Genetic history of Europe
population genetics
The genetic history of Europe includes information around the formation, ethnogenesis, and other DNA-specific information about populations indigenous, or living in Europe.
European early modern human (EEMH) lineages between 40 and 26 ka (Aurignacian) were still part of a large Western Eurasian "meta-population", related to Central and Western Asian populations.
Divergence into genetically distinct sub-populations within Western Eurasia is a result of increased selection pressure and founder effects during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, Gravettian).
By the end of the LGM, after 20 ka, A Western European lineage, dubbed west European hunter-gatherer (WHG) emerged from the Solutrean refugium during the European Mesolithic. These Mesolithic hunter-gatherer cultures are subsequently replaced in the Neolithic Revolution as a result of the arrival of Early European Farmer (EEF) lineages derived from mesolithic populations of surrounding West Asia (Anatolia).
In the European Bronze Age, there were again substantial population replacements in parts of Europe by the intrusion of Western Steppe Herder (WSH) lineages from the Pontic–Caspian steppes, arising from admixture between Eastern Hunter Gatherers (EHG) and peoples related to Near Easterners. These Bronze Age population replacements are associated with the Bell Beaker and Corded Ware cultures archaeologically and with a second wave of Indo-European expansion linguistically.
As a result of the population movements during the Mesolithic to Bronze Age, modern European populations are distinguished by differences in WHG, EEF and Ancient North Eurasian (ANE) ancestry.
Admixture rates varied geographically; in the late Neolithic, WHG ancestry in farmers in Hungary was at around 10%, in Germany around 25% and in Iberia as high as 50%. The contribution of EEF is more significant in Mediterranean Europe, and declines towards northern and northeastern Europe, where WHG ancestry is stronger; the Sardinians are considered to be the closest European group to the population of the EEF.
Ethnogenesis of the modern ethnic groups of Europe in the historical period is associated with numerous admixture events, primarily those associated with the Migration period and the decline of the Roman Empire, associated with the Germanic, Norse, and Slavic expansions
Research into the genetic history of Europe became possible in the second half of the 20th century, but did not yield results with high resolution before the 1990s.
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