The origins of the Albanian people have long been a subject of debate, as they first appear in historical sources in the 11th century AD, while their language is not closely related to any of the surviving branches of the Indo-European family, according to “BioRxiv”.
To clarify the origins of Albanians, over 6,000 ancient Western Eurasian genomes and 74 newly genetically analyzed contemporary ethnic Albanian individuals were analyzed.
A remarkable continuity of Late Bronze Age and Iron Age ancestry was discovered in the Western Balkans in Albania during the Early Medieval period, a pattern that stands out from neighboring Balkan regions.
Using a wide range of population genetics methods, including an improved protocol to detect identity-by-descent (IBD) segments between ancient and contemporary individuals, it was shown that today’s Albanians are mainly descended from the inhabitants of Early Medieval Albania, who were present on the territory of Albania since 800–900 AD, i.e. before their mention in historical sources.
Furthermore, a geographically structured admixture was observed with medieval groups of Eastern European origin, which on average constitutes 10–20% of Albanians.
The findings provided unprecedented insights into the historical and demographic processes that have shaped the present-day Albanian people and place the origin of this population in the Central-Western Balkans.
During the Iron Age (1100 BC – 150 AD), the Balkans were characterized by extraordinary cultural and linguistic heterogeneity.
In the Western Balkans, “Celtic” cultures interacted for centuries with groups referred to as “Illyrians” and “Dalmatians”.
Further inland in the Balkans, the populations referred to by classical authors as “Dacians”, “Dardans”, “Moesians” and “Paionians” were bordered by nomadic cultures from the Pontic-Kazakh steppe, known as “Scythians”, while the southeastern part of the peninsula was inhabited by “Thracians” and “Greeks”.
The Balkan peoples also expanded beyond the borders of the peninsula, with the “Messapians” migrating into southeastern Italy from at least 600 BC.
The linguistic and cultural diversity of the Balkans was significantly homogenized during the Hellenistic and Roman eras, and especially after the Migration Period, when Germanic and Slavic-speaking groups settled en masse in the region.
These events ultimately led to the extinction of all Paleo-Balkan languages, except for Greek and Albanian.
Albanian represents a separate branch within the Indo-European family, but it is documented only from the 15th century AD, while the first known complete text dates from the mid-16th century.
Therefore, its early history and possible connections to other branches of the family remain unclear.
Tracing the origins of Albanians is difficult, as no historical source mentions an Albanian-speaking population in the territory of present-day Albania, during the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages (500–1000 AD).
Raids and settlements of Slavic language speakers in the territory of present-day Albania are mentioned in the 7th–8th centuries AD, and their presence is also reflected in the Slavic toponymy of the region.
The southwestern part of present-day Albania had a loose connection with the Eastern Roman Empire, but the language and identity of its inhabitants remain unclear.
Medieval urban populations in the northwest of present-day Albania, referred to by historians as the “Romani,” may have spoken a variant of Vulgar Latin – known as Western Balkan Romance, which persisted until at least the 13th century.
Only in the 11th century do Albanians appear in historical sources, while the earliest written documentation of their language is a baptismal formula from 1462.
However, it is clear that the ancestors of modern Albanians lived in Albania much earlier than historical sources suggest.
Linguistic hypotheses suggest that an Albanian-speaking group may have lived in the mountainous areas that encompass present-day northern Albania, Kosovo, southeastern Serbia, and North Macedonia since the 5th century AD.
Furthermore, the split between the two main dialects of modern Albanian – Gheg in the north and Tosk in the south – most likely occurred before or during the early stages of Albanian-Slavic contact.
The affinities of the Albanian language have also been the subject of strong scientific debates, without clear conclusions.
The main hypotheses include local origin from the Illyrians or Mesapians, as well as origin from Dacomosian-Thracian groups, who may have entered the territory of Albania after 400 AD.
These hypotheses are difficult to test due to the lack of complete documentation of ancient Balkan languages, which are known only from fragmentary inscriptions and toponyms.
Furthermore, ethnonyms such as “Illyrian” and “Thracian” may be artificial constructs and do not necessarily represent homogeneous linguistic or ethnic groups.
Recent linguistic hypotheses propose a connection between Albanian and Greek, placing its origin in the Balkans, but without precisely determining the place of formation of Proto-Albanian.
Due to the difficulties in linking archaeological, historical and linguistic data, the archaeogenetic approach is essential for understanding the origins of Albanians and their relationships with ancient populations.
Recent years have seen a surge in paleogenomic studies in the Balkans, which have identified three main demographic processes that have shaped the region’s modern populations.
During the early Roman period (1–250 AD), ancestry from Anatolia and the Near East became widespread in the Empire, including the Balkans.
Between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, the Balkans experienced an influx of individuals from border areas, mainly Germanic groups and steppe nomads.
The largest migration occurred around 700 AD, with the settlement of Slavic-speaking groups in the Balkans, contributing 30–60% of the Eastern European-related ancestry to the modern Balkan peoples.
A previous study shows that Albanians are about 25% descended from a local Bronze and Iron Age source, 45% from sources associated with Anatolia, and 30% from ancestry associated with Eastern Europe.
However, this approach does not allow for the precise identification of the Roman, medieval, and post-medieval populations that contributed to the formation of modern Albanians.
Another study suggests that Albanians come from a small population that went through a “bottleneck” (demographic narrowing) about 1,500 years ago.
Despite major advances in genetics, the origins of Albanians still remain a complex and controversial issue.
To clarify this origin, a 4,000-year-old paleogenomic transect of the territory of Albania and the Balkans was conducted, analyzing over 6,000 previously published ancient genomes and 74 new modern Albanian genomes.
Various statistical and genetic methods were used, including f-statistics, mixed models (qpAdm), analysis of descent segments (DATES), principal component analysis (PCA), and human mobility algorithms.
In addition, an improved version of a protocol was used to study IBD (identity-by-ancestry) segments, as well as uniparental DNA data (inherited from only one parent) from over 4,000 ancient and modern Balkan samples.
This multidimensional approach helps in reconstructing the major demographic events that have shaped the modern Albanian genome and in identifying temporal and geographic origins.
Study authors
The study was conducted by an international group of researchers, including:
Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou – Oxford University Natural History Museum, United Kingdom
Alban Lauka – independent researcher
Aris Aristodemou – independent researcher
Zoltán Maróti – University of Szeged, Hungary
Gjergj Bojaxhi – independent researcher
Ardian Muhaj – Albanian Academy of Sciences, Tirana, Albania
Ilia Mikerezi – Albanian Academy of Sciences, Tirana, Albania
David Wesolowski – independent researcher
Brian D. Joseph – Department of Linguistics, Ohio State University, Columbus, USA
Alexandros Heraclides – School of Science, European University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus /atsh
