Ancient DNA from the teeth of 14th-century Ashkenazi Jews in Germany already included genetic variations common in modern Jews

Image caption: Partial layout of the graves discovered during the excavation at the medieval Jewish cemetery of Erfurt. Image credit: Thuringian State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology / Karin Sczech + Katharina Bielefeld. Article by Shai Carmi and David Reich. The Conversation – November 30, 2022.

About two-thirds of Jews today – or about 10 million people – are Ashkenazi, referring to a recent origin from Eastern and Central Europe. They reside mostly in the United States and Israel. Ashkenazi Jews carry a particularly high burden of disease-causing genetic mutations, such as those in the BRCA1 gene associated with an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer. This genetic burden suggests that the population was shaped by what geneticists call a founder event or a bottleneck. […]

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