"Our goal is not an exhaustive history of Europe, Ireland and the UK, but some history is useful when interpreting where people came from, when they settled and how this might be useful for the interpretation of modern DNA studies of these people. - Jim Sims, 2006"

Roman power in the west was effectively over in the 430's AD. The Eastern Roman Empire, the part of the empire that was the richest, was still in the hands of the Romans at Byzantium.

In the power vacuum in the West, tribes and peoples of Northern Europe moved into and organized former Roman territories. Compare the figure at left in 500 AD to the map of the empire ca. 120 AD.

The two Goth peoples, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths are called East Germanic peoples, but historians understand their ruling elites to be originally ethnic Swedes.

The Burgundians were another Scandinavian people originally.