Recently the human remains from 41 graves from six early medieval cemeteries in Southern Bavaria yielded genomic data showing that while men generally had ancestry resembling northern or central Europeans, the women exhibited a very high genetic heterogeneity.

 

The early medieval burial grounds around Altenerding are justly famous for their plague victims, whose aDNA revealed the genetic imprint of the Justinian Plague as being of the same kind as the Black Death. The archaeological excavations have uncovered a multitude of detailed information about their daily life as well as burial customs. Now recent studies of their aDNA have added to this profile helping us to know about the ancestry of these people and the complex demographic processes, which made up the populace of some of the migratory movements of the 5^thand 6^thcentury.

The first mention of the Baiuvarii – present-day Bavarians – is credited to the historian Jordanes, who wrote about them in his book Getica in 551. Settled in the present-day upper and lower Bavaria, it has traditionally been argued that these Baiuvarii were composed of a mixture of the resident provincial Roman population plus immigrants from north-eastern Bavaria and Bohemia as well as their descendants (p. 151).

The new studies of the aDNA of some of these people show that the picture is much more complex.

First of all the study of the genomic data documents that people – apart from two females from Greek or Anatolian descent – predominantly exhibited a northern or central European ancestry, more precisely located in present-day northern France, the Netherlands, and Northern Germany. No traces were found of southwestern European DNA. Thus the authors conclude that the genetic profile of the population argue against any kind of significant admixture between the local migrants from the north and the Roman militia.

Further, one of the features of some of the skeletons in the five locations studied, is their elongated skulls, artificially created during early childhood. In the Bavarian sample these skulls belonged exclusively to females and could be detected in 14 individuals.

The genetics analysis showed that the individuals with these skulls presented an admixture of genetic ancestry found in southern to southeastern European countries. One woman even showed East-Asian ancestry

One of the most striking results of this study is the genetic difference between Early Medieval individuals with or without elongated skull, writes the group of scientists. While both females and males without this artificially induced deformity exhibited a common ancestry of northwestern and central European descent, the females with elongated skulls were genetically much more diverse. It thus looks as if local Bavarians did not artificially deform the heads of their children as has been suggested elsewhere. Such females likely migrated from southeastern Europe, witnessing to a system of exogamic exchanges of females between Baiuvarii and the steppe people (the Huns, Samatians and Avars). However the study suggests that this explanation does not cover the genetic findings.

These females, however, were obviously integrated into the local communities as their assemblies of grave goods showed a cultural mixture of both worlds. “This not only indicates a potentially significant level of integration of these women, but also cautions against inferring migration from material culture”, they write. (p. 3497)

The authors conclude that the genomic analysis of the type carried out on the 41 individuals in this sample, demonstrate the need for more micro-analyses of the same type. Such studies are essential to “better understand the complex patterns of migration, admixture, population structure, growth, and selection during more recent times”, they write.

FEATURED PHOTO:

Females buried at Altenerding with elongated skulls. © State collection for Anthropology and Paleoanatomy Munich, Germany

NOTES:

The Baiuvarii and Thuringi: An Ethnographic Perspective
Ed. by Janine Fries-Knoblach, Heiko Steuer and John Hines
Boydell & Brewer 2014, p. 151)

 

SOURCE:

Population genomic analysis of elongated skulls reveals extensive female-biased immigration in Early Medieval Bavaria
By Krishna R. Veeramah, Andreas Rott, Melanie Groß, Lucy van Dorp, Saioa López, Karola Kirsanow, Christian Sell, Jens Blöcher, Daniel Wegmann, Vivian Link, Zuzana Hofmanová, Joris Peters, Bernd Trautmann, Anja Gairhos, Jochen Haberstroh, Bernd Päffgen, Garrett Hellenthal, Brigitte Haas-Gebhard, Michaela Harbeck, and Joachim Burger. Edited by Eske Willerslev, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, and approved January 30, 2018 (received for review November 21, 2017)
IN: PNAS March 27, 2018. 115 (13) 3494-3499; published ahead of print March 12, 2018.

READ MORE:

Altenerding in Oberbayern. Struktur des frühmittelalterlichen Gräberfeldes und Ethnogenese der Bajuwaren.
Ed. by Hans Losert and Andrej Pleterski
Berlin, Bamberg, Ljubljana 2003

The post Genetic Perspective on the Bavarians from the Migration period appeared first on Medieval Histories.

For some time an international and interdisciplinary group of archaeologists, scientists, and historians have worked to uncover the minutiae of the Longobard invasion of Italy in AD 568. Genetic explorations are shedding extremely important new light on the linkage between genetics and cultural profiles.

According to the historian Paul the Deacon, the Longobards, who entered Italy in 568, originally came from Scandinavia via present-day Hungary and Czekia. Traditionally they have been identified through their jewellery and weapons as well as the tradition of burying their dead in furnished graves.

In the latter part of the 20^thcentury, questions were raised as to the extent objects might be identified as markers for ethnic identity. These questions were part of avery  contentious debate as to the magnitude of the migratory movement of people in the 4^thto 6^thcenturies, the so-called migration period.

Was it just small groups of Germanic mercenaries, who migrated? Did women participate in the migrations or were they “sourced” among the local populace? Did the distinct jewels, weapons and burial practices reflect inventions of traditions following the upheavals in Late Antiquity? Rather than a cultural diffusion from Germania Magna into the Western Roman Empire?

One way of answering these questions is of course to try and characterise the genetic make-up of people from different kinds of burials in order to identify their genetic heritage and then par it with their cultural profile.

Recently the researchers behind the project “Lombards on the Move”  – reported some new results. By studying the mitochondrial sequences of 87 individuals from nine early-medieval cemeteries along the route believed to have been used by the migrating Longobards in the mid-6^thcentury, and linking the results with the cultural profiles of their burials, they have come up with some fascinating results.

The mains results are that there was a 70% degree of genetic continuity between individuals buried with what is believed to be traditional Longobard cultural markers reaching from Hungary to Northwestern Italy. Also, regarding twelve individuals, it was possible to discern a mitochondrial profile found in high frequencies in northern Europe, e. g. Finland. Eight of these twelve persons were buried with what has hitherto been regarded as typical Longobard artefacts. But the study also showed that a definite genetic admixture had taken place – either at an earlier time or during the migration period. To conclude: there did exist a certain likage between genetics and material culture. But the identification is not 100%.

In their conclusion, the authors write that “this supports the idea that the spread of Longobards into Italy actually involved movements of a fairly large number of people, who gave a substantial contribution to the gene pool of the resulting populations.” This is even more remarkable as the mitochondrial element of a genetic profile is inherited though mothers, which means that the migratory movement cannot have consisted only of male militia. Women must to some extent have accompanied them, or their offspring in the new locality would have lost its original genetic imprint.

SOURCE:

A Genetic Perspective on Longobard-Era migrations
By Stefania Vai, Andrea Brunelli, Alessandra Modi, Francesca Tassi, Chiara Vergata, Elena Pilli, Martina Lari, Roberta Rosa Susca, Caterina Giostra, Luisella Pejrani Baricco, Elena Bedini, Istvan Koncz, Tivadar Vidar, Balazs Gusztav Mende, Daniel Winger, Zuzana Loskotova, Krishna Veeramah, Patrick Geary, Guido Barbujani, David Caramelli, Silvia Ghirotto
The article has been generously shared on bioRxiv – The Preprint Server for Biology. (And has not yet been peer-reviewed).

READ ALSO:

Migration, integration and cultural consolidation are the new buzzwords in archaeology

Social Structure among the Longobards in Northern Italy in the 6th and 7th centuries

Burgundian and Longobardian “Fara”

The post The Genetics of Longobard-Era Migrations appeared first on Medieval Histories.