Demographic changes in an ancient population from Turkey

What is it about?

More than two decades of archaeological research at the site of Sagalassos, in southwest Turkey, unveiled the former urban settlement, which showed continuous human occupation for almost two millennia until the early 13th century CE. By analysing the DNA of the ancient inhabitants of Sagalassos, we reconstructed the main demographic changes in the region, demonstrating that the Plague of Justinian or an earthquake in the 6th-7th century CE did not determine a significant population decline, whereas concurrently with the final abandonment of the city, the population of the region may have been drastically reduced by almost 90%.

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Why is it important?

We analysed the mtDNA in a Roman (2nd-4th century CE) and Byzantine (11th-13th century CE) sample from the archaeological site of Sagalassos, and compared it to a modern sample from a village situated nearby. This offered the opportunity to compare genetic variation across time at the very fine-scale of a city and its surrounding territory, and made it possible to test the demographic changes putatively related to catastrophic events, such as the plague of Justinian and an earthquake.