Population genetic study of possible descendants of the in and Italy In: Bennike, P., Bodzsár, É.B., Susanne, C. (2002, Eds) Ecological Aspects of Past Human Settlements in Europe. EAA Biennial Books, 2. Eötvös University Press, Budapest. 169–178. Anders D. Børglum1, Bo Madsen2, Peter K.A. Jensen3, Cristiano Vernesi4 and Guido Barbujani4 1Institute of Human Genetics, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark 2Museum of Vesthimmerland, , Aarhus, Denmark 3Department of Clinical Genetics, University Hospital of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark 4Department of Biology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

Summary: Two European populations believe they might be related to the ancient Germanic tribe Cimbri: One living in , Denmark, the other living in Northern Italy. The two populations are separated by large geographical distances; both living in comparatively isolated areas in their own country. Is that a sheer coincidence, or are there historical ties linking them? A people referred to as Cimbri is documented in the ancient Roman historical record. Arriving from the far north their movements can be tracked from successive battles with the Romans. The Cimbri finally entered Italy from the northeast and were defeated at Vercelli in 101 BC by Gaius Marius and his professional legions. Classical sources from the first centuries AD relate the homeland of the Cimbri to the coasts around the Elb estuary (Northern Germany) or specifically towards the north. These parts were visited by Roman fleet expeditions under Drusus and Tiberius. The second century Ptolemaean map was perhaps based on these naval explorations. On this map the name Cimbri is placed on the top of the present Jutland in the area, which corresponds to today's Himmerland. Population genetics is revealing aspects of population history that has proved hard to reconstruct, by integrating and complementing the information provided by archaeological, linguistic and historical sources (Sokal et al. 1996, von Haeseler et al. 1996, Cavalli-Sforza 1998). In Europe, the analysis of genetic variation has led to identification of the demographic consequences of prehistoric population expansions (Sokal et al. 1990). In particular, a major role of Neolithic farming expansions from the Near East is supported by the repeated observation of continent-wide genetic gradients which cannot simply reflect isolation by distance or random migration (Barbujani and Bertorelle 2001). However, each population has been subjected to specific demographic pressures, gene flow and isolation among them. Although the main continent-wide genetic patterns, and the potentially related, large-scale population processes, have been largely identified, a lot remains to be clarified concerning the histories of specific populations, or groups thereof. In order to investigate whether the two present "Cimbri" populations have some common ancestors, who one would be tempted to identify with the historical Cimbri, we have engaged in a study describing the genetic diversity in the two populations and comparing them with other European groups. Moreover, we tested whether the levels of genetic resemblance between the present "Cimbri" communities exceed what would be expected between populations separated by that geographic distance. Key words: Cimbri, population genetics, mitochondrial DNA analysis.