News Genetics

How ancient herders rewrote northern Europeans’ genetic story

DNA analyses show the Yamnaya made people more prone to diseases like MS starting 5,000 years ago

A skull with an arrow shot through the nose is displayed on a black background. The Danish bog skull, known as Porsmose Man, dates to around 4,600 years ago.

A Danish bog skull known as Porsmose Man, found with an arrow that had been shot through his nose, dates to around 4,600 years ago. Ancient DNA analyses now indicate that incoming herding groups transformed the genetic profiles of people, including the Danes, throughout northern Europe at that time.

The Danish National Museum

By Bruce Bower

Ancient herders, who rode horses and drove ox-drawn carts west out of their grassy homelands in southwest Asia, erased a DNA divide between far-flung farmers and hunter-gatherers-fishers around 5,000 years ago.