EAA2021: Abstract

At its peak, the Roman Empire united all Mediterranean shores under the same rule and law. This, together with great improvements in long-distance communications, brought human mobility across the Mediterranean to an unprecedented scale. From all the areas which were under Roman control, the Balkans is a particularly interesting region as it was the midpoint connecting the Western and the Eastern parts of the Empire; and several peoples groups moved through the region during the Great Migration Period, such as Goths, Huns or Slavs. In this project, we have extracted and analyzed aDNA from ancient Roman and post-Roman individuals (n=69) from 3 settlements located in present-day Serbia: most importantly the capital of Moesia Superior Roman province, Viminacium. Genetic and Radiocarbon dating analyses results point to a high degree of cosmopolitism in Viminacium during the early imperial period. We observe two major groups of individuals: one with a local ancestral signature likely deriving from Balkan Bronze and Iron Age populations, and other with Near Eastern ancestral origin, suggesting strong population movements from the Eastern parts of Empire impacting not only Rome, but also other major cities like Viminacium. Moreover, we detect remarkable cases of human mobility across the Saharan and the Mediterranean, such as a young male, whose ancestral origins lie in Eastern Africa. These results highlight how dense samplings at specific sites can provide a detailed view on both individual and large-scale human mobility patterns.

Roman Empire, cosmopolitism, Migration, Great Migration period, Genomic analysis, ancient DNA

 Abstract (PDF)

Pablo Carrion¹

Iñigo Olalde¹
Nadin Rohland²
Miodrag Grbić³
Nataša Miladinović-Radmilović⁴
Željko Tomanović⁵
Dušan Keckarević⁵
Ilija Mikić⁴
Carles Lalueza-Fox¹
David Reich^2,6