# Copenhagen team's 712 ancient genomes suggest Germanic reached Scandinavia about 4,000 years ago

- Published: 2026-11-05 05:16 UTC
- Section: Life & Health › Biology & biochemistry
- Tags: ancient DNA, Germanic languages, origin of Germanic, Scandinavia Bronze Age, Indo-European languages, 712 ancient genomes, Old Norse, Anglo-Saxons genetics, Langobards, Eske Willerslev
- URL: https://realtech.media/news/rt-bbed912fdcd08b6f1df6244c_copenhagen_team_s/

**Sequencing of ancient DNA revealed a previously elusive population that entered Sweden by about 4,000 years ago, roughly 800 years later than the traditional date for Germanic's arrival.**

![Copenhagen team's 712 ancient genomes suggest Germanic reached Scandinavia about 4,000 years ago](https://sgzwpqqelzmajkcubgkl.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/rt-media/2026/11/c4ab8f5e27ff1b29.png)
*nature.com*

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen, led by Eske Willerslev, sequenced 712 ancient human genomes and analysed them together with 4,009 previously published ones, according to a paper on nature.com. [1] The authors report an archaeologically elusive population that entered Sweden, likely from the Baltic region, by around 4,000 years before present (BP). [1] The work addresses when and where the Germanic branch of Indo-European, which includes German, English, Frisian, Dutch and the Nordic languages, arrived in the north.

The timing of that arrival has been contested. Steppe-related ancestry reached Europe around 5,000 BP, and the Corded Ware and Bell Beaker complexes have been associated with the introduction of Germanic to Scandinavia. [1] Between those first waves (about 5,000–4,500 BP) and the first runic inscriptions, the earliest Germanic written evidence (about 1,950–1,550 BP), lies a gap of two to three millennia. [1] Loanword contacts with Celtic- and Finno-Saamic-speaking groups suggest an early form of Germanic existed between northern Germany and the East Baltic by the Late Bronze Age (3,200–2,800 BP). [1]

## A new ancestry in Scandinavia

The final imputed dataset contained 578 new and 4,009 published individuals, covering 690,211 SNPs. [1] The team used identity-by-descent clustering, mixture modelling and spatio-temporal kriging to follow ancestry through time. [1] The population that appeared in Sweden by about 4,000 BP became widespread across Scandinavia by 3,500 BP. [1] According to the authors, it offers a potential route for Germanic into Scandinavia some 800 years later than traditionally assumed. [1]

## Migrations in the Iron Age and after

After Germanic split into its descendant languages in the Late Iron Age, the authors observe a southward migration from southern Scandinavia by 1,650 BP into presumed Celtic-speaking areas, including present-day Germany, Poland and the Netherlands. [1] During the Migration Period (1,575–1,375 BP), this ancestry appears among Anglo-Saxons in Britain and Langobards in southern Europe. [1]

In the same period the team identifies a related large-scale northward back-migration into Denmark and southern Sweden. [1] It coincides with the rise of Danish influence and the linguistically documented emergence of Old Norse. [1] The authors conclude that multiple migrations and locations shaped the arrival and formation of Germanic and its divergence into historical and modern languages. [1]

## Sources

1. [nature.com](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09064-1)
2. [scinexx](https://www.scinexx.de/news/archaeologie/deutsch-englisch-co-uralte-dna-zeigt-urspruenge-der-germanischen-sprachen)

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Source: RealTech, realtech.media — https://realtech.media/news/rt-bbed912fdcd08b6f1df6244c_copenhagen_team_s/