TIMELINE
Since 2010: Pilot project
Patrick Geary and Krishna Veeramah at UCLA build a cooperation between historians, geneticists and archaeologists. ... [read more]
Mid-September 2018
Spontaneously, Pohl, Geary, Vida and Krause decide to apply for an ERC Synergy Grant together. .... [read more]
September 10 | 2019
Third stage of project evaluation: Hearing of the four Principal Investigators at the Synergy Grant Panel in Brussels. ... [read more]
The project has been approved! This is the beginning of an intense phase of preparation and negotiation. ... [read more]
May 1 | 2020
The project officially begins. In spite of problems caused by Covid lockdowns, sample collection and bone powder drilling in Hungary is already going at full speed. ... [read more]
April 2021
Over 1000 bone powder samples have now been collected.
Photo: Eleftheria Orfanou, Marie Himmel, Franziska Aron, Wolfgang Haak 2020. Minimally-invasive sampling of pars petrosa (os temporale) for ancient DNA extraction. https://dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.bqd8ms9w
May 1 | 2021
Happy birthday, HistoGenes!
On May 1, 2021, the HistoGenes project successfully concluded the first year of its research, funded by a Synergy Grant of the European Research Council (ERC). This is an exciting collaboration between geneticists, archaeologists, historians and anthropologists to study the population history of the Carpathian Basin in the 5th to 9th centuries.
April 1 | 2022
First HistoGenes
article published
On April 1, 2022, our fist HistoGenes article Ancient genomes reveal origin and rapid trans-Eurasian migration of 7th century Avar elites has been published in CELL.
It is open access and can be found here!
April 5 |
2022
Release of the
HistoGenes information video
On April 5, 2022, our first HistoGenes Film "HistoGenes - Integrating genetic, archaeological & historical perspectives on Eastern Central Europe" has been published in YouTube.
April - November | 2022
Exhibition: Riding Nomads in Europe, Huns, Avars, Bulgarians, Hungarians at the Schallaburg
The exhibition was created with the input of several researchers from the HistoGenes team. ....[read more]
July 5 | 2022
HistoGene Team Members at the Medieval Congress in Leeds
On July 5, 2022, we presented the aims and first results of the HistoGenes project in a strand of two sessions at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds. ...[read more]
October 18 - 21 | 2022
HistoGenes Plenary Meeting in Budapest
The third HistoGenes Plenary Meeting is held in Budapest at the Institute of Archaeological Sciences, ELTE & Institute of Archaeogenomics,
October 5 | 2022
HistoGenes Seminar - Environmental History Lab, Princeton University
Our researchers Patrick Geary, Krishna Veeramah, István Koncz, Yijie Tian and Deven Vyas will talk about the HistoGenes project. ....[read more]
November 30 | 2022
Since July 2020, 6,000 bone samples have already been taken.
April 27 | 2023
Start of "Researchers of HistoGenes"
In the video series "Researchers of HistoGenes", staff members introduce themselves and their research focus in the HistoGenes project.
May 1 | 2023
Happy birthday HistoGenes!
May 9 | 2023
HistoGenes Workshop on Slovenian Samples | City Museum of Ljubljana
In this workshop, the first results of archaeonmical research on Slovenian samples were presented and discussed.
July 3 | 2023
HistoGenes at the IMC 2023
HistoGene's researchers gave lectures at IMC on "New Research about Women and Their Kin in the Early Medieval Steppe: Genetic, Archaeological, and Historical Results" at the University of Leeds.
August 30 - September 2 | 2023
HistoGenes at the 29th EAA
Members of the HistoGenes team were invited to speak at the European Association of Archaeologists Annual Meeting and presented their research in Belfast.
October 1 | 2023
Release of the HistoGenes Shortfilm about the Plenary Meeting 2022 in Budapest
In this short film, you will catch the highlights from the HistoGenes Plenary Meeting 2022.
October 9-11 | 2023
This year, the annual meeting took place in Leipzig at the MPI and at the Landesamt für Denkmalpflege in Halle (Saale).
November 30 | 2023
We have now recorded around 21,300 entries in the HistoGenes project database since July 2020.
March 20-23 | 2024
April 2024
HistoGene's researchers gave lectures at IMC in Leeds
HistoGenes at the IMC 2024
July 1 | 2024
August 28 -31 | 2024
HistoGenes at the 30th EAA 2024
in Rome
August | 2024
HistoGenes results published in PNAS
This study shows how power shifts and migration after the fall of the Roman Empire influenced the formation of communities in rural areas in one of the core areas of the former Western Roman Empire.
Here you can find video statements by HIstoGene's reasercher on the results.
14-17 October 2024
Plenary Meeting HistoGenes in Brno
Institute of Archaeology | Czech Academy of Sciences & Department of Archaeology and Museology | Masaryk University | Brno
January 15 | 2025
Publication of another HistoGenes article in Nature
We constructed six-generation pedigrees at two Avar-period burial sites near Vienna. They included up to 450 closely related individuals and allowed per-generation demographic profiling of the communities.
January 2025
The media reports and reacts to the "Ancient DNA reveals reproductive barrier despite shared Avar-period culture" article in Nature with discussions among users sparking interest in Avar society and customs.
See: HistoGenes in the media on the project's website for a link.
February 2025
The ERC has posted an article introducing the projects questions and interdisciplinary methods to a wide audience.