Ancient DNA reveals reproductive barrier despite shared Avar-period culture

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14210%2F25%3A00141941" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14210/25:00141941 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08418-5#Ack1" target="_blank" >https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08418-5#Ack1</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08418-5" target="_blank" >10.1038/s41586-024-08418-5</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Ancient DNA reveals reproductive barrier despite shared Avar-period culture

Original language description

After a long-distance migration, Avars with Eastern Asian ancestry arrived in Eastern Central Europe in 567 to 568 ce and encountered groups with very different European ancestry1,2. We used ancient genome-wide data of 722 individuals and fine-grained interdisciplinary analysis of large seventh- to eighth-century ce neighbouring cemeteries south of Vienna (Austria) to address the centuries-long impact of this encounter1,2. We found that even 200 years after immigration, the ancestry at one site (Leobersdorf) remained dominantly East Asian-like, whereas the other site (M &amp; ouml;dling) shows local, European-like ancestry. These two nearby sites show little biological relatedness, despite sharing a distinctive late-Avar culture3,4. We reconstructed six-generation pedigrees at both sites including up to 450 closely related individuals, allowing per-generation demographic profiling of the communities. Despite different ancestry, these pedigrees together with large networks of distant relatedness show absence of consanguinity, patrilineal pattern with female exogamy, multiple reproductive partnerships (for example, levirate) and direct correlation of biological connectivity with archaeological markers of social status. The generation-long genetic barrier was maintained by systematically choosing partners with similar ancestry from other sites in the Avar realm. Leobersdorf had more biological connections with the Avar heartlands than with M &amp; ouml;dling, which is instead linked to another site from the Vienna Basin with European-like ancestry. Mobility between sites was mostly due to female exogamy pointing to different marriage networks as the main driver of the maintenance of the genetic barrier.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

60102 - Archaeology

Project

Result was created during the realization of more than one project. More information in the Projects tab.

Continuities

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

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

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

Name of the periodical

NATURE

ISSN

0028-0836

e-ISSN

1476-4687

Volume of the periodical

638

Issue of the periodical within the volume

8052

Country of publishing house

DE - GERMANY

Number of pages

28

Pages from-to

1-28

UT code for WoS article

001396164600001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85217216766