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A genetic history of the Balkans from Roman frontier to Slavic migrations
The rise and fall of the Roman Empire was a socio-political process with enormous ramifications for human
history. The Middle Danube was a crucial frontier and a crossroads for population and cultural movement.
Here, we present genome-wide data from 136 Balkan individuals dated to the 1st millennium CE. Despite
extensive militarization and cultural influence, we find little ancestry contribution from peoples of Italic
descent. However, we trace a large-scale influx of people of Anatolian ancestry during the Imperial period.
Between 250 and 550 CE, we detect migrants with ancestry from Central/Northern Europe and the Steppe,
confirming that āābarbarianāā migrations were propelled by ethnically diverse confederations. Following the
end of Roman control, we detect the large-scale arrival of individuals who were genetically similar to modern
Eastern European Slavic-speaking populations, who contributed 30%ā60% of the ancestry of Balkan people,
representing one of the largest permanent demographic changes anywhere in Europe during the Migration
Period