Analysis of maternal lineage structure of individuals from chamber graves placed in medieval cemetery in Kałdus, Central Poland
- 13 February 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Schweizerbart in HOMO
- Vol. 71 (1), 43-50
- https://doi.org/10.1127/homo/2020/1008
Abstract
The beginning of the early Middle Ages period in Poland (10th-14th century) has been widely debated in the context of an active demographic inflow from other countries and its contribution to the creation of the new country. Finding chamber graves which are considered typical for the Scandinavian ethnic group in a few cemeteries in Poland has become the basis for the anthropological inference on the potential participation of North European people in forming the social elite of medieval Poland. However, the question of whether this fact was the result of presence of people from other countries lacks an unambiguous answer. We attempted to isolate ancient DNA from the medieval necropolis in Kaldus where several chamber graves have been found and analysed the genetic diversity of maternal lineage of this population. We analysed the HVR I fragment and coding regions to assess the mitochondrial DNA haplogroup. We have identified a few relatively rare haplogroups (A2, T2b4a, HV, K1a11, J2b1a, and X2) which were previously found in early medieval sites in Norway and Denmark. Obtained results might suggest genetic relation between the people of Kaldus and past northern Europe populations. Present and further research can undoubtedly shed new light on the aspect of the formation of the early medieval Polish population.Keywords
This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit:
- Population and forensic genetic analyses of mitochondrial DNA control region variation from six major provinces in the Korean populationForensic Science International: Genetics, 2015
- Mitochondrial DNA variation in the Viking age population of NorwayPhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2015
- Ancient DNA Reveals Key Stages in the Formation of Central European Mitochondrial Genetic DiversityScience, 2013
- Ancient DNA Reveals Prehistoric Gene-Flow from Siberia in the Complex Human Population History of North East EuropePLoS Genetics, 2013
- To Clone or Not To Clone: Method Analysis for Retrieving Consensus Sequences In Ancient DNA SamplesPLOS ONE, 2011
- Genetic Diversity among Ancient Nordic PopulationsPLOS ONE, 2010
- Evidence of Authentic DNA from Danish Viking Age Skeletons Untouched by Humans for 1,000 YearsPLOS ONE, 2008
- EMPOP—A forensic mtDNA databaseForensic Science International: Genetics, 2007
- MEGA4: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis (MEGA) Software Version 4.0Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2007
- Origin and Expansion of Haplogroup H, the Dominant Human Mitochondrial DNA Lineage in West Eurasia: The Near Eastern and Caucasian PerspectiveMolecular Biology and Evolution, 2006