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

Guido Alberto Gnecchi-Ruscone; Anna Szécsényi-Nagy; István Koncz; Gergely Csiky; Zsófia Rácz; A B Rohrlach; Guido Brandt; Nadin Rohland; Veronika Csáky; Olivia Cheronet; Bea Szeifert; Tibor Ákos Rácz; András Benedek; Zsolt Bernert; Norbert Berta; Szabolcs Czifra; János Dani; Zoltán Farkas; Tamara Hága; Tamás Hajdu; Mónika Jászberényi; Viktória Kisjuhász; Barbara Kolozsi; Péter Major; Antónia Marcsik; Bernadett Ny Kovacsóczy; Csilla Balogh; Gabriella M Lezsák; János Gábor Ódor; Márta Szelekovszky; Tamás Szeniczey; Judit Tárnoki; Zoltán Tóth; Eszter K Tutkovics; Balázs G Mende; Patrick Geary; Walter Pohl; Tivadar Vida; Ron Pinhasi; David Reich; Zuzana Hofmanová; Choongwon Jeong; Johannes Krause

doi:10.1016/j.cell.2022.03.007

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

Cell. 2022 Apr 14;185(8):1402-1413.e21. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.03.007. Epub 2022 Apr 1.

Authors

Guido Alberto Gnecchi-Ruscone¹, Anna Szécsényi-Nagy², István Koncz³, Gergely Csiky⁴, Zsófia Rácz³, A B Rohrlach⁵, Guido Brandt⁶, Nadin Rohland⁷, Veronika Csáky², Olivia Cheronet⁸, Bea Szeifert², Tibor Ákos Rácz⁹, András Benedek¹⁰, Zsolt Bernert¹¹, Norbert Berta¹², Szabolcs Czifra¹¹, János Dani¹³, Zoltán Farkas¹², Tamara Hága¹³, Tamás Hajdu¹⁴, Mónika Jászberényi⁹, Viktória Kisjuhász¹⁵, Barbara Kolozsi¹³, Péter Major¹², Antónia Marcsik¹⁶, Bernadett Ny Kovacsóczy¹⁷, Csilla Balogh¹⁸, Gabriella M Lezsák¹⁹, János Gábor Ódor²⁰, Márta Szelekovszky¹³, Tamás Szeniczey¹⁴, Judit Tárnoki²¹, Zoltán Tóth²², Eszter K Tutkovics²³, Balázs G Mende², Patrick Geary²⁴, Walter Pohl²⁵, Tivadar Vida³, Ron Pinhasi⁸, David Reich²⁶, Zuzana Hofmanová²⁷, Choongwon Jeong²⁸, Johannes Krause²⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: guido_gnecchi@eva.mpg.de.
² Institute of Archaeogenomics, Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, 1097 Budapest, Hungary.
³ Institute of Archaeological Sciences, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, 1088 Budapest, Hungary.
⁴ Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, 1097 Budapest, Hungary.
⁵ 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.
⁶ Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07745 Jena, Germany.
⁷ Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA; Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
⁸ Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, 1030 Vienna, Austria.
⁹ Ferenczy Museum Center, 2000 Szentendre, Hungary.
¹⁰ Móra Ferenc Museum, 6720 Szeged, Hungary.
¹¹ Hungarian National Museum, 1113 Budapest, Hungary.
¹² Salisbury Ltd., 1016 Budapest, Hungary.
¹³ Déri Museum, 4026 Debrecen, Hungary.
¹⁴ Dept. of Biological Anthropology, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), 1117 Budapest, Hungary.
¹⁵ Aquincum Museum and Archaeological Park, 1031 Budapest, Hungary.
¹⁶ Dept. of Biological Anthropology, Szeged University, 6701 Szeged, Hungary.
¹⁷ Katona József Museum, 6000 Kecskemét, Hungary.
¹⁸ Department of Art History, Istanbul Medeniyet University, 34720 Istanbul, Turkey.
¹⁹ Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, 1097 Budapest, Hungary.
²⁰ Wosinsky Mór Museum, 7100 Szekszárd, Hungary.
²¹ Damjanich Museum, 5000 Szolnok, Hungary.
²² Dobó István Museum, 3300 Eger, Hungary.
²³ Rétközi Múzeum, 4600 Kisvárda, Hungary.
²⁴ Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA.
²⁵ Institute for Medieval Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 1020 Vienna, Austria; Institute of Austrian Historical Research, University of Vienna, 1010 Vienna, Austria.
²⁶ 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.
²⁷ 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.
²⁸ School of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, 08826 Seoul, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: cwjeong@snu.ac.kr.
²⁹ Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: krause@eva.mpg.de.

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.

Keywords: Avars; Carpathian Basin; Pannonia; ancient DNA; early medieval; human migration; migration period; population genomics; steppe nomads.

Publication types

Historical Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Asian People* / genetics
DNA, Ancient*
Genetics, Population*
Genome
History, Ancient
Human Migration / history
Humans
Sulfur

Substances

DNA, Ancient
Sulfur

Grants and funding

HHMI/Howard Hughes Medical Institute/United States