Egy specifikus büntetési forma? – Végtag-amputációs esetek a 9. századi Mosaburg (Zalavár) vonzáskörzetében

Mosaburg (Zalavár, Hungary) was the easternmost marquisate of the Frankish Empire in the second half of the 9th century. From this centre and its immediate agglomeration a surprisingly large number of limb amputation cases have been found. This paper presents three new finds, and reviews four cases published earlier. All the seven individuals were males with their left leg cut off just above the ankle joint (and with the simultaneous amputation of the right hand in one case). Two of them died without any sign of healing, whereas the others showed partial (one case) or complete (four cases) healing. Considering the possible causative factors, these were the most probably punitive amputations. While ordering limb amputation as punishment was part of various law books throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, evidence for this phenomenon is unexpectedly infrequent in medieval skeletal assemblages. From this aspect, 9th century Mosaburg seems to be a rare exception. When looking at the 8th–10th century series from the territory of Europe for possible parallels, we can only discover one region where similar number of presumably punitive limb amputations has been found: the 9th century Moravian Basin (especially Mikulčice and its surroundings). However, it is unclear whether it marks a direct connection between the two power centres, or both adapted this custom from a third source independently

The anthropological assessment of the Late Roman cemetery at Somogyszil-Dögkúti dűlő

The results of a general anthropological examination of 140 individuals from a late Roman period cemetery at Somogyszil-Dögkút site are presented in this paper. The population had a more or less balanced sex ratio, lived a fundamentally peaceful life suggested by the low frequencey of bone injuries, and according to their morphoscopic traits, they all belonged to the Caucasoid group. Based on the biological distances calculated from selected linear measurements of male crania, the population of Somogyszil-Dögkút proved to be quite similar to several other late Roman period cemeteries in Transdanubia, as well as to some local Avar period series. This raises the possibility of a significant local continuity between the late Roman and late Avar period on this territory, however other potential explanations cannot be ruled out. Some anthropological characteristics of the human skeletal material unearthed from graves oriented differently than the cemetery’s norm suggest the presence of immigrants in the community. Their biological background cannot be traced from the present data, however a few skeletal evidence proposes the probability of a Sarmatian origin

Fine-scale sampling uncovers the complexity of migrations in 5th–6th century Pannonia

As the collapse of the Western Roman Empire accelerated during the 4th and 5th centuries, arriving "barbarian" groups began to establish new communities in the border provinces of the declining (and eventually former) empire. This was a time of significant cultural and political change throughout not only these border regions but Europe as a whole.1,2 To better understand post-Roman community formation in one of these key frontier zones after the collapse of the Hunnic movement, we generated new paleogenomic data for a set of 38 burials from a time series of three 5th century cemeteries3,4,5 at Lake Balaton, Hungary. We utilized a comprehensive sampling approach to characterize these cemeteries along with data from 38 additional burials from a previously published mid-6th century site6 and analyzed them alongside data from over 550 penecontemporaneous individuals.7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19 The range of genetic diversity in all four of these local burial communities is extensive and wider ranging than penecontemporaneous Europeans sequenced to date. Despite many commonalities in burial customs and demography, we find that there were substantial differences in genetic ancestry between the sites. We detect evidence of northern European gene flow into the Lake Balaton region. Additionally, we observe a statistically significant association between dress artifacts and genetic ancestry among 5th century genetically female burials. Our analysis shows that the formation of early Medieval communities was a multifarious process even at a local level, consisting of genetically heterogeneous groups

Barbarisierte Römer - Romanisierte Barbaren? Interpretationsmöglichkeiten der fremden Komponente am Beispiel des Gräberfeldes von Somogyszil

The Somogyszil cemetery became known in 1964, when a local resident reported the finds. The site was excavated by Balázs Draveczky, who uncovered 148 late Roman burials until 1968. The cemetery was fully published by Alice Sz. Burger in 1979. We began the critical re-assessment of the cemetery and its finds in 2015 as part of a research project “Power and culture in the Carpathian Basin in the early Middle Ages” involving in part a fresh look at the late Roman cemeteries in southern Pannonia. Our research agenda focuses on the spatial organisation of the burial grounds used by the province’s rural population as well as on burial customs (funerary rites, grave and burial types), chronology and the mapping of local and non-local tendencies. During the critical re-assessment of the cemetery, we found that the establishment and use of this late Roman burial ground could be linked to a heterogeneous community

Fine-scale sampling uncovers the complexity of migrations in 5th–6th century Pannonia

As the collapse of the Western Roman Empire accelerated during the 4th and 5th centuries, arriving ‘‘barbarian’’ groups began to establish new communities in the border provinces of the declining (and eventually former) empire. This was a time of significant cultural and political change throughout not only these border regions but Europe as a whole.1,2 To better understand post-Roman community formation in one of these key frontier zones after the collapse of the Hunnic movement, we generated new paleogenomic data for a set of 38 burials from a time series of three 5th century cemeteries3–5 at Lake Balaton, Hungary. Weutilized a comprehensive sampling approach to characterize these cemeteries along with data from 38 additional burials from a previously published mid-6th century site6 and analyzed them alongside data from over 550 penecontemporaneous individuals.7–19 The range of genetic diversity in all four of these local burial communities is extensive and wider ranging than penecontemporaneous Europeans sequenced to date. Despite many commonalities in burial customs and demography, we find that there were substantial differences in genetic ancestry between the sites. We detect evidence of northern European gene flow into the Lake Balaton region. Additionally, we observe a statistically significant association between dress artifacts and genetic ancestry among 5th century genetically female burials. Our analysis shows that the formationofearly Medievalcommunitieswasamultifariousprocessevenatalocallevel,consistingofgenetically heterogeneous groups

More than one millennium (2nd-16th century CE) of the White Plague in the Carpathian Basin – New cases, expanding knowledge

The causative agent of tuberculosis is still a widespread pathogen, which caused the death of ca. 1.6 million people globally in 2021. The paleopathological study of human remains revealed the antiquity of the disease and its continuous presence throughout the history of humankind. The Carpathian Basin has always been a biocultural melting pot, since it has seen several migrations over the centuries, and served as a location of admixture and interaction for numerous populations of different cultures. Thus, this geographical territory is ideal for the examination of the coevolutionary processes of hosts and their pathogens. We aimed to reveal the spatial and temporal distribution of tuberculosis cases excavated inside the borders of Hungary between the 2nd and 16th centuries CE. We established a comprehensive database by collecting 114 already published cases and introducing 39 new cases. The involved cases include those that have been confirmed by different molecular methods, as well as possible infections that were identified based on the presence of macromorphological and radiological alterations. The progress of future molecular and paleopathological studies can be facilitated by our dataset, as it presents spatial and temporal information concerning the spread of the disease in the Carpathian Basin, as well as the biological profile and detailed paleopathological description of lesions illustrated by photo- and radiographs