István Koncz

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

The decline of the Roman rule caused significant political instability and led to the emergence of various ‘Barbarian’ powers. While the names of the involved groups appeared in written sources, it is largely unknown how these changes affected the daily lives of the people during the 5th century AD. Did late Roman traditions persist, did new customs emerge, and did both amalgamate into new cultural expressions? A prime area to investigate these population and settlement historical changes is the Carpathian Basin (Hungary). Particularly, we studied archaeological and anthropological evidence, as well as radiogenic and stable isotope ratios of strontium, carbon, and nitrogen of human remains from 96 graves at the cemetery of Mözs-Icsei dűlő. Integrated data analysis suggests that most members of the founder generation at the site exhibited burial practises of late Antique traditions, even though they were heterogeneous regarding their places of origin and dietary habits. Furthermore, the isotope data disclosed a nonlocal group of people with similar dietary habits. According to the archaeological evidence, they joined the community a few decades after the founder generation and followed mainly foreign traditions with artificial skull modification as their most prominent characteristic. Moreover, individuals with modified skulls and late Antique grave attributes attest to deliberate cultural amalgamation, whereas burials of largely different isotope ratios underline the recipient habitus of the community. The integration of archaeological and bioarchaeological information at the individual level discloses the complex coalescence of people and traditions during the 5th century.

After 568 AD the Avars settled in the Carpathian Basin and founded the Avar Qaganate that was an important power in Central Europe until the 9th century. Part of the Avar society was probably of Asian origin; however, the localisation of their homeland is hampered by the scarcity of historical and archaeological data. Here, we study mitogenome and Y chromosomal variability of twenty-six individuals, a number of them representing a well-characterised elite group buried at the centre of the Carpathian Basin more than a century after the Avar conquest. The studied group has maternal and paternal genetic affinities to several ancient and modern East-Central Asian populations. The majority of the mitochondrial DNA variability represents Asian haplogroups (C, D, F, M, R, Y and Z). The Y-STR variability of the analysed elite males belongs only to five lineages, three N-Tat with mostly Asian parallels and two Q haplotypes. The homogeneity of the Y chromosomes reveals paternal kinship as a cohesive force in the organisation of the Avar elite strata on both social and territorial level. Our results indicate that the Avar elite arrived in the Carpathian Basin as a group of families, and remained mostly endogamous for several generations after the conquest.

After 568 AD the Avars settled in the Carpathian Basin and founded the Avar Qaganate that was an important power in Central Europe until the 9th century. Part of the Avar society was probably of Asian origin; however, the localisation of their homeland is hampered by the scarcity of historical and archaeological data. Here, we study mitogenome and Y chromosomal variability of twenty-six individuals, a number of them representing a well-characterised elite group buried at the centre of the Carpathian Basin more than a century after the Avar conquest. The studied group has maternal and paternal genetic affinities to several ancient and modern East-Central Asian populations. The majority of the mitochondrial DNA variability represents Asian haplogroups (C, D, F, M, R, Y and Z). The Y-STR variability of the analysed elite males belongs only to five lineages, three N-Tat with mostly Asian parallels and two Q haplotypes. The homogeneity of the Y chromosomes reveals paternal kinship as a cohesive force in the organisation of the Avar elite strata on both social and territorial level. Our results indicate that the Avar elite arrived in the Carpathian Basin as a group of families, and remained mostly endogamous for several generations after the conquest.

After 568 AD the Avars settled in the Carpathian Basin and founded the Avar Qaganate that was an important power in Central Europe until the 9 th century. Part of the Avar society was probably of Asian origin, however the localisation of their homeland is hampered by the scarcity of historical and archaeological data. Here, we study mitogenome and Y chromosomal STR variability of twenty-six individuals, a number of them representing a well-characterised elite group buried at the centre of the Carpathian Basin more than a century after the Avar conquest. The studied group has maternal and paternal genetic affinities to several ancient and modern East-Central Asian populations. The majority of the mitochondrial DNA variability represents Asian haplogroups (C, D, F, M, R, Y and Z). The Y-STR variability of the analysed elite males belongs only to five lineages, three N-Tat with mostly Asian parallels and two Q haplotypes. The homogeneity of the Y chromosomes reveals paternal kinship as a cohesive force in the organisation of the Avar elite strata on both social and territorial level. Our results indicate that the Avar elite arrived in the Carpathian Basin as a group of families, and remained mostly endogamous for several generations after the conquest.

From the first century AD, Europe has been interested by population movements, commonly known as Barbarian migrations. Among these processes, the one involving the Longobard culture interested a vast region, but its dynamics and demographic impact remains largely unknown. Here we report 87 new complete mitochondrial sequences coming from nine early-medieval cemeteries located along the area interested by the Longobard migration (Czech Republic, Hungary and Italy). From the same areas, we sampled necropoleis characterized by cultural markers associated with the Longobard culture (LC) and coeval burials where no such markers were found, or with a chronology slightly preceding the presumed arrival of the Longobards in that region (NLC). Population genetics analysis and demographic modeling highlighted a similarity between LC individuals, as reflected by the sharing of quite rare haplogroups and by the degree of genetic resemblance between Hungarian and Italian LC necropoleis estimated via a Bayesian approach, ABC. The demographic model receiving the strongest statistical support also postulates a contact between LC and NLC communities, thus indicating a complex dynamics of admixture in medieval Europe.

Despite centuries of research, much about the barbarian migrations that took place between the fourth and sixth centuries in Europe remains hotly debated. To better understand this key era that marks the dawn of modern European societies, we obtained ancient genomic DNA from 63 samples from two cemeteries (from Hungary and Northern Italy) that have been previously associated with the Longobards, a barbarian people that ruled large parts of Italy for over 200 years after invading from Pannonia in 568 CE. Our dense cemetery-based sampling revealed that each cemetery was primarily organized around one large pedigree, suggesting that biological relationships played an important role in these early medieval societies. Moreover, we identified genetic structure in each cemetery involving at least two groups with different ancestry that were very distinct in terms of their funerary customs. Finally, our data are consistent with the proposed long-distance migration from Pannonia to Northern Italy.

The so called four-brooch dress (Vierfibeltracht) – widely considered by the Hungarian research as the typical female dress in the 6th-century Pannonia – consists of two brooches located on the upper body, and two other ones generally found in the area of the pelvis or between the femurs or the knees. Although the name of the type of this dress clearly emphasizes the brooches, it consists of two parts: first the upper body clothing was fastened in a way and the the second is a girdle-hanger that is usually, but not necessarily decorated with brooches. With the analysis of the cemeteries from South-Transdanubia, I would like to present that the two aforementioned elements of the 6th century female dress are independent from each other, and that the ver-sions decorated with brooches are just their common, archaeologically well represented variants. So the four-brooch dress is the combined occurrence of these common variants of two dress elements. There is a difference between the connection networks of small and bow brooches based on 33 sites from modern-day Moravia, Lower Austria, Western Hungary and Slovenia. It can be presumed that there were different – spatial or tem-poral – structures behind their distribution.

After 568 AD the Avars settled in the Carpathian Basin and founded the Avar Qaganate that was an important power in Central Europe until the 9 th century. Part of the Avar society was probably of Asian origin, however the localisation of their homeland is hampered by the scarcity of historical and archaeological data. Here, we study mitogenome and Y chromosomal STR variability of twenty-six individuals, a number of them representing a well-characterised elite group buried at the centre of the Carpathian Basin more than a century after the Avar conquest. The studied group has maternal and paternal genetic affinities to several ancient and modern East-Central Asian populations. The majority of the mitochondrial DNA variability represents Asian haplogroups (C, D, F, M, R, Y and Z). The Y-STR variability of the analysed elite males belongs only to five lineages, three N-Tat with mostly Asian parallels and two Q haplotypes. The homogeneity of the Y chromosomes reveals paternal kinship as a cohesive force in the organisation of the Avar elite strata on both social and territorial level. Our results indicate that the Avar elite arrived in the Carpathian Basin as a group of families, and remained mostly endogamous for several generations after the conquest.

From the first century AD, Europe has been interested by population movements, commonly known as Barbarian migrations. Among these processes, the one involving the Longobard culture interested a vast region, but its dynamics and demographic impact remains largely unknown. Here we report 87 new complete mitochondrial sequences coming from nine early-medieval cemeteries located along the area interested by the Longobard migration (Czech Republic, Hungary and Italy). From the same locations, we sampled necropolises characterized by cultural markers associated with the Longobard culture (LC) and coeval burials where no such markers were found (NLC). Population genetics analysis and ABC modeling highlighted a similarity between LC individuals, as reflected by a certain degree of genetic continuity between these groups, that reached 70% among Hungary and Italy. Models postulating a contact between LC and NLC communities received also high support, indicating a complex dynamics of admixture in medieval Europe.

ABSTARCT Despite centuries of research, much about the barbarian migrations that took place between the fourth and sixth centuries in Europe remains hotly debated. To better understand this key era that marks the dawn of modern European societies, we obtained ancient genomic DNA from 63 samples from two cemeteries (from Hungary and Northern Italy) that have been previously associated with the Longobards , a barbarian people that ruled large parts of Italy for over 200 years after invading from Pannonia in 568 CE. Our dense cemetery-based sampling revealed that each cemetery was primarily organized around one large pedigree, suggesting that biological relationships played an important role in these early Medieval societies. Moreover, we identified genetic structure in each cemetery involving at least two groups with different ancestry that were very distinct in terms of their funerary customs. Finally, our data was consistent with the proposed long-distance migration from Pannonia to Northern Italy.

This study offers a brief review of the main research directions and issues in the archaeology of identity. Discussed here are the components of identity -meaning the statuses and roles that determine the individual's relation to, and membership in, a community as well as to other individuals, which are essentially the elements of social cohesion and social organisation -and its formation as well as the various options for categorisation and the modes of display through cultural memory and material culture.

Dissertationes Archaeologicae ex Instituto Archaeologico Universitatis de Rolando Eötvös Nominatae Series 3. No. 4 (2016) 161-178. http://dissarch.elte.hu/index.php/dissarch

The study addresses the find types decorated with ring-and-dot motifs and the interpretation of this motif in relation to three brooches from Tolna County. Although the three brooches are decorated in a similar manner, their forms differ, reflecting cultural contacts with entirely different regions.

In: Vágó Ádám (ed.): A Kárpát-medence ősi kincsei. Budapest 2015, 396-431.

Written sources reveal that a political power shift and an excessive change of population took place in Pannonia in 568. Archaeological data suggest, however, coexsistence between communities different origins despite the community level realignment of society. The author would like to highlight some neglected examples that could provide details of vital importance for the topic and connect it to well known sites, all too often having complex and unclear interpretations. Continuity is analysed through the last phase of Langobard Period cemeteries, presuming that they were still in use during the last third of the 6th century, and through the early phase of Avar Period cemeteries, as their connection networks are the same: an intensive interaction with the western Merovingian and the Mediterranean world. This connection is evident in certain arte fact types (belts, weapons, brooches) and in attireas a whole as well.

The Hegykő cemetery (and the Hegykő group) has strong ties with the 6th-century cemeteries of Lower-Austria both regarding its material culture and its funerary rites, and thus any interpretation must be set in this context. The comparative analysis of the cemetery’s two grave groups sheds light on the tendency that the community using the cemetery gradually acculturated to the population using the 6th-century cemeteries of Pannonia.