UKR068 Donets Hillfort Slav raw genome 23andme format

During the 12th–14th centuries, the Kharkiv region stood at the crossroads between the steppe world of the Golden Horde and the forest-steppe communities of the East Slavs. After the Mongol conquest in the early 13th century, much of what is now eastern Ukraine was incorporated into the Golden Horde, a vast polity that stretched from the Volga to the Black Sea. Life here reflected a mix of Slavic traditions with the political and economic structures imposed by the Mongols.

For the Slavs living in this frontier zone, daily existence often meant paying tribute to the khans while maintaining village-based agriculture, animal husbandry, and small-scale trade. The fertile soils of the forest-steppe supported farming, while proximity to nomadic routes brought exposure to Turkic and Mongol customs, languages, and even material culture.

For this video, I’ve gathered the genome of a 13th century Slav from Kharkiv region in Ukraine. According to illustrative DNA, this sample clusters with Ukrainians and Russians, but also west Slavs such as Poles and Slovaks.