MyHeritage recently announced their Ancient Origins DNA feature in Introducing Ancient Origins: Trace Your Origins Back 10,000 Years last week. Their blog post stated:
"Ever wondered which ancient civilizations you descend from? Now you can find out! We’re thrilled to announce the release of Ancient Origins, a major new product that complements your MyHeritage DNA ethnicity reports. Ancient Origins enables you to trace your origins up to 10,000 years into the past and discover the ancient populations from which you descend, such as Imperial Romans, Norse Vikings, Phoenicians, and Ancient Egyptians."
Yes, I wonder about this all of the time. What does my DNA tell MyHeritage about my origins from thousands of years ago? 200 generations ago is about 3000 BCE. 100 generations ago is about 500 BCE. 50 generations ago is about 750 CE. Who were my "people" then? My genealogy work indicates that my ancestry is 100% northwest European (British Isles, Lowlands, Germany, France, Scandinavia, etc.) in the 1500-1600 CE era.
This Ancient Origins feature is interesting to me, so I went exploring. To use Ancient Origins on MyHeritage, you click on the DNA menu at the top of the screen, and select Ancient Originis. The first time you do this, you have to request your report, and wait a day to see the report. MyHeritage Complete and Omni subscription members can see the report for free.
Here is the Ancient Origins page:
There are five reports that can be accessed from this page:
- Ancient Origins Breakdown - View a percentage breakdown of your origins from ancient populations across different historical eras, from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages.
- Hunter-Gatherer and Farmer Breakdown - Receive a breakdown of your ancestral roots from hunter-gatherer and early farmer populations.
- Genetic Similarities - Discover how your DNA compares to the top ancient populations and population combinations most similar to you genetically.
- Genetic Distance Maps - Visualize your genetic proximity to different ancient populations.
- Sample Database - View our extensive database of Ancient Origin samples and populations.
I am going to explore only the "Ancient Origins Breakdown" area:
On the Ancient Origins Breakdown page there is a map on the right, and information on the left-side of the page. On the left-side, there is a slider for four different ages - Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman Era and Middle Ages.
The image above is for the Bronze Age. The information tells me that I am descended from two major populations - 57% Central Steppe (2100 - 1800 BC) and 43% European Farmer (6300 - 2800 BC).
Here are my Iron Age populations:
I now have more European-centric populations, inlcuding 68% Insular Celt (600 BC - 100 AD), 19% Continental Celt (800 - 50 BC), 10% Italic and Etruscan (900 - 200 BC), 2% Iberian (700 - 50 BC), less than 1% Papuan (really?) and less than 1% South Amerindian (really?).
Here are my "Roman Era" populations:
My populations in this era have moved more to the northwest. They include 27% Roman Britain (AD 100 - 400), 24% Roman Iberia (AD 260 - 500), 16% Germanic (AD 100 - 630), 12% Roman Gaul (AD 130 - 500), 11% Roman Pannonia (AD 130 - 600), 10% Pict (AD 300 - 600), and 0.2% South Amerindian (9000 BC - 1500 AD).
Finally, here are my "Middle Ages" populations:
My populations in this era include 46% France (AD 130 - 1400), 31% Insular Celt (AD 100-1000), 16% Iberian (AD 300 - 1200), 6% Germanic (AD 700 - 1000), 1% North Caucasian (AD 650-1160), and 0.4% SouthAmerindian (9000 BC - 1500 AD).
For each of the populations in each era, you can click on the population indicators to see more information about them, including a one minute video spoken by an AI image representing the specific population. Here is the "Middle Ages" "Insular Celt" page:
You can download the video. Here is the "Insular Celt" video:
The additional information below the video includes:
Description
In 2021, a major archaeogenetics study uncovered a migration into southern Britain during the Bronze Age, over a 500 year period from 1300 BC to 800 BC. The migrants were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from France, and had higher levels of Early European Farmer ancestry. During 1000–875 BC, their genetic marker swiftly spread through southern Britain, making up around half the ancestry of subsequent Iron Age people in this area, but not in northern Britain. The evidence suggests that, rather than a violent invasion or a single migratory event, the genetic structure of the population changed through sustained contacts between Britain and mainland Europe over several centuries, such as the movement of traders, intermarriage, and small scale movements of family groups. The authors describe this as a plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain.
Reference Samples
6DT3, 6DT18, 6DT23, I12927, I12932, I14550, I22062, VK201, VK202, VK203, VK207, I16504, I3568, I16413, I27384, I27385, KD001
Research Link(s)
- Genomic signals of migration and continuity in Britain before the Anglo-Saxons
- Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age
- Population genomics of the Viking world
- Ancient DNA at the edge of the world: Continental immigration and the persistence of Neolithic male lineages in Bronze Age Orkney
This tells me that I am a "European mutt" with some ancient populations going back to the Bronze Age from western Asia and Western Europe. Who knew?
What about the other four reports for Ancient Origins? I need to explore more. Here is my "Global" "Genetic Distance Map:"
The scales on this map are related to Genetic Similarity score and not to time.
If I click on the dropdown menu to replace "Global" with "Europe," here is my Genetic Distance Map (showing "Clusters"):
I think I've only scratched the surface here. For a lot more information, check the MyHeritage blog post about this feature in https://blog.myheritage.com/2025/02/introducing-ancient-origins-trace-your-origins-back-10000-years/.
Disclosure: I receive a complimentary Complete subscription to MyHeritage, and have received other material considerations in past years. I uploaded my autosomal DNA raw data to their DNA product. This does not affect my objective analysis of MyHeritage products. I am a paid subscriber to Family Tree Webinars and love it.
The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2025/02/exploring-my-myheritage-ancient-origins.html
Copyright (c) 2025, Randall J. Seaver
Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com. Note that all comments are moderated, so they may not appear immediately.
Subscribe to receive a free daily email from Genea-Musings using www.Blogtrottr.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment