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Gnecchi-Ruscone GA, Szécsényi-Nagy A, Koncz I, Csiky G, Rácz Z, Rohrlach AB, Brandt G, Rohland N, Csáky V, Cheronet O, Szeifert B, Rácz TÁ, Benedek A, Bernert Z, Berta N, Czifra S, Dani J, Farkas Z, Hága T, Hajdu T, Jászberényi M, Kisjuhász V, Kolozsi B, Major P, Marcsik A, Kovacsóczy BN, Balogh C, Lezsák GM, Ódor JG, Szelekovszky M, Szeniczey T, Tárnoki J, Tóth Z, Tutkovics EK, Mende BG, Geary P, Pohl W, Vida T, Pinhasi R, Reich D, Hofmanová Z, Jeong C, Krause J. Ancient genomes reveal origin and rapid trans-Eurasian migration of 7 th century Avar elites. Cell 2022; 185:1402-1413.e21. [PMID: 35366416 PMCID: PMC9042794 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.03.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/04/2021] [Revised: 01/28/2022] [Accepted: 03/04/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
The Avars settled the Carpathian Basin in 567/68 CE, establishing an empire lasting over 200 years. Who they were and where they came from is highly debated. Contemporaries have disagreed about whether they were, as they claimed, the direct successors of the Mongolian Steppe Rouran empire that was destroyed by the Turks in ∼550 CE. Here, we analyze new genome-wide data from 66 pre-Avar and Avar-period Carpathian Basin individuals, including the 8 richest Avar-period burials and further elite sites from Avar's empire core region. Our results provide support for a rapid long-distance trans-Eurasian migration of Avar-period elites. These individuals carried Northeast Asian ancestry matching the profile of preceding Mongolian Steppe populations, particularly a genome available from the Rouran period. Some of the later elite individuals carried an additional non-local ancestry component broadly matching the steppe, which could point to a later migration or reflect greater genetic diversity within the initial migrant population.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Anna Szécsényi-Nagy
- Institute of Archaeogenomics, Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, 1097 Budapest, Hungary
| | - István Koncz
- Institute of Archaeological Sciences, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, 1088 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Gergely Csiky
- Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, 1097 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Zsófia Rácz
- Institute of Archaeological Sciences, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, 1088 Budapest, Hungary
| | - A B Rohrlach
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers, School of Mathematical Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
| | - Guido Brandt
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07745 Jena, Germany
| | - Nadin Rohland
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | - Veronika Csáky
- Institute of Archaeogenomics, Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, 1097 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Olivia Cheronet
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, 1030 Vienna, Austria
| | - Bea Szeifert
- Institute of Archaeogenomics, Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, 1097 Budapest, Hungary
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Tamás Hajdu
- Dept. of Biological Anthropology, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), 1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | | | | | | | | | - Antónia Marcsik
- Dept. of Biological Anthropology, Szeged University, 6701 Szeged, Hungary
| | | | - Csilla Balogh
- Department of Art History, Istanbul Medeniyet University, 34720 Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Gabriella M Lezsák
- Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, 1097 Budapest, Hungary
| | | | | | - Tamás Szeniczey
- Dept. of Biological Anthropology, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), 1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | | | | | | | - Balázs G Mende
- Institute of Archaeogenomics, Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, 1097 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Patrick Geary
- Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
| | - Walter Pohl
- Institute for Medieval Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 1020 Vienna, Austria; Institute of Austrian Historical Research, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria
| | - Tivadar Vida
- Institute of Archaeological Sciences, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, 1088 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Ron Pinhasi
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, 1030 Vienna, Austria
| | - David Reich
- Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
| | - Zuzana Hofmanová
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; Department of Archaeology and Museology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, 60200 Brno, Czech Republic
| | - Choongwon Jeong
- School of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, 08826 Seoul, Republic of Korea.
| | - Johannes Krause
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
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