Diverse Range of DNA Ancestry Detected in Ukraine’s Populations

TARTU, ESTONIA—SciNews reports that analysis of DNA samples taken from the remains of 91 individuals unearthed at 33 archaeological sites in Ukraine reveals contact between populations and their movements from the Neolithic period, some 9,000 years ago, through A.D. 1800. “We set out to examine the genetic ancestries of people living in the North Pontic region during these time periods and associated with various cultural groups,” said Lehti Saag of the University of Tartu and University College London. Saag and her colleagues determined that Ukraine’s population was similar to that of the rest of Europe from the Mesolithic period through the Bronze Age, when nomads from the east began to arrive in the steppe, to the north of the Black Sea. “Their genetic composition varied from Yamna-like superimposed on the locals, as with Scythians and Cumans, to high degrees of East Asian ancestry and minimal local admixture,” she explained. Meanwhile, populations in the rest of Ukraine were found to be related to Europeans, including Thracians, Greeks, and Goths. “Nevertheless, the broad-scale local genetic profile, which is similar to modern Ukrainians, persists in the region through time also within this sample set,” Saag concluded. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Science Advances. To read about a Cossack city that was destroyed in the early eighteenth century, go to "Ukraine's Lost Capital."