PUBLICATIONS

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The role of emerging elites in the formation and development of communities after the fall of the Roman Empire

Elites played a pivotal role in the formation of post-Roman Europe on both macro- and microlevels during the Early Medieval period. Our approach combines history and archaeology with paleogenomic and isotopic data to explore the role of elite groups in the development of a 6 to 8th-century community at Collegno, Italy. Analyzing 28 new genomes with 24 previous ones revealed that the site was formed around biologically and socially connected high-ranking groups. The community also integrated newcomers and embraced individuals with diverse genetic ancestries. This study highlights how power shifts and migration after the fall of the Roman Empire influenced community formation in the rural areas in one of the core territories of the former Western Roman Empire.

PNAS: doi/org/10.1073/pnas.2317868121
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2317868121

Published: August 19, 2024

Salvatore Liccardo | Sandra Wabnitz

Family Matters: The Levirate Marriage as a Nomadic Custom in Medieval Eurasis

Family life among medieval Eurasian nomads is still largely unknown due to the scarcity of written sources and the need to rely on ethnographic information originating from disparate chronological and geographical contexts. Thanks to developments in aDNA research, these uncharted territories are being progressively explored. This allows us to re-evaluate past paradigms on ethnicity, family dynamics, and human mobility. This article attempts to reassess the social limits and cultural connotations of the levirate marriage by drawing on recent genetic findings in burial sites of the Carpathian Basin (in today’s Austria and Hungary). medieval worlds | no. 20 | 2024 | Pages 191 - 227

Medieval Worlds:doi:10.1553/medievalworlds_no20_2024s191

https://www.medievalworlds.net/0xc1aa5572_0x003f318a.pdf

Published: June 24, 2024

Guido Alberto Gnecchi-Ruscone | Zsófia Rácz | Levente Samu | et al.

Network of large pedigrees reveals social practices of Avar communities

From ad 567–568, at the onset of the Avar period, populations from the Eurasian Steppe settled in the Carpathian Basin for approximately 250 years. Extensive sampling for archaeogenomics (424 individuals) and isotopes, combined with archaeological, anthropological and historical contextualization allowed for a detailed description of the genomic structure of these communities.

Nature: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07312-4

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07312-4#MOESM2

Published: April 24, 2024

Tivadar Vada

The Migration-Period Countryside in the Former Roman Province of Pannonia

The European Countryside during the Migration Period

Patterns of Change from Iberia to the Caucasus (300–700 CE),
Band 137 der Reihe Ergänzungsbände zum Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, Pages 103 -130

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110778298

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110778298-006/html

Published: December 31, 2023

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Falko Daim | Walter Pohl | et al.

Auf der Suche nach den feinen Unterschieden. Die awarischen Gräberfelder von Leobersdorf
und Mödling – An der Goldenen Stiege

Kinship, Sex, and Biological Relatedness.
The contribution of archaeogenetics to the understanding of social and biological relations
Tagungen des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle/Saale | Band 28 | 2023 | Pages 307 - 340

https://doi.org/10.11588/propylaeum.1280.c18014

Published: Autum, 2023

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Janet E Kay | István Koncz

Archaeological Approaches to Multiple Burials and Mass Graves in Early Medieval Europe

Medieval Archaeology, Volume 67, 2023 - Issue 1, Pages 115-136

https://doi.org/10.1080/00766097.2023.2204667

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/00766097.2023.2204667?needAccess=true&role=button

Published: June 26, 2023

Deven N. Vyas | István Koncz, et. al.

Fine-scale sampling uncovers the complexity of migrations in 5th–6th century Pannonia

Currentt Biology 33, (2023): 3951-3961
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.07.063

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(23)01035-7.pdf

Published:August 25, 2023

Geary_Nos ancestres-Histogenes_23_06_ers

Patrick J. Geary

Nos ancêtres médiévaux révélés par la paléogénomique

In this article published in La Recherche, Patrick J. Geary describes how the combination of palaeogenetic, archaeological, anthropological and historical analysis of 5th to 9th centuries cemeteries has revealed the complexity of early medieval communities: In some cases, differences in material culture and even diet may be correlated with different genetic origins; in other cases, neighbouring communities sharing the same material culture may have different genetic backgrounds, which was maintained for generations. The analysis of common DNA segments, linked to historical texts, can also be used to trace population movements across an area stretching from Asia to central Europe. These interdisciplinary methods open up new perspectives for our understanding of the emergence of European society at the end of Antiquity.

La Recherche | N°574 daté juillet-septembre 2023
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265416

Published June 20, 2023

Olga Spekker, et al.

The two extremes of Hansen’s disease—Different manifestations of leprosy and their biological consequences in an Avar Age (late 7th century CE) osteoarchaeological series of the Duna-Tisza Interfluve (Kiskundorozsma–Daruhalom-dűlő II, Hungary)

Plos One
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265416

Published June 23, 2022

Konstantina Saliari | Bendeguz Tobias | Erich Draganits

Animal Husbandry During Late Antiquity: Archaeozoological Analysis and Regional Comparison of the 4th to 6th Century AD Small Rural Settlement in Podersdorf am See (Burgenland, Austria)

Environmental Archaeology
https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2022.2053827

Published April 5, 2022

Ancient genomes reveal origin and rapid trans-Eurasian migration of 7th century Avar elites

Cell 185, 1–12.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2022.03.007

Published April 1, 2022, open access

Olga Spekker, et al.

Life And Death of a Leprosy Sufferer from the 8th-Century-Ce Cemetery of Kiskundorozsma–Kettőshatár I (Duna-Tisza Interfluve, Hungary)—Biological And Social Consequences of Having Hansen’s Disease in a Late Avar Age Population from Hungary

Plos One
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264286

Published February 18, 2022

Bendeguz Tobias

Frühmittelalterliche Gräber mit Beigabe von Werkzeugen zur Metallbearbeitung

Reihe: Römisch Germanisches Zentralmuseum

Bd. 153 /RGZM-153

Verlagsgruppe Schnell & Steiner 2021

Walter Pohl | Johannes Krause | Tivadar Vida | Patrick Geary

Integrating Genetic, Archaeological, and Historical Perspectives on Eastern Central Europe, 400–900 AD

Historical Studies on Central Europe 1 (1), 213–228.
https://doi.org/10.47074/HSCE.2021-1.09

Published April 30, 2021

Walter Pohl, Johannes Krause, Tivadar Vida, Patrick J. Geary,

Integracija genetskih, arheoloških in zgodovinskih pogledov na vzhodno in srednjo Evropo med letoma 400 in 900. Kratek opis projekta ERC Synergy Grant – HistoGenes 8564531

Archaeological notices. Newsletter of the Slovenian Archaeological Society, issue 38, year 2021.
Responsible person of the publisher: Predrag Novaković, President of SAD. Editorial board,
Kaja Pavletič, Daša Pavlovič, Brina Škvor Jernejčič, Manca Vinazza; Arheo 38, 2021, 73–81.

Patrick J. Geary

Herausforderungen und Gefahren der Integration von Genomdaten in die Erforschung der frühmittelalterlichen Geschichte

Das mittelalterliche Jahrtausend, Herausgegeben von Michael Borgolte. Bd. 7. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2020.

https://edoc.bbaw.de/files/3887/BBAW_Geary_Herausforderungen_Genomdaten_MAJ_07.pdf