Shared-segment ancestry
The ancient people you share DNA with
Your raw DNA, scanned against every individual in our ancient reference panel. See each shared stretch painted onto your own chromosomes, who carried it, and where they were buried.
Shared-segment report
Matched against
Every match shown
Evidence per match
Individuals, not just populations
Our other two reports answer how much of your ancestry comes from which ancient population. This one answers a different question: which individual people — excavated, dated, published — carry the same stretches of DNA that you do, and where on your genome those stretches sit.
You upload the same raw DNA export a qpAdm order takes, for €29.99. Your file is aligned to the panel and compared against every ancient individual in it, one person at a time, across all 22 autosomes.
Every match, with its evidence
Each matched individual is listed with what was actually found: the total length shared in centimorgans, how many segments, how long the longest one is, and how many informative markers backed it. The population roll-up shows how many individuals sit behind every entry — a people represented by one burial is a far weaker signal than one represented by fifty, and you should be able to see which you are looking at.
The report also states the thresholds your scan applied and how your own file aligned, so the result can be read rather than taken on trust.
What you get
- Price
- €29.99, one-time. No subscription.
- Metering
- None. Your totals count every match; the closest 200 individuals are shown in full detail. There is no tier that shows you more
- Input
- Your raw DNA export (23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage and similar), or an existing qpAdm order's file
- Compared against
- Every individual in the ancient reference panel, one person at a time
- Scope
- The 22 autosomes
- Per match
- Total shared length, segment count, longest segment, informative markers and marker density
- Chromosome painting
- Every shared stretch drawn in place on your own 22 chromosomes
- Peoples
- Your matches grouped by population, always with the number of individuals
- Map
- The burial sites of the individuals you match, with dates
- Data location
- European Union (Germany and Finland), under GDPR
What a shared stretch does not mean
Sharing DNA with one of these individuals is evidence that you and they draw on the same ancestral population. It is not proof that you are descended from that person. Stretches this old survive by chance across thousands of years, and the people in the panel are a sample of the dead — whoever happened to be excavated and published — not a family tree.
That distinction is why every row in this report carries its evidence rather than a bare ranking, why a population total is never shown without the number of individuals behind it — and why this product is called Ancient Matches rather than borrowing the industry's "IBD" label for something no method can prove at this depth of time. A leaderboard without those numbers reads as a genealogy, and it is not one.
The panel keeps growing
Comparison is pairwise against each published individual, so a report is a complete answer against the panel as it stood when your scan ran. As new burials are published and the panel grows, a future scan can only ever find more — never fewer. Your report states which panel it was scanned against.
Questions
What does a match actually mean?
It means you and that ancient individual carry the same stretch of DNA at the same place in the genome, long enough and densely enough covered to clear our thresholds. That is evidence you both draw on the same ancestral population. It is not proof that you descend from that person: stretches this old survive by chance across thousands of years, and the people in the panel are a sample of the dead rather than a family tree. Read a match as 'my ancestry overlaps with these people', never as 'this is my ancestor'.
Is this the same as 'IBD matching'?
Products like this are often marketed as IBD — identity by descent. Formally, what any method can measure against ancient genomes of this kind is identity by state: stretches where your DNA and theirs read the same, not stretches proven to be inherited from a common ancestor. True per-individual IBD across thousands of years is not measurable by anyone — a segment shared with a Bronze Age person survives descent at odds of roughly one in a trillion. That is why we do not use the term, and why every match here ships the evidence that found it instead of a borrowed claim.
How many matches will I get?
We do not quote a number, because it depends on your own ancestry and on which burials have been published — not on anything we control. What we do promise is that you see all of them. There is no tier that shows you more.
Do you meter the results?
No, and we never will. One price, the whole report: your match total and the population roll-up count every match your scan finds, and the closest 200 individuals are shown in full detail — every shared stretch, the chromosome painting and the map. There is no upgrade that unlocks more.
What do I upload?
The raw DNA data file from a consumer test — 23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage and similar exports all work. It is the same file our qpAdm analysis takes, so if you already have a qpAdm order with us you can unlock Ancient Matches on it without uploading anything again.
How is a shared stretch found?
Your file is lined up against the panel position by position — matched on chromosome and coordinate, never on marker name — and then compared against each ancient individual in turn. A run is reported only when it clears all three thresholds: a minimum length in centimorgans, a minimum number of informative markers, and a minimum marker density along the run. The density rule is what stops a long, thinly-covered stretch being presented as a strong match.
Why are some of my markers dropped?
A/T and C/G positions read the same on either DNA strand, so there is no way to tell a correctly-oriented one from a flipped one; guessing would cost correctness, so they are dropped rather than assumed. Indels and positions that disagree with the panel outright are dropped too. Your report shows exactly how your file aligned, position class by position class.
Which chromosomes are scanned?
The 22 autosomes. The X chromosome has a different inheritance pattern and a different recombination map, and the panel's calls there cannot be read the same way — so we do not scan it. A painting that showed an empty X would imply we had looked and found nothing.
Is this the same as a DNA-relative match on a consumer site?
No. Those match you against living customers who opted in, and a segment shared with a living person can be genealogical. These are ancient individuals excavated from burials, thousands of years back, so the shared stretches are population-level evidence rather than a route to a named relative. We do not match customers against each other at all.
How does this differ from your qpAdm and Global25 reports?
Those model your ancestry as proportions of populations — how much of you comes from which ancient group. This one works at the level of individuals and of specific stretches of your genome: which particular buried people you overlap with, where on your chromosomes, and where they were found. They answer different questions and are worth having together.
Where is my data stored?
On EU infrastructure, in Germany and Finland, under GDPR. You can delete your data at any time, and full account deletion and data export are self-service.
Meet the ancient people your DNA overlaps with.
Upload the raw DNA file you already have and see every ancient individual you share a stretch with, painted onto your own chromosomes. Looking for living relatives instead? The Relative Finder compares the kits of people you know.