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Genes and the Avar migrations

 DNA in archaeology has had a rocky start since its first application in the early 2000s, but as technology improves and more rigorous samples are taken, it has given powerful insights that capture the finer details of how people moved and intermarried in prehistory and in the historical period. 

One of best DNA discoveries of the past decade was the genome of 'Denny', a hominid ancestor who lived in Denisova Cave, that was derived from a single surviving tooth; the results showed that she was the direct offspring of mating between a Neanderthal male and a Denisovan female, simultaneously providing evidence for inter-species mixing and single-handedly pushing the range of Neanderthals thousands of kilometers eastwards.


The historical Avar migrations compared with the results from the genetic data (Gnecchi-Ruscone et al., 2022)

In the last few months, ancient DNA sampling has shone light into a much more proto-historic event, the Avar migrations. Byzantine sources describe the nomadic Avars, who established a Turkic khaganate in the Pannonian basin, as hailing from an aristocratic tribal group in central Asia who were forced to flee due to internal revolts. The name 'Avar', they recount, was enough to inspire a combination of fear, awe and terror in those who the nomads encountered. Coincidentally, this dates to the exact same time frame, c.550 - 560 CE, as the collapse of the Rouran khaganate on the Mongolian steppe, and the rise of the Gokturk empire, an event recorded by near-contemporary inscriptions and Chinese historians. Scholars of the period have long thought these two notices were connected, but the speed of migration, across more than 7,000 kilometres, seemed to count against the idea.


Elite gold pouring jugs from the Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós (c.750 CE), also known as Attila's Treasure. Credit: Kunsthistorisches Museum.

The new evidence, published by a team of Hungarian, Italian and Chinese archaeologists and geneticists in the journal Cell, appears to confirm the suspected trans-Eurasian migration; a migration happening within the span of a single generation. This was achieved by comparing the genomic sequences of Avar individuals from 7th-century burials with sequences from contemporary contexts in the northern Caucasus (where historical sources claim they stopped for a few decades) and sequences from 4th and 5th century burials in modern Kazakhstan, Mongolia and the southern Urals, which roughly encompassed the span of the Rouran empire. Although this is not a direct one-to-one comparison between Rouran and Avar individuals, as Rouran graves are nearly archaeologically invisible, the results showed that the earliest migrants were directly descended from 6th-century populations on the Mongolian steppe.

Another interesting outcome was an apparent link between the Avar elites and the northern Caucasus in the later periods of its history, c.700 - 810 CE. This could possibly reflect a Bulgar migration to the khaganate or an influx of Khazars, both events hinted at by historical sources. However, the sample sizes are still too small to make any firm conclusions towards this theory.

References:

Gnecchi-Ruscone, G. A., Szécsényi-Nagy, A., Koncz, I., Csiky, G., Rácz, Z., Rohrlach, A. B., ... & Krause, J. (2022). Ancient genomes reveal origin and rapid trans-Eurasian migration of 7th century Avar elites. Cell.

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