Editing Balts (section)

==Genetics==
{{See also|Kunda culture#Genetics|Narva culture#Genetics|Pit–Comb Ware culture#Genetics|Zvejnieki burial ground#Archaeogenetics}}

The Balts are included in the "North European" [[gene cluster]] together with the [[Germanic-speaking Europe|Germanic peoples]], some Slavic groups (the [[Polish people|Poles]] and Northern [[Russians]]) and [[Baltic Finnic peoples]].{{sfn|Balanovsky|Rootsi|2008|pp=236–250}}

Saag et a. (2017) detected that the eastern Baltic in the [[Mesolithic]] was inhabited primarily by [[Western Hunter-Gatherer]]s (WHGs).{{sfn|Saag|2017}} Their paternal haplogroups were mostly types of [[Haplogroup I-M438|I2a]] and [[Haplogroup R1b|R1b]], while their maternal haplogroups were mostly types of [[Haplogroup U (mtDNA)#Haplogroup U5|U5]], [[Haplogroup U (mtDNA)#Haplogroup U4|U4]] and [[Haplogroup U (mtDNA)#Haplogroup U2|U2]].{{sfn|Mathieson|2018}} These people carried a high frequency of the derived [[E3 ubiquitin ligase HERC2|HERC2]] allele which codes for light [[eye color]] and possess an increased frequency of the derived alleles for SLC45A2 and SLC24A5, coding for lighter skin color.{{sfn|Mittnik|2018}}

Baltic hunter-gatherers still displayed a slightly larger amount of WHG ancestry than [[Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherer]]s (SHGs). WHG ancestry in the Baltic was particularly high among hunter-gatherers in Latvia and Lithuania.{{sfn|Mittnik|2018}} Unlike other parts of Europe, the hunter-gatherers of the eastern Baltic do not appear to have mixed much with [[Early European Farmers]] (EEFs) arriving from [[Anatolia]].{{sfn|Jones|2017}}

During the [[Neolithic]], increasing admixture from [[Eastern Hunter-Gatherer]]s (EHGs) is detected. The paternal haplogroups of EHGs was mostly types of [[Haplogroup R1a|R1a]], while their maternal haplogroups appears to have been almost exclusively types of U5, U4, and U2.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

The rise of the [[Corded Ware culture]] in the eastern Baltic in the [[Chalcolithic]] and [[Bronze Age]] is accompanied by a significant infusion of [[steppe ancestry]] and EEF ancestry into the eastern Baltic gene pool.{{sfn|Jones|2017}}{{sfn|Saag|2017}}{{sfn|Malmström|2019}} In the aftermath of the Corded Ware expansion, local hunter-gatherer ancestry experienced a resurgence.{{sfn|Mittnik|2018}}

[[Haplogroup N-M231|Haplogroup N]] reached the eastern Baltic only in the Late Bronze Age, probably with the speakers of the [[Uralic languages]].{{sfn|Mittnik|2018}}

Modern-day Balts have a lower amount of EEF ancestry, and a higher amount of WHG ancestry, than any other population in Europe.{{sfn|Lazaridis|2014}}{{Efn|"Baltic populations carry the highest proportion of WHG ancestry of all Europeans, supporting the theory that the hunter-gatherer population of this region left a lasting genetic impact on subsequent populations."{{sfn|Mittnik|2018}} }}