Who were the Moesia Superior (0 – 500 AD)?

Moesia Superior is one of the 27 curated source populations in the Classical Antiquity era of the Ancestrify qpAdm analysis: a group of published ancient genomes from one archaeological context, pooled as a single reference the model can test your genome against.

Does Moesia Superior in my result mean they were my ancestors?

No. A source population is a reference the model tests against, never a statement about who your ancestors were. A coefficient on this source means the ancestry those burials represent helps explain your genome to within statistical noise — similar ancestry composition, not descent from those individuals. Ancestrify never claims a population is your ancestor.

What does a Moesia Superior percentage in a qpAdm model mean?

qpAdm estimates the mixture proportions that best explain your genome as a combination of the chosen sources, given a fixed set of outgroup (right) populations, and reports a p-value for whether the model is statistically acceptable together with a standard error for every proportion. The percentage is that estimated share, with its uncertainty published beside it.

How do I get a qpAdm model that uses Moesia Superior?

Order the Ancestrify qpAdm analysis (€29.99, one-time) and upload the raw file you already have from a consumer test. Your genome is merged into the AADR reference panel and modelled across both eras; each era's model is built from that era's source populations, so a model for the Classical Antiquity era draws on Moesia Superior where it improves the fit.

Can I model Moesia Superior ancestry for free first?

Yes. The Ancestrify Lab runs Global25 admixture calculators, a nearest-populations distance tool and an AdmixTools 2 workbench in your browser with no account, and several calculators cover the Classical Antiquity era. Those are G25 fits, not formal qpAdm models — the paid analysis is the one with a p-value.

Moesia Superior — ancient DNA source population (qpAdm)

Who they were

Artistic interpretation of the Moesia Superior (AI-generated artwork, not documentary evidence)

Period: 0 – 500 AD
Era in the analysis: Classical Antiquity
Region: Central Balkans, Danube frontier
Role in the model: Source (left) population — a reference qpAdm tests against

Moesia Superior was the Roman province of the central Balkans — present-day Serbia and northern North Macedonia — a frontier region of legionary camps, mining towns and the great Danube city of Viminacium. Ancient genomes from its cemeteries show a population as cosmopolitan as any in the empire: the local Iron Age Balkan ancestry was joined by migrants from Anatolia and the eastern Mediterranean, by individuals of northern European and steppe origin drawn by the army, and by occasional people from as far as East Asia and Africa (Olalde et al. 2023).

The provincial population's ancestry survives as the Roman-era layer in present-day Serbs, Macedonians, Bulgarians and Romanians, beneath the Slavic inflow that followed the frontier's collapse in the sixth and seventh centuries. In the model it sits between the older Illyrian and Thracian sources, which describe the pre-Roman Balkans, and the Aegean and West Anatolian sources from which its eastern migrants came.

In Ancestrify's qpAdm service, Moesia Superior is a source in the "Classical Antiquity" era. The report shows its weight with a standard error and a Z-score, so you can see not only how much of the model it carries but how confidently that share is separated from zero, and a model that cannot support it is rejected rather than published. Because it is itself a blend of Balkan and eastern ancestries, the model may express a central Balkan signal through this source or through the Illyrian and Thracian sources, and the standard errors show how confidently it chose.

Y haplogroups E-V13, J2, R1b and I2a, and mtDNA H, U5, K and J, are common in these samples. A haplogroup alone is never evidence of a share.

In your report
Represents the genetically cosmopolitan populations of the Roman frontier province in the central Balkans (modern Serbia), centered on the military site of Viminacium. Genomic analysis of over 136 ancient individuals from the 1st millennium CE reveals that despite extensive Roman military and cultural presence, there was surprisingly little Italic-derived ancestry in the provincial population. Instead, a large-scale influx of Anatolian-related ancestry occurred during the Imperial period, mirroring demographic shifts observed in Rome itself. Between approximately 250–550 CE, the province received genetically diverse migrants from Central/Northern Europe and the steppe, confirming that Migration Period movements were ethnically heterogeneous confederations. The cosmopolitan frontier was ultimately transformed by Slavic migrations that contributed 30–60% of the ancestry of modern Balkan populations.

Artwork is an AI-generated artistic interpretation informed by the archaeological record — not documentary evidence.

Where this population sits in the model

The Ancestrify qpAdm analysis models your genome once per era. The Classical Antiquity era has 27 curated source populations, and Moesia Superior is one of them: every candidate model for that era is a combination of these sources, tested against a fixed set of outgroup populations, and only a model that passes the statistical fit check is published — with a p-value, and a standard error on every proportion.

A reference, not a verdict: every population on this page is a source the model tests your genome against — a well-sampled point in ancient genetic space that a mixture of ancestries can be expressed in terms of. A weight on it means your genome is well described as partly resembling those people; it is never a statement that they, specifically, were your ancestors, and a population that fits well is not the only one that could.

Read how the method works on the qpAdm analysis page, or the definitions in the glossary.

Model it yourself for free

The Ancestrify Lab runs in your browser, with no account. Paste a Global25 row into an admixture calculator that covers the Classical Antiquity era, rank the closest ancient populations in the distance tool, or run f4, qpWave and qpAdm on the public panel in the AdmixTools 2 workbench. These are Global25 fits and exploratory statistics, not the formal qpAdm model of the paid analysis.

Questions

Who were the Moesia Superior (0 – 500 AD)?
Moesia Superior is one of the 27 curated source populations in the Classical Antiquity era of the Ancestrify qpAdm analysis: a group of published ancient genomes from one archaeological context, pooled as a single reference the model can test your genome against.
Does Moesia Superior in my result mean they were my ancestors?
No. A source population is a reference the model tests against, never a statement about who your ancestors were. A coefficient on this source means the ancestry those burials represent helps explain your genome to within statistical noise — similar ancestry composition, not descent from those individuals. Ancestrify never claims a population is your ancestor.
What does a Moesia Superior percentage in a qpAdm model mean?
qpAdm estimates the mixture proportions that best explain your genome as a combination of the chosen sources, given a fixed set of outgroup (right) populations, and reports a p-value for whether the model is statistically acceptable together with a standard error for every proportion. The percentage is that estimated share, with its uncertainty published beside it.
How do I get a qpAdm model that uses Moesia Superior?
Order the Ancestrify qpAdm analysis (€29.99, one-time) and upload the raw file you already have from a consumer test. Your genome is merged into the AADR reference panel and modelled across both eras; each era's model is built from that era's source populations, so a model for the Classical Antiquity era draws on Moesia Superior where it improves the fit.
Can I model Moesia Superior ancestry for free first?
Yes. The Ancestrify Lab runs Global25 admixture calculators, a nearest-populations distance tool and an AdmixTools 2 workbench in your browser with no account, and several calculators cover the Classical Antiquity era. Those are G25 fits, not formal qpAdm models — the paid analysis is the one with a p-value.