Eastern genetic connections of two nomadic populations in the early medieval Carpathian Basin.

The Carpathian Basin in Central Europe was settled by various nomadic populations from Asia in several migration waves during the Early Middle Ages. Here we present medieval ancient DNA from Avars and Hungarian Conquerors from the Carpathian Basin, as well as some ancient individuals from the Volga-Ural region and Western Siberia. We describe here their maternal genetic composition and highlight their connections to populations of Northeast and Central-Asia. We focus on the phylogeny of selected Asian mitochondrial lineages, belonging to haplogroups A12a, D4j and Y1a, which were detected in the aforementioned ancient populations

Bronzkori nő szobrászi arcrekonstrukciója Balatonkeresztúr-Réti-dűlő lelőhelyről

During the excavations prior to the construction of the M7 highway at the Balatonkeresztúr-Réti-dűlő site in 2003–2004, among the relics of nine archaeological periods, the settlement and 12 burials of the Kisapostag culture, mostly without grave furniture, were found from the end of the Early Bronze Age. In grave no. 13, a 35–45-year-old woman was laid to rest. The small pieces of metal jewellery found around her head, which must have been connected to a headdress or cap ornament, indicate that she had a higher social status within the community living in the settlement. The skull was preserved in a very good condition, which provided an opportunity to reconstruct the woman’s original facial features. This is the first facial reconstruction of a female from the Bronze Age in Hungary. In our study, we present the preparation of the sculptural reconstruction of the face, using the data from the genetic analyses referring to pigmentation (hair, eye and skin colour)

Maternal Genetic Composition of Early Medieval Populations Lived in the Cis- and Trans-Ural and Volga-Kama Regions

Many scientific theories exist about the origin of Hungarians and their migration from Northern Central Asia to Europe in the 8th–9th centuries AD. Ethnic heterogeneity of the Hungarian Conquerors is attested by a number of historical and archaeological evidence due to their associated migration with other populations from the Ural region through the Middle-Volga region (and the Khazar Khaganate) until their arrival in the Carpathian Basin in 895 AD. The source region, direction, and chronology of the migration is still unclear and intensively studied by historians, archaeologists and linguists. In our studies, we approach these issues using archaeogenetic methodology. We investigate early medieval (6th–10th AD) populations from the regions of the Ural Mountains, the presumed migration route and the Carpathian Basin. The sites can be associated with each other and the Hungarian Conquerors as well. Remains of the first cultures (Kushnarenkovo and Karayakupovo) associated with Hungarian prehistory are from the Middle and Southern Urals. Investigating whole mitochondrial genomes, our first series came from the eastern (Uyelgi) and western (Bayanovo, Sukhoy Log, Bartim) side of the Middle-Southern Urals. As a continuation we included samples from the Volga-Kama region, with special attention to Bolshie Tigani site. We might get a better picture of the migration route and can map its stages and stopovers in a genetic context by extending our database with mitochondrial data from the presented series

Early Medieval Genetic Data from Ural Region Evaluated in the Light of Archaeological Evidence of Ancient Hungarians

The ancient Hungarians originated from the Ural region of Russia, and migrated through the Middle-Volga region and the Eastern European steppe into the Carpathian Basin during the 9th century AD. Their Homeland was probably in the southern Trans-Ural region, where the Kushnarenkovo culture disseminated. In the Cis-Ural region Lomovatovo and Nevolino cultures are archaeologically related to ancient Hungarians. In this study we describe maternal and paternal lineages of 36 individuals from these regions and nine Hungarian Conquest period individuals from today’s Hungary, as well as shallow shotgun genome data from the Trans-Uralic Uyelgi cemetery. We point out the genetic continuity between the three chronological horizons of Uyelgi cemetery, which was a burial place of a rather endogamous population. Using phylogenetic and population genetic analyses we demonstrate the genetic connection between Trans-, Cis-Ural and the Carpathian Basin on various levels. The analyses of this new Uralic dataset fill a gap of population genetic research of Eurasia, and reshape the conclusions previously drawn from 10-11th century ancient mitogenomes and Y-chromosomes from Hungary