Archaeological and Natural Scientific Studies on the Hun-Period Grave from Kecskemét-Mindszenti-dűlő

This paper describes a Hun-period solitary burial found in Kecskemét, in the central part of the Great Hungarian Plain in 2017 and discusses its wider archaeological significance. In parallel with the archaeological evaluation, the physical anthropological examination of the human remains, furthermore, analyses of the Y-chromosome haplogroups of the deceased were also concluded. The gold, gilded silver and other non-ferrous metal objects from the grave were subjected to non-destructive analyses. A comparative study has been undertaken on the crescent-shaped gold earring and two similar objects from another 5th-century AD site (Pusztataskony). The deceased from Kecskemét (juvenile male with artificial cranial deformation) lay in a sidewall-niche grave oriented in the north-south axis. The funeral customs and the grave goods refer to new Eastern connections. This burial fits well into the archaeological picture of the 5th-century Carpathian Basin. Besides, it represents a new phenomenon in the middle region of the Danube–Tisza Interfluve

Ancient genomes reveal origin and rapid trans-Eurasian migration of 7th century Avar elites

© 2022 The AuthorsThe Avars settled the Carpathian Basin in 567/68 CE, establishing an empire lasting over 200 years. Who they were and where they came from is highly debated. Contemporaries have disagreed about whether they were, as they claimed, the direct successors of the Mongolian Steppe Rouran empire that was destroyed by the Turks in ∼550 CE. Here, we analyze new genome-wide data from 66 pre-Avar and Avar-period Carpathian Basin individuals, including the 8 richest Avar-period burials and further elite sites from Avar's empire core region. Our results provide support for a rapid long-distance trans-Eurasian migration of Avar-period elites. These individuals carried Northeast Asian ancestry matching the profile of preceding Mongolian Steppe populations, particularly a genome available from the Rouran period. Some of the later elite individuals carried an additional non-local ancestry component broadly matching the steppe, which could point to a later migration or reflect greater genetic diversity within the initial migrant population.N