122 | Nature | Vol 637 | 2 January 2025
Article
medieval individuals (P ≪ 1 × 10−32). Instead, the majority of individuals 
from medieval Poland can be modelled only as a mixture of ancestries 
related to Roman Iron Age Lithuania, which is similar to ancestries of 
individuals from middle to late Bronze Age Poland (44%, 95% confidence 
interval 36–51%), an ancestry component related to Hungarian Scyth-
ians or Slovakian La T ène individuals (49%, 95% confidence interval 
41–57%) and potentially a minority component of ancestry related to 
Sarmatians from the Caucasus (P = 0.13) (Fig. 2c). Four out of twelve 
individuals from medieval Poland, three of whom are from the late 
Viking Age6, carried detectable Scandinavian-related ancestry. Some 
of the ancestry detected in individuals from later medieval Poland may 
have persisted during the late first millennium ce in the cremating 
portion of the population, but regardless, this points to large-scale 
ancestry transformation in medieval Poland (Fig. 3a). Future data could 
shed light on the extent to which this reflects the influence of groups 
speaking Slavic languages in the region.
In present-day Slovakia, individuals associated with the Iron 
Age La T ène period appear close to Hungarian Scythians in the two 
dimensions of our MDS analysis, and are modelled as a mixture of 
central and eastern European ancestry. However, a first-century ce 
burial of a 50–60-year-old woman from Zohor is modelled only with 
Scandinavian-related ancestry, providing evidence of ancestry related 
to the Scandinavian EIA appearing southwest of the range of the Wiel-
bark archaeological complex5,57 (Fig. 3b). Later early medieval individu-
als from Slovakia have partial Scandinavian-related ancestry, providing 
evidence for the integration between expanding and local groups.
Nearby, in present-day Hungary, we observe Scandinavian-related 
ancestry components in several burials dating to the sixth century 
ce associated with Longobards (Longobard_earlyMED(I))10 (Fig. 2c). 
This is consistent with the original study10, which reported affinity to 
present-day groups from northwestern Europe (GBR, CEU and FIN in 
the 1000 Genomes Project (1000GP))10 but which we can resolve with 
3000 BCE 2000 BCE 1000 BCE 1000 CE 2000 CE
Scandinavia
Southern Europe
Britain
Central
Europe
Eastern Europe
BA
Italy
Central Europe
3000 BCE 2000 BCE
EBA
1000 BCE
Time
01 000 CE 2000 CE
MLBA Wielbark Middle Ages
Late Roman/Ottoman
Early Medieval
Baiuvarii
Medieval/present day
Early Medieval/LongobardIron Roman
Present day
Present dayBA/Scythian
Bell Beaker/EBA
Zohor
Southeastern Europe
Poland
Britain and Ireland
Scandinavia
e
f
d
c
b
a
Iron Roman
Iron/Republic Imperial Late Antiquity (Early) Medieval
Early Medieval
Present day
Present dayMedievalIron RomanBA
BA EIA Viking AgeM edieval Present day
Drif/f_ield
Terrace
Tarquinia
Late Etruscan
3000 BCE 2000 BCE 1000 BCE 0 1000 CE 2000 CE
2000 BCE 0
3000 BCE 2000 BCE 1000 BCE 01 000 CE 2000 CE
3000 BCE 2000 BCE 1000 BCE 0 1000 CE 2000 CE
3000 BCE 2000 BCE 1000 BCE 01 000 CE 2000 CE
Fig. 3 | Time transects across six geographical regions in Europe.  
a–f, Ancestry change visualized over a time transect spanning from the Bronze 
Age to the present day in Poland (a), southeastern Europe ( b), central Europe 
(c), Italy (d), Britain and Ireland (e) and Scandinavia (f). The maps show sample 
locations of all available ancient genomes with at least 0.5× coverage from 
these regions (Supplementary Table 1). Their ancestry is shown on the same 
MDS model as in Fig.  2a for each time period. For each geographic region,  
the early medieval period is highlighted in orange and the area in the MDS 
corresponding to Scandinavian and central European ancestries is highlighted 
in an orange box.