DNA Study Suggests Surprising Origins of Poland's First Royal Family

PŁOCK CASTLE, POLAND—Scholars have long debated the origins of the House of Piast, Poland’s first royal dynasty, who ruled the nation from the tenth through the fourteenth century. Some believe they were Slavic nobles, others Moravian exiles, and still others say they were Viking warriors. The Conversation reports on new DNA analysis that has revealed shocking new information concerning the Piasts’ genetic background that might potentially rewrite history. Researchers led by molecular biologist Marek Figlerowicz of Poznań University of Technology extracted DNA from 33 individuals, 30 men and three women, belonging to the Piast dynasty. Most of the deceased, who lived between 1100 and 1495, had been buried in central Poland's Płock Cathedral. Almost all the male skeletons carried a group of rare Y-chromosome variations that closely resembles populations in Britain. The closest match was to an ancient Pict individual who lived in eastern Scotland in the fifth or sixth century. These results imply that the dynasty’s paternal line was not local, but had arrived from the vicinity of the North Atlantic, though researchers do not know when. This could have happened just prior to the ascent of the first Piast ruler, Mieszko I (reigned a.d. 960–992), or centuries earlier. The study notes that previous DNA analysis indicated that the genetic background of the broader Polish population had remained stable since the Iron Age. Although the ruling family may have had some foreign roots, the Poles themselves had well-established local genetics. For more about medieval Poland, go to "Viking Knights, Polish Days."