Razib Khan's conclusion about Finns and the origin of Germanic languages

 Razib Khan's almost pathological interest in Finnish culture and heritage has progressed to new, unprejudiced views.

Finns came from Yakutia and Germanics from Finland.

I will not begin to assess the probability of Khan's conclusions any further. Of course, the claim about the Yakutian origin of Finns is based on only a few ancient samples from Yakutia and Baikal, and only one sample related to the supposed Seima Turbino event. Typically for Khan, he proceeds in a "cross and stack" style and on personal preferences visible in several of his commercial tools.

At one point, he boldly presents Finland as the homeland of the Germanics. Apparently, this idea will not find support among current speakers of Germanic languages. But there are at least linguistic grounds for this idea. It is quite possible that speakers of an Indo-European language lived in the area before the arrival of the Finno-Ugric peoples in Finland. The dating goes back to the Bronze Age and the older Roman Iron Age. . The IE language spoken towards the end of the Bronze Age acquired, after certain changes, the characteristics of Germanic languages. Numerous very primitive Germanic loanwords from Finnish support the idea of ​​contacts in the early stages of the development of the Germanic language. In Finland, the Germanic language was isolated and differentiated from its later stages of development in Scandinavia and retained the original form of these loans for a longer period. These loans remained in the Finnish language permanently, as contacts between Finnish and local Germanic speakers weakened presumably already in the later Roman Iron Age.

Khan leaves the analysis of the N haplogroup badly halfway. I assume that the reason is that a deeper analysis of the haplogroup in question leads to problems without sufficient historical knowledge. The problems are easier to explain with autosomal inheritance, but when the explanation is a matter of choice, the simplest explanation would perhaps be the best until proven otherwise. For example, the Siberian inheritance of the Finns would have to be proven to be about 4000 years old, in order to prove that it originated during the western migration of the Finno-Ugric language. Evidence would include an ancient genome found in Estonia that is about 2500-3000 years old, and whose Siberian inheritance would be clearly greater than the Siberian inheritance of today's Finns, assuming that the western inheritance of the Finns is after the western migration of the Finno-Ugric peoples.

Link to the article

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New Russian study sheds light on the early Christian period in Russia

 A new Russian study (->link) sheds light on the genetic heritage of the medieval population of Russia. Unfortunately, Iron Age samples from the second half of the first millennium have not been available due to the cremation burials typical of the period. The situation is the same in this respect as in Finland. Cremation was a common burial method in the first millennium in Finland, with a few exceptions. It would be interesting to compare Iron Age samples from the areas of present-day Russia and Finland. However, the study shows that the current Russian-speaking population was divided into East Slavic and Finno-Ugric populations in the early Christian period. It is clear that in the Iron Age, before the expansion of the East Slavic peoples, a larger part of the population represented Finno-Ugric peoples. This is also reflected in the analyses of the study, where the population classified as East Slavic is placed in the middle ground between other Slavic groups and Finno-Ugric peoples. The study does not provide strong evidence of the Scandinavian heritage cherished by Western historiography in Russia. In addition to the Slavic and Finno-Ugric ancient populations, both of these show a weak Tatar influence compared to the Finns and Balts who don't show it. 

Finally, ancient dna from Eura Luistari

Eura's Luistari is the most famous Iron Age burial site in Finland. The extensive cemetery covers burials from the Migration Period to the late Viking Age. What is unusual about these burials is the unusual inhumation burial method for the period and the lack of cremation. New research proves a local heritage that lacks both Scandinavian and Baltic influence, The Jerusalem Post states in its news. The study doesn't try to investigate the social status of individuals, the article continues. 

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Swedish queen who was buried in Finland

 Karin Månsdotter (->link) is the only Swedish royal buried in Finland. Karin was born into a lower estate, but became Queen of Sweden as the wife of Erik XIV in 1568. Karin was by no means the only member of the house-born estate to end up in the Swedish royal family. Erik, however, was unpopular and was deposed by his brother, and his reign was short-lived. Erik and Karin were imprisoned, Karin was later sent to Finland, and Erik, who had been in captivity, was probably murdered. Karin lived for decades in Finland and was buried as a noble in Turku Cathedral after her death. The grave has now been opened and new research (->link) is unraveling Karin's story using archaeological and ancient genetic methods.

Women's epigenetic aging depends on the reproductive history

According to the research (->link) at the University of Helsinki (2026), a woman’s reproductive history affects biological aging and lifespan. The study showed that both infertility, a large number of children (more than 4) and early first birth are associated with faster epigenetic (->link) aging, which supports the life cycle theory of the division of resources between offspring production and body maintenance.

CHALLENGES OF ANCIENT DNA PRESERVATION IN FINLAND

 New research highlights the challenges of DNA sampling from specimens found in Finland's acidic soil. The study can be found here.

Why do ethnic tests often fail?

 People often wonder why different genetic tests give them completely different ethnic profiles. Finns sometimes get either a completely or almost completely Finnish profile, sometimes, for example, a profile that is only 60% Finnish and 40% northwestern European, such as Scandinavia and Britain. This is where many people's faith in these tests falters. Then the know-it-alls raise their own profile and competence by defending the results with their ideas. However, it is clear that the same person cannot get such different results as we see. The thing is that the results depend solely on the method used. Which method the test developer has used depends solely on the intended purpose of the test and the preferences of the developer. I will now go through the test methods categorically, not the purposes, because few test developers reveal them. The methods are mainly divided into three groups:

1 Tests based on allele distribution. In these, a Finnish test taker often gets a very wide geographical distribution, which can vary depending on the test references. For example, I can get 60% Karelia + 40% Germany or 60% Estonia and 40% Sweden or an additional 5% Greece or Southern Italy.

2 Tests based on allele distribution profiles. In these, a Finnish test taker can get up to 100% Finnish results, but only when the test distribution exactly matches the allele distribution of the ethnic samples used in the reference. Usually, the results of Finns include some minority ethnicity, which is typically 10-20%.

3 Tests based on allele or haplotype distribution weights. In this way, you can almost always achieve 100% ethnic identification, but as in point 2, only for part of the ethnic profile. The allele or haplotype distribution can be optimized to maximize ethnicity readings. On the other hand, weighting the data can also lead to incorrect results, where some minority ethnicity is dropped from the results. In these tests, I usually get a result of 95% Finland + 5% Sweden.