The Roman Empire is regarded as one of the most prestigious and influential societies of all time. According to myth, the Roman Empire was thought to be founded by a group of Trojan individuals from Turkey. Unfortunately, this is just myth: as not only has this been proven false, but evidence points there to be a lack of Trojans in the Roman Empire; as the Romans were found to mingle and populate with local inhabitants. The Roman Empire, while it stood, did not particularly mix with the local population of Europe. But following the fall of the empire, with Roman Law dysfunctional, Roman citizens began to intermingle. This was found by examining cemeteries in Germania and comparing their DNA, and the isotypes left in their bones. Most of the genetic diversity in Europe at the time of the Roman Empire lied within the Roman Empire itself, with less diverse populations scattered about outside of it. By using isotopes, the scientists could measure half-lives and determine the age of the bones, thus placing an approximate date of the person's life. Then, they compared the percentage of regional DNA throughout the time, and found that as the Roman Empire fell, the genetic diversity of all of Europe began to rose. I find this interesting as nowadays, this type of thing wouldn't be possible. With such large amounts of immigration and emigration, I imagine genetic diversity will continue to climb over the next couple hundred years, maybe even thousands.
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It's fascinating how the collapse of a massive political structure like the Roman Empire actually led to the genetic "melting pot" in Europe today. With modern traveling, we're seeing the same intermingling happen now at a larger scale than what the Romans experienced.
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