On the Slavic Immigration in the Byzantine Balkans

Abstract

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A genetic history of the Balkans from Roman frontier to Slavic migrations

“…The Eastern European signal significantly decreases in more southern modern groups but it is still present in populations from mainland Greece (~30-40%) and even the Aegean islands (4-20%). This confirms the observations from PCA ( Figure 1C and 3A ) and previous genetic studies suggesting a substantial demographic impact in the southern Balkan Peninsula 8 and the Aegean 42 .…”

“…Indeed, a woman who probably died in the 2 nd or 3 rd centuries CE and was buried at Više Grobalja presents unmixed Eastern European ancestry ( Figure 4A ), offering a remarkable illustration of how small-scale individual percolation into the dynamic economy of the Roman Empire may have preceded larger-scale migration. The vast majority of the individuals with Eastern European ancestry in our dataset appear in the 7th-10th centuries and are of admixed ancestry ( Figure 4A ); the Slavic migrations started as early as the 6 th century 42 , and our dataset may not reflect the early phases, although it provides insights into its dynamics. Out of the seven Balkan individuals with more than 90% East European-related ancestry who were more likely to be migrants, three were females.…”

“…Today, speakers of Slavic languages represent the largest linguistic group in Europe, mainly inhabiting Eastern, Central and Southeastern Europe. Several aspects of their initial arrival in the Balkans are not yet well understood, such as their place of origin and timing, the mechanisms ranging from colonization, invasion, and infiltration, their degree of demographic impact in the region and the underlying reasons with demographic pressures, climate change and depopulation due to the Justinian Pandemic being postulated 42 , 43 . We document a clear signal of Eastern European-related gene flow in the vast majority of individuals in our dataset after 700 CE (n=49), likely associated with the arrival of Slavic-speaking populations according to historical and archaeological evidence 42 .…”

“…Several aspects of their initial arrival in the Balkans are not yet well understood, such as their place of origin and timing, the mechanisms ranging from colonization, invasion, and infiltration, their degree of demographic impact in the region and the underlying reasons with demographic pressures, climate change and depopulation due to the Justinian Pandemic being postulated 42 , 43 . We document a clear signal of Eastern European-related gene flow in the vast majority of individuals in our dataset after 700 CE (n=49), likely associated with the arrival of Slavic-speaking populations according to historical and archaeological evidence 42 . Due to a gap in our sampling between 500-700 CE, we cannot determine the exact timing of the earliest arrivals, but the detection of individuals with full Eastern European ancestral origin during the 8 th and 9 th centuries points to a long process encompassing many generations, rather than a short-lived migration event.…”