Abstract
As the collapse of the Western Roman Empire accelerated during the 4th and 5th centuries, arriving “barbarian” groups began to establish new communities in the border provinces of the declining (and eventually former) empire. This was a time of significant cultural and political change throughout not only these border regions but Europe as a whole. To better understand post-Roman community formation in one of these key frontier zones after the collapse of the Hunnic movement, we generated new paleogenomic data for a set of 38 burials from a time series of three 5th century cemeteries at Lake Balaton, Hungary. We utilized a comprehensive sampling approach to characterize these cemeteries, and analyzed them within a careful interdisciplinary framework along with data from 38 additional burials from a previously published mid-6th century site. Despite many commonalities in burial representation and demography, we find striking differences in how close genealogical relationships were recognized and expressed in burial customs amongst these small, rural communities. In addition, each site demonstrated a unique genomic ancestry profile, though interestingly a significant relationship was inferred between genetic variation and the presence of a 5th century “female package” of dress accessories and grave goods. Notably, the range of genetic diversity in all four of these local burial communities is extensive and wider ranging than contemporaneous Europeans sequenced to date. Our analysis shows that the formation of early Medieval communities was a multifarious process even at a local level, consisting of genetically heterogeneous groups demonstrating a variety of social systems.
Significance The decline of the Western Roman Empire resulted in a significant cultural and political transformation of Europe during the early Medieval, and many modern nations claim to trace their origins to this period. We conducted an interdisciplinary paleogenomic study using a novel comprehensive, time-series approach, studying three mid-to-late 5th century sites and one mid 6th century site all from a localized region south of Lake Balaton (Hungary). We find very high levels of genetic diversity in this small region as well as significant variability in how genealogical relationships were reflected in cemetery organization. By carefully combining genetic, archaeological, and historical data, we demonstrate that post-Roman communities were formed by not only culturally, but also genetically diverse groups.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Footnotes
Competing Interest Statement: We do not have any competing interests.
