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Remains from Levänluhta at the National Museum of Finland. Source: CC0

Breakthrough Discovery of DNA in Ancient Water Burials Clearly Identifies Sámi People

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During the Iron Age, around 300 AD, something extraordinary was initiated in Levänluhta area in Isokyrö, SW Finland. The deceased were buried in a lake, and this ritual was continued for at least 400 years. When trenches were dug in the local fields in mid-1800's, skulls and other human bones began to surface. These bones had been preserved almost intact in the anoxic, ferrous water. Archaeologists, historians and locals have been wondering about these finds for over 150 years.

In 2010, a multidisciplinary research group at the University of Helsinki decided to re-investigate the mystery of Levänluhta. The site, thought to be a sacrificial spring, is exceptional even on a global scale and has yielded altogether about 75 kg of human bone material. The research group, led by docent Anna Wessman, had an ambitious aim: to find who the deceased buried in Levänluhta were, and why they were buried in this extraordinary way under water so far from dwelling sites.

Levänluhta Spring in Isokyrö, SW Finland. Image: Anna Wessman 2019

Levänluhta Spring in Isokyrö, SW Finland. Image: Anna Wessman 2019

Now, after several years of scientific work, the group reports their results in the most recent issue of Nature. The results are part of a more extensive international study shedding light on the colonization and population history of Siberia with DNA data from ancient (up to 31 000 years old) human bones.

"In our part, we wanted especially to find out the origins of the Iron Age remains found from Levänluhta," says the group leader Anna Wessman.

New results with DNA sequencing technology

This aspect was investigated using cutting edge ancient DNA sequencing technology, which the Department of Forensic Medicine is interested in due to the forensic casework performed at the department. Professor Antti Sajantila explains that the early phases of this project were demanding.

"[The] inability to repeat even our own results was utterly frustrating," Sajantila says regarding the first experiments in the laboratory.

The research methods were developing rapidly during the international co-operation, and ultimately the first Finnish results were shown to be accurate. Yet, it was surprising that the genomes of three Levänluhta individuals clearly resembled those of the modern Sámi people.

"We understood this quite early, but it took long to confirm these findings," tells docent Jukka Palo.

Levänluhta Spring area, in Isokyrö. Vesa Laulumaa 2012 (Fair Use)

Levänluhta Spring area, in Isokyrö. Vesa Laulumaa 2012 (Fair Use)

Locals or by-passers?

The results were suggesting that the Isokyrö region was inhabited by Sámi people in ancient times - according to carbon dating the bones belonged to individuals that had died around 500 - 700 AD. This would be concrete proof of Sámi in southern Finland in the past. But were the people locals, recent immigrants or haphazard by-passers? To find out, other techniques than DNA testing were needed. The solution lied in the enamel of teeth.

Curator Laura Arppe from the Finnish Museum of Natural History tells that strontium isotopes found in the enamel strongly suggest that the individuals grew up in the Levänluhta region.

The current genomes of the people in Finland carry both eastern Uralic and western Scandinavian components, and the genome of one the Levänluhta individuals examined had clear ties to present day Scandinavians.

As a whole the replacement of the Sámi people in southern and central Finland reflects the replacement processes in Siberia which is clarified in the present study. This was probably a common feature in the Northern latitudes.

The question why the bones were buried in water remains a mystery requiring further investigation.

"The Levänluhta project demands further studies, not only to broaden the DNA data but also to understand the water burials as a phenomenon. The question "Why?" still lies unanswered," ponders the bone specialist, docent Kristiina Mannermaa.

The project was funded primarily by the Emil Aaltonen Foundation and the participating researchers represented various disciplines and departments at the University of Helsinki. Authors involved with the current Nature publication were: Anna Wessman, Kristiina Mannermaa and Tarja Sundell (archaeology), Antti Sajantila, Jukka Palo and Mikko Putkonen (forensic medicine), and Laura Arppe (geosciences).

Ancient DNA Origins

Top image: Remains from Levänluhta at the National Museum of Finland. Source: CC0

The article, originally titled ‘Breakthrough in the Discovery of DNA in ancient bones buried in water

was first published on Science Daily.

Source: University of Helsinki. "Breakthrough in the discovery of DNA in ancient bones buried in water." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 11 June 2019. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/06/190611092432.htm

References

Martin Sikora, Vladimir V. Pitulko, Vitor C. Sousa, Morten E. Allentoft, Lasse Vinner, Simon Rasmussen, Ashot Margaryan, Peter de Barros Damgaard, Constanza de la Fuente, Gabriel Renaud, Melinda A. Yang, Qiaomei Fu, Isabelle Dupanloup, Konstantinos Giampoudakis, David Nogués-Bravo, Carsten Rahbek, Guus Kroonen, Michaël Peyrot, Hugh McColl, Sergey V. Vasilyev, Elizaveta Veselovskaya, Margarita Gerasimova, Elena Y. Pavlova, Vyacheslav G. Chasnyk, Pavel A. Nikolskiy, Andrei V. Gromov, Valeriy I. Khartanovich, Vyacheslav Moiseyev, Pavel S. Grebenyuk, Alexander Yu. Fedorchenko, Alexander I. Lebedintsev, Sergey B. Slobodin, Boris A. Malyarchuk, Rui Martiniano, Morten Meldgaard, Laura Arppe, Jukka U. Palo, Tarja Sundell, Kristiina Mannermaa, Mikko Putkonen, Verner Alexandersen, Charlotte Primeau, Nurbol Baimukhanov, Ripan S. Malhi, Karl-Göran Sjögren, Kristian Kristiansen, Anna Wessman, Antti Sajantila, Marta Mirazon Lahr, Richard Durbin, Rasmus Nielsen, David J. Meltzer, Laurent Excoffier, Eske Willerslev. The population history of northeastern Siberia since the Pleistocene. Nature, 2019; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1279-z

 
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