Bronze Age migrant group shaped modern Europe

The arrival of the Yamnaya people transformed Europe in the Bronze Age. But who were the Yamnaya?

Five thousand years ago, a new people arrived from the east in the regions now known as Europe. Their name, Yamnaya, derives from the Russian word for their burial practice. It is unlikely that this wave of migrants was very large – probably made of just some tens of thousands of individuals.

Yet, Volker Heyd, a professor of archaeology at the University of Helsinki, said in a press release, that a small group of people still ended up changing the entire continent.

“The influence of the Yamnaya shines through the linguistic heritage of Europe and the European concept of kinship. They also had an impact on the genetics and even on our diet – it is probably thanks to the Yamnaya, Europeans are on average the tallest people in the world,” remarked Prof Heyd.

How could such a small band of people transform an entire continent of already as many as seven million inhabitants? “Therein indeed lies the conundrum,” answered Heyd. That is what he has been investigating for more than a decade.

There is no written source material available dating back 5,000 years. That is why Heyd’s research group approaches the topic from all available directions: through archaeological excavations as well as from the perspectives of bio and environmental sciences, and with the help of Indo-European linguistics.

Their methods are modern. Remnants of lost grave mounds, for example, are sought by geophysics using magnetometers, radar and laser devices to survey hectares of fields.

In his office, Heyd has millennia-old teeth found in such graves on display. The analyses of genetic samples collected from the teeth have made it possible to study the genome of the interred, including their selectivity for height.

The strontium and oxygen isotopes found in the teeth reveal the regions where the deceased travelled while alive, while some other isotopes when examined and teeth erosion betray their diet.

Even atmospheric sciences are employed in this analysis, with the aim of finding out whether the Yamnaya arrived in Europe driven by a warming climate or a drought.

A great deal has already been discovered. The Yamnaya practised animal husbandry, which brought a welcome addition to the European diet of that time based mostly on grain. On the other hand, earlier Europeans died in swathes at the time of the Yamnaya migration.

“We don’t know whether this was due to wide-spread conflict or, for example, diseases transmitted by the migrants,” remarked the professor.

Then again, there is clear evidence of the Yamnaya and earlier Europeans cross-breeding.

In addition to the Yamnaya, Heyd has a broader interest in the events that took place in the north-eastern Europe in the neolithic and bronze ages. This research topic focuses specifically on the settlements in the region of the contemporary Nordic countries.

“In this research too, we are employing a similar multidisciplinary approach. We aim to uncover the movements and culture of the people who inhabited this region 3,000–6,000 years ago,” said the archaeologist.