Archaeogenetics reveals fine-scale genetic continuity and patterns of kinship and health in medieval Finland.

We investigated ancestry, kinship, and health in individuals from three cemeteries in Finland: Tampere Vilusenharju and Pälkäne Ristiänmäki (11th-12th centuries) and Rauniokirkko (13th-19th century). The oldest burials provide insights into Finland's medieval population, otherwise poorly known due to poor bone preservation. Using ancient genomic data, contemporary Finnish Biobank data, and identity-by-descent (IBD) analyses, we identified strong regional continuity between the medieval and modern Finnish populations and evidence for mobility within Finland and between Finland and Scandinavia.

Cases of trisomy 21 and trisomy 18 among historic and prehistoric individuals discovered from ancient DNA.

Aneuploidies, and in particular, trisomies represent the most common genetic aberrations observed in human genetics today. To explore the presence of trisomies in historic and prehistoric populations we screen nearly 10,000 ancient human individuals for the presence of three copies of any of the target autosomes. We find clear genetic evidence for six cases of trisomy 21 (Down syndrome) and one case of trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome), and all cases are present in infant or perinatal burials.