TY - JOUR T1 - Stable population structure in Europe since the Iron Age, despite high mobility JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2022.05.15.491973 SP - 2022.05.15.491973 AU - Margaret L. Antonio AU - Clemens L. Weiß AU - Ziyue Gao AU - Susanna Sawyer AU - Victoria Oberreiter AU - Hannah M. Moots AU - Jeffrey P. Spence AU - Olivia Cheronet AU - Brina Zagorc AU - Elisa Praxmarer AU - Kadir Toykan Özdoğan AU - Lea Demetz AU - Michaela Lucci AU - Timka Alihodžić AU - Selma Amrani AU - Pavel Avetisyan AU - Christèle Baillif-Ducros AU - Željka Bedić AU - Audrey Bertrand AU - Maja Bilić AU - Luca Bondioli AU - Paulina Borówka AU - Emmanuel Botte AU - Josip Burmaz AU - Domagoj Bužanić AU - Francesca Candilio AU - Mirna Cvetko AU - Daniela De Angelis AU - Ivan Drnić AU - Kristián Elschek AU - Mounir Fantar AU - Andrej Gaspari AU - Gabriella Gasperetti AU - Francesco Genchi AU - Snežana Golubović AU - Zuzana Hukeľová AU - Rimantas Jankauskas AU - Kristina Jelinčić Vučković AU - Gordana Jeremić AU - Iva Kaić AU - Kevin Kazek AU - Hamazasp Khachatryan AU - Anahit Khudaverdyan AU - Sylvia Kirchengast AU - Miomir Korać AU - Valérie Kozlowski AU - Mária Krošláková AU - Dora Kušan Špalj AU - Francesco La Pastina AU - Marie Laguardia AU - Sandra Legrand AU - Tino Leleković AU - Tamara Leskovar AU - Wiesław Lorkiewicz AU - Dženi Los AU - Ana Maria Silva AU - Rene Masaryk AU - Vinka Matijević AU - Yahia Mehdi Seddik Cherifi AU - Nicholas Meyer AU - Ilija Mikić AU - Nataša Miladinović-Radmilović AU - Branka Milošević Zakić AU - Lina Nacouzi AU - Magdalena Natuniewicz-Sekuła AU - Alessia Nava AU - Christine Neugebauer-Maresch AU - Jan Nováček AU - Anna Osterholtz AU - Julianne Paige AU - Lujana Paraman AU - Dominique Pieri AU - Karol Pieta AU - Stefan Pop-Lazić AU - Matej Ruttkay AU - Mirjana Sanader AU - Arkadiusz Sołtysiak AU - Alessandra Sperduti AU - Tijana Stankovic Pesterac AU - Maria Teschler-Nicola AU - Iwona Teul AU - Domagoj Tončinić AU - Julien Trapp AU - Dragana Vulović AU - Tomasz Waliszewski AU - Diethard Walter AU - Milos Zivanovic AU - Mohamed el Mostefa Filah AU - Morana Čaušević-Bully AU - Mario Šlaus AU - Dusan Boric AU - Mario Novak AU - Alfredo Coppa AU - Ron Pinhasi AU - Jonathan K. Pritchard Y1 - 2022/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/05/16/2022.05.15.491973.abstract N2 - Ancient DNA research in the past decade has revealed that European population structure changed dramatically in the prehistoric period (14,000-3,000 years before present, YBP), reflecting the widespread introduction of Neolithic farmer and Bronze Age Steppe ancestries. However, little is known about how population structure changed in the historical period onward (3,000 YBP - present). To address this, we collected whole genomes from 204 individuals from Europe and the Mediterranean, many of which are the first historical period genomes from their region (e.g. Armenia, France). We found that most regions show remarkable inter-individual heterogeneity. Around 8% of historical individuals carry ancestry uncommon in the region where they were sampled, some indicating cross-Mediterranean contacts. Despite this high level of mobility, overall population structure across western Eurasia is relatively stable through the historical period up to the present, mirroring the geographic map. We show that, under standard population genetics models with local panmixia, the observed level of dispersal would lead to a collapse of population structure. Persistent population structure thus suggests a lower effective migration rate than indicated by the observed dispersal. We hypothesize that this phenomenon can be explained by extensive transient dispersal arising from drastically improved transportation networks and the Roman Empire’s mobilization of people for trade, labor, and military. This work highlights the utility of ancient DNA in elucidating finer scale human population dynamics in recent history.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest. ER -