 human skeletal remains from a coastal Late Merovingian site of Koksijde (675 to 750 AD), alongside 18 remains from two Early to Late Medieval sites in present-day Flanders, Belgium. We find two distinct ancestries, one shared with Early Medieval England and the Netherlands, while the other, minor component, reflecting likely continental Gaulish ancestry. Kinship analyses identified no large pedigrees characteristic to elite burials revealing instead a high modularity of distant relationships among individuals of the main ancestry group. In contrast, individuals with >90% Gaulish ancestry had no kinship links among sampled individuals. Evidence for population structure and major differences in the extent of Gaulish ancestry in the main group, including in a mother-daughter pair, suggests ongoing admixture in the community at the time of their burial. The isotopic and genetic evidence combined supports a model by which the burials, representing an established coastal nonelite community, had incorporated migrants from inland populations. The main group of burials at Koksijde shows an abundance of >5 cM long shared allelic intervals with the High Medieval site nearby, implying long-term continuity and suggesting that similarly to Britain, the Early Medieval ancestry shifts left a significant and long-lasting impact on the genetic makeup of the Flemish population. We find substantial allele frequency differences between the two ancestry groups in pigmentation and diet-associated variants, including those linked with lactase persistence, likely reflecting ancestry change rather than local adaptation.
AB - The Merovingian period (5th to 8th cc AD) was a time of demographic, socioeconomic, cultural, and political realignment in Western Europe. Here, we report the whole-genome shotgun sequence data of 30 human skeletal remains from a coastal Late Merovingian site of Koksijde (675 to 750 AD), alongside 18 remains from two Early to Late Medieval sites in present-day Flanders, Belgium. We find two distinct ancestries, one shared with Early Medieval England and the Netherlands, while the other, minor component, reflecting likely continental Gaulish ancestry. Kinship analyses identified no large pedigrees characteristic to elite burials revealing instead a high modularity of distant relationships among individuals of the main ancestry group. In contrast, individuals with >90% Gaulish ancestry had no kinship links among sampled individuals. Evidence for population structure and major differences in the extent of Gaulish ancestry in the main group, including in a mother-daughter pair, suggests ongoing admixture in the community at the time of their burial. The isotopic and genetic evidence combined supports a model by which the burials, representing an established coastal nonelite community, had incorporated migrants from inland populations. The main group of burials at Koksijde shows an abundance of >5 cM long shared allelic intervals with the High Medieval site nearby, implying long-term continuity and suggesting that similarly to Britain, the Early Medieval ancestry shifts left a significant and long-lasting impact on the genetic makeup of the Flemish population. We find substantial allele frequency differences between the two ancestry groups in pigmentation and diet-associated variants, including those linked with lactase persistence, likely reflecting ancestry change rather than local adaptation.
KW - Humans
KW - History, Medieval
KW - Pedigree
KW - Belgium
KW - Burial/history
KW - Genetics, Population/methods
KW - Female
KW - Male
KW - DNA, Ancient/analysis
KW - England
KW - Human Migration
KW - Archaeology
KW - Netherlands
KW - Genome, Human
KW - ancestry
KW - kinship
KW - ancient DNA
KW - Merovingian
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85197017788&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.2406734121
DO - 10.1073/pnas.2406734121
M3 - Article
C2 - 38913897
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 121
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 27
M1 - e2406734121
ER -