The origin and genetic history of the Avars

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14210%2F22%3A00129350" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14210/22:00129350 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://d-nb.info/1269713035" target="_blank" >https://d-nb.info/1269713035</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

The origin and genetic history of the Avars

Original language description

Archaeological finds and limited historical evidence suggest that multiple ethnic groups inhabited the central European Carpathian Basin during late Antiquity and the early medie- val period. The origins and impact on later populations of many of these groups remain largely unknown. Some of them are thought to have had central- or east-Asian origins and to have migrated to Europe from the Eurasian steppe, among them the Huns and the Avars. The latter occupied the region for over 200 years, establishing the Avar Khaganate (king- dom) around 568. Some historical sources connect the Avars with the east-Asian Rouran Khaganate, which dominated the eastern Mongolian steppe from the 4th–6th centuries. Others, however, suggest that the Avars were merely a loose federa- tion of individuals of eastern European and central Asian descent. In this study we present genome-wide data obtained from the remains of 66 individuals from the Carpathian Basin during this period, including the occupants of some of the richest burials in the khaganate and other elite Avar graves from its core region. We found that the genetic material from the majority of elite individuals differentiated them from the 5th and 6th century local population that preceded the Avars. Almost all the elite individuals carried a high proportion of east-Asian ancestry, for which the best matches are found in the limited available genomic data from Rouran Culture and related individuals previously published. Some individuals carried a small amount of more recent central-Asian and eastern-European ancestry. The majority of the elite individu- als, however, lacked local genetic ancestry, suggesting limited genetic admixture with the local population. Overall, the results indicated that the early medieval Avars were of recent east-Asian origin that dates to the mid-1st milenium and had migrated rapidly across Eurasia within a few generations.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

C - Chapter in a specialist book

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60102 - Archaeology

Project

<a href="/en/project/GX21-17092X" target="_blank" >GX21-17092X: The Formation of Multi-ethnic Complex Societies in Early Medieval Moravia. Collective Action Theory and Interdisciplinary Approach</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2022

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Book/collection name

Grenzüberschreitungen – Reiternomaden in Mitteleuropa, ihre östlichen Wurzeln und Verbindungen = Crossing boundaries – Mounted nomads in Central Europe, their eastern roots and connections

ISBN

9783948618445

Number of pages of the result

13

Pages from-to

120-132

Number of pages of the book

424

Publisher name

Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt, Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte.

Place of publication

Halle (Saale)

UT code for WoS chapter

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