Using DNA to find Goths

[sturlus]

I agree, Carl. It seems like searching for a needle in the haystack. 
Now we are putting down the needle and taking it from there, working 
systematically. Let's sees what we come up with. If nobody does 
anything about this within the next 20 years, all opportunities will 
probably be lost using DNA for this specific kind of history 
research.

Let me know if you want to put the needle somewhere when it comes to 
long dead and buried Goths, as these are someone we would like to 
start on some time, providing they're remains are well kept.

Sturla




--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, Carl Edlund Anderson <cea at ...> 
wrote:
>
> On 24/07/2006 23:49, Ingemar Nordgren wrote:
> > This leaves only one feasible way
> > to make DNA tests that can be at least partly verified by written
> > documents identifying these persons and that is Arthurs 
suggestion of
> > royal- and noble genealogies.One thing also that could help is 
the
> > intermarriage verdict between Goths and Romans that was at least
> > nominally enforced in e.g. Dacia and Italy. Maybe there could be 
found
> > some haplo- or Mitocondric groups in those areas that may point
> > towards a certain area but that seems to be a very wild chance 
if they
> > are not supported by any kind of genalogy be it historically 
accepted
> > or mythic. 
> 
> Indeed!  And I think and additional problem is that if it was 
deemed 
> necessary (for whatever reason) to pass laws against intermarriage 
> between Goths and Romans, it's probably because it was happening. 
> (People don't tend to make laws against things they see as 
problems 
> unless those things are happening frequently enough that they feel 
a 
> need to make them illegal.)  All you need are a few Goths like 
Stilicho 
> (Vandal father, Roman mother) and drawing links between genetics 
and 
> language/culture rapidly gets even more complicated and difficult 
than 
> it already is.
> 
> > I really hope this project will work but I must confess I
> > am rather sceptical. In any way I suggest that these 
investigations
> > rather should be made on grave material (bones), if that is 
possible,
> > comparing initially Wielbark and Cherniakov-Sintana de Mures and
> > completed with samples of people living in Poland, Ukraine and
> > Romania.
> 
> I think that would be the best hope, though I understand the 
difficulty 
> of recovering genetic material from ancient remains.  Still, it's 
always 
> at least  _possible_ that one could find some markers in ancient 
remains 
> from those regions that occured in modern populations living in 
other 
> areas where Gothic groups are known to have been active but not in 
> modern populations elsewhere in regions where Gothic groups 
weren't 
> present .... but it's a bit like looking for a needle in a 
haystack when 
> one isn't sure what a needle is ....
> 
> Cheers,
> Carl
> 
> -- 
> Carl Edlund Anderson
> mailto:cea at ...
> http://www.carlaz.com/
>










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