A comprehensive study of ancient DNA, combining genetic, archaeological, and linguistic research, is capable of changing the understanding of the history of several Germanic languages, such as English, German, and Scandinavian languages, and also casts doubt on some theories about the origin of Vikings.
The work revealed a previously unknown migration to Scandinavia that occurred about 4,000 years ago. This suggests that the foundations of Germanic languages were laid significantly later than previously thought.
Furthermore, this movement from northern Germany towards Denmark and Sweden predated the Vikings and may explain cultural similarities with the Anglo-Saxons.
The results of this study were published by an international group of scientists in the journal Nature on Thursday. The work was led by scientists from the Universities of Copenhagen (Denmark) and Leiden (Netherlands).
Researchers analyzed the DNA of over 4,500 ancient individuals, including 712 genomes sequenced for the first time. By combining genetics, archaeology, and linguistics, they managed to reconstruct important migration processes that shaped modern European languages.
Eske Willerslev, the lead author of the study and a professor at the University of Copenhagen, noted: 'DNA sequences themselves do not tell us directly what languages people spoke. But by combining ancient DNA with linguistic and archaeological data, we can begin to track how languages spread and changed over millennia.'
Scientists discovered a significant migration to Scandinavia that was previously unknown, which happened approximately 4,000 years ago. According to the researchers, it is most likely that the arrivals came from areas near the Baltic Sea and quickly dispersed throughout Scandinavia.
It was observed that this arrival had a long-term impact on the populations of Northern Europe, suggesting that these groups might carry the most ancient heredity of modern Germanic languages. This refutes the old belief that the roots of Germanic languages came from earlier migrations, around 5,000 years ago.
The new findings indicate that the linguistic foundations of English, German, Dutch, and Scandinavian languages may have spread a thousand years later than assumed.
The research also uncovered an unexpected chapter in Scandinavian history, suggesting that about 1,500 years ago, several centuries before the Viking Age, people from modern northern Germany migrated to Denmark and southern Sweden. This migration coincides with the emergence of Old Norse, the language spoken by the Vikings. This discovery may help explain the long-standing similarities between Viking and Anglo-Saxon cultures, including shared artistic traditions and closely related languages.
An additional study used a similar approach to examine another long-standing debate—the origin of Celtic languages, which are mainly preserved today in regions such as Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and Brittany. However, 2,500 years ago they were spoken across most of Europe, so researchers have been debating for over a century whether their origin lies on the Atlantic coast of Europe or further east, in Central Europe.
Ancient DNA also reveals a migratory movement from Central Europe that occurred about 3,000 years ago and spread westward, reaching France, Great Britain, Ireland, and the Iberian Peninsula. According to the researchers, this provides the simplest explanation for the expansion of Celtic languages and calls into question one of the most influential theories that Celtic languages originated on the Atlantic coast.
