ERFURT, GERMANY—Analysis of DNA extracted from detached teeth recovered from the graves of 33 Ashkenazi Jews who lived in medieval Germany suggests that the population of Ashkenazi Jews was more genetically diverse in the fourteenth century than it is today, according to a Live Science report. The study also indicates that a genetic bottleneck brought about by a drastic reduction in the size of the ancestral population occurred around A.D. 1000, or about the time when the first Ashkenazi Jewish communities were established in the region. Shai Carmi of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem explained that by the early fifteenth century, the population of Ashkenazi Jews living in central Germany experienced a higher incidence of some cancers and genetic disorders as a result of this genetic bottleneck. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA recovered from the medieval teeth also shows that all of these individuals were the descendants of a single woman through their maternal line. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Cell. To read about Berlin's early history, go to "Letter from Germany: Berlin's Medieval Origins."
