Notes on DNA from other sources. 29 December 2025, 9 Tevet 5786.
Swiss DNA: What is the Genetic History of Switzerland?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM_FcoZE7pE
Now 4 official languages are spoken in Switzerland, with German the most common, followed
by French, Italian and Romansh.
Switzerland, officially known as the Swiss Confederation, originates from the Old Swiss
Confederacy established in the Late Middle Ages, following a series of military successes against
Austria and Burgundy. The Federal Charter of 1291 is considered the country's founding document,
with Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire formally recognised in the Peace of
Westphalia in 1648. The modern federal state of Switzerland was established with the adoption
of the Swiss Federal Constitution in 1848
Late Neolithic pastoralists from the Pontocaspian Steppes 2860-2460 BCE.
Earlier I2a G2a
Later almost all R1b
Steppe Ancestry in Bronze Age.
Leponti important in the south.
mtDNA in the south from Near East.
. One of their central findings was that there was �an arrival of
ancestry related to Late Neolithic pastoralists from the Pontic-Caspian steppe in Switzerland
as early as 2860�2460 BC.� They added that their analysis suggests �that this genetic turnover was
a complex process lasting almost 1000 years.� As far as haplogroups, they found a range of
different mt haplogroups from these 96 ancient genomes, namely; N1a, W, X, H, T2, J, U2, U3,
U4, U5a, U5b, K, and U8.
in individuals older than 2600 BC, they almost exclusively
belonged to Y-DNA haplogroups I2a and G2a. After 2200 BC however, all individuals carried R1b,
besides 1, which belonged to R1a. The most common branch of R1b these ancient individuals
belonged to was L2/S139, which is thought to have originated around the Alps or southern Rhine,
splitting off from R1b-U152 relatively early on. So Switzerland saw this introduction of steppe
ancestry around the Bronze Age in line with various other parts of Europe, and this
ancestry mixed with the two previous sources of ancestry in ancient Switzerland: namely, Western
hunter-gatherers and Early European farmers from around Anatolia.
by the Iron Age, ancient Switzerland was home to Celt tribes. One prominent Celtic group,
the Helvetii, occupied much of the region.
An interesting study from earlier this year published in Nature Human
Behaviour looked at the early Iron Age in France, Germany and Switzerland, known as
the �West-Hallstattkreis.� This was during a time when the Hallstatt Culture flourished in Europe,
a culture often referred to as early Celtic, and which was followed by the La T�ne culture.
This study analysed 31 individuals from this context in southern Germany, dating between
616 and 200 BC. They found that the Y-DNA haplogroups of these people were dominated
by R1b-M269 and G2a-P303, reflecting this earlier mixing of both steppe ancestry and ancestry from
the previous peoples of Europe as we saw earlier.
This study however found two really interesting
further inflows during this time. Firstly, there was an inflow of ancestry from southern
Europe during this period. Secondly, there was also movements of people from northern Europe,
and this was probably connected to the Cimbri and Teutones.
�Genetic outliers from this and previously published studies suggest that, subsequently,
at the height of the Celtic migrations during the fourth and third century BCE,
not only �Celts� migrated, but at least a limited number of people from northern central Europe
reached the southern zone of the La T�ne culture and even northern Italy, possibly associated with
historical entities like the Cimbri and Teutones.�
This photo speaks to another change in the genetics
of ancient Switzerland, the Roman period. A major early event in this was when Julius Caesar
defeated the Helvetii in the Gallic Wars of 58 BC. The area of modern Switzerland was absorbed by the
Romans over the years, and remained under Roman influence for centuries until the 5th century AD.
What genetic impact did the Romans have on the Swiss then? Well this
period introduced small levels of Mediterranean ancestry, with Y-DNA haplogroups like E1b1b and
J2 becoming more common around this time, as movement across the Mediterranean increased.
This brought more Germanic and Nordic ancestry into Switzerland, with haplogroups such R1b-U106
and I1 becoming more common amongst the population. Two Germanic people are important
to note when it comes to Switzerland: the first was the Alemanni, who settled in northern and
eastern Switzerland; and the second was the Burgundians, who occupied the western part.
In 496 however, the Alemanni were conquered by the Frankish leader Clovis, with the Franks also
incorporating the Kingdom of the Burgundy into the Frankish kingdom in 534 AD. So the Franks
controlled the land we call Switzerland for a period, and we know that the Franks Y-DNA was
dominated by R1b-U106. If we look at this map of R1b-S21 (U106) today, we can see it�s highest in
northern Europe today still, and in parts of north and northwest Switzerland. Switzerland
would later become part of the Holy Roman Empire for centuries, an empire that grew out of the
Franks to a large degree.
Whereas the haplogroups I1-M253 and R1b-U106 are more or less evenly
distributed north of the Alps, they are almost absent from the Ticino sample. In return,
haplogroups J2a-M410 and R1b-U152 are far more abundant in the Ticino sample than
in the rest of the country. Furthermore, we detected a significant enrichment of
haplogroup E1b1b-M35 in the easternmost sample from St. Gallen.� St. Gallen is
close to the border with Austria for reference. So in general the most common Y-DNA haplogroup
in Switzerland is R1b, yet the branches of this haplogroup speak to the different peoples
down through history. The two sublineages of R1b in particular are R1b-U106 and R1b-U152,
with the latter the most common in the country. In general, R1b-U106 is associated more with Germanic
peoples and ancestry down through history, and again if we look at this map of its
Switzerland and Northern Italy around the Alps. As the study notes:
�This local present day hotspot for haplogroup R1b-U152 fits quite well the ancient habitats
of Celtic cultures such as the Lepontii, being most probably at the origin of the
name �Valle Leventina� for the upper part of the Ticino Valley. Haplogroup R1b-U152
is significantly less frequent north of the Alps, but remains the most frequent
haplogroup throughout the entire country.� So Switzerland north of the Alps has more
Germanic DNA markers, whereas the south has more Celtic markers, which is interesting.
example. What is interesting is that this 2020 study looked at the relationship between genetic
profiles and the languages spoken in different parts of Switzerland, and they actually found
some interesting nuances that may surprise you. In the Italian speaking subsample for example,
the people are genetically closer to samples from Spain than Italy. As the study noted:
�If we divide the sample into language subgroups, the German speaking subpopulation locates even
closer to the Austrian sample, whereas the French speaking subpopulation is somewhat
closer to the samples from Belgium and Spain.
Surprisingly, the Italian speaking sample
co-localizes with the sample from Spain and is significantly different from the Italian sample.�
Why is the Italian speaking region closer to Spain than Italy though? Well the study adds
that �the fact that the Italian speaking subsample co-locates rather with the sample from Spain than
with the sample from Italy, might be attributed to the higher overall percentage of haplogroup R1b in
Spain than in Italy. The fraction of R1b in the Spanish population corresponds better to the 70
% R1b in the Ticino sample.�
So to summarise the Y-DNA haplogroups, R1b in the most common, followed by I, both I1 (associated
more with Germanic people and Nordic ancestry) and I2 (an ancient haplogroup of Europe), then E1b1b,
G, J and R1a.
What about the maternal side though? Well H is the most common mt haplogroup
in Switzerland, similar to Western Europe, central Europe and Scandinavia more broadly. H
is believed to originated in the Near East around 25,000 years ago, and its movement
into Europe seems to have been through various waves, with the Early European Farmers helping
to increase this haplogroups frequency when they spread across Europe. Other mt haplogroups found
in Switzerland include variations of U such as U5, one of the oldest lineages in Europe.
Smaller levels of mt haplogroups T, J and K are among the maternal markers found in the country.