Ancient DNA from more than 300 people who lived in northwestern Hungary shows that the region shifted from a largely southern European genetic profile during Roman rule to one with more northern European ancestry after the empire’s collapse, pointing to sustained movement and the formation of a complex new society.
During the Roman period, people living in the Little Hungarian Plain were part of a well-connected network of communities. Most of the genetic ancestry identified in the region was southern European, but the researchers also found ancestry linked to Asia and Africa.
That diversity fits with the cosmopolitan character of the Roman Empire described by the study. The researchers reached these conclusions by combining ancient DNA with archaeological evidence.
The international team sequenced the genomes of more than 300 individuals from the Little Hungarian Plain, an area in northwestern Hungary. The work was led by Yijie Tian of Stony Brook University and István Koncz of Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary.
Northern European ancestry increased after Rome
The genetic picture changed at post-Roman sites. There, the researchers found an increase in northern European ancestry, evidence of substantial population movement into the region.
The researchers linked this pattern to the historically documented expansion of the Lombard Kingdom from north of the Danube River into former Roman territories during the early sixth century. The exact history of that expansion has been debated.
But the genetic evidence did not point to one massive migration arriving all at once. Instead, the researchers found signs of complicated and continuing movement. Genetic links connected people in the Little Hungarian Plain with populations farther north.
New communities formed from incoming and local populations
The people who arrived did more than establish scattered rural settlements, according to the combined genetic and archaeological evidence. The emerging communities developed into a diverse and hierarchical society, including ruling elites who built a new post-Roman political order.
The findings also indicate that the transformation involved interactions between newcomers who had mainly northern European ancestry and local people whose ancestry was predominantly southern European.
That picture differs from a simpler account of the period as a takeover by migrating groups. The researchers found several ways that communities formed as incoming and local populations interacted.
DNA and archaeology tell different parts of the story
The period after the Roman Empire’s collapse is difficult to reconstruct because the so-called barbarian kingdoms produced few written records. Historians and archaeologists have therefore often had to rely on accounts written from the perspective of the Romans who had been conquered.
The HistoGenes project adds genetic evidence to the archaeological record. Its researchers emphasize that genetic ancestry and material culture do not necessarily correspond neatly. The evidence also points to different forms of movement and different ways newcomers became part of existing populations.
“The project has revealed both gradual and localized forms of movement across short and long distances, as well as rapid, large-scale population shifts from Eastern Asia into the Carpathian Basin,” said Patrick Geary, professor emeritus in the School of Historical Studies and a co-principal investigator of the project. He also noted that the work has shown “the diverse ways newcomers integrated into existing populations.”
The HistoGenes team includes geneticists, archaeologists, historians and anthropologists. Together, they have analyzed more than 6,000 individuals who lived in Central Europe between 400 and 900 C.E.
The study was published in Science.
