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

Parallel paleogenomic transects reveal complex genetic history of early European farmers

Ancient DNA studies have established that Neolithic European populations were descended from Anatolian migrants1–8 who received a limited amount of admixture from resident hunter-gatherers3–5,9. Many open questions remain, however, about the spatial and temporal dynamics of population interactions and admixture during the Neolithic period. Using the highest-resolution genome-wide ancient DNA data set assembled to date—a total of 180 samples, 130 newly reported here, from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic of Hungary (6000–2900 BCE, n = 100), Germany (5500–3000 BCE, n = 42), and Spain (5500–2200 BCE, n = 38)—we investigate the population dynamics of Neolithization across Europe. We find that genetic diversity was shaped predominantly by local processes, with varied sources and proportions of hunter-gatherer ancestry among the three regions and through time. Admixture between groups with different ancestry profiles was pervasive and resulted in observable population transformation across almost all cultural transitions. Our results shed new light on the ways that gene flow reshaped European populations throughout the Neolithic period and demonstrate the potential of time-series-based sampling and modeling approaches to elucidate multiple dimensions of historical population interactions