Theme:
3. The Carpathian Basin: Integration, Mobility and Diversity
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Population History and Community Formation in Early Medieval East-Central Europe: Integrating Genetic, Isotopic, Archaeological and Historical Perspectives
Content:
Few parts of Europe witnessed as many population shifts as the Middle Danube region between 400-900 CE. In this macro-region, Pannonians, Romans, Goths, Gepids, Longobards, Avars, Bulgars, Slavs and many other groups came, settled and/or continued their migration or expansion towards other regions of Europe. Several very different social models coexisted here or replaced each other (e.g. the complex Christian and Barbarian societies, realms of steppe nomads and communities under their rule). The cohabitation and later the amalgamation of locals and newly-arriving foreign groups led to a continuous cultural transformation during this period that affected both lifestyle and material culture. The abundance of archaeological finds and the series of historical-political changes attested by the written sources make this region an intriguing test case for the relationship between ethnic identities constructed in texts, cultural and social habitus attested in the archaeological record and isotopic signatures, biological ancestries and relatedness attested by biomolecular analysis of human remains.
Recent bioarchaeological investigations and discoveries provide new perspectives on the role of mobility and kinship, social structure and organizations of these communities. This session aims to explore the people and their communities through comprehensive case studies from East-Central-Europe. The contributions should be based on interdisciplinary approaches, which interpret ancient DNA, isotope and other bioarchaeological results in the context of archaeology and history. Both fine-scale and large-scale studies are welcome. Furthermore, methodological papers on the integration of different disciplines are also invited to join the discussion.
Keywords:
ancient DNA, mobility, population history, social structure, burial archaeology, Early Medieval Europe
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Tivadar Vida (Hungary) 1,2
Co-organisers:
Zuzana Hofmanová (Germany) 3,4
István Koncz (Hungary) 5
Anna Szécsényi-Nagy (Hungary) 6
Corina Knipper (Germany) 7
Affiliations:
1. Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
2. Institute of Archaeology, Research Center for Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, Budapest
3. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
4. Department of Archaeology and Museology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czechia
5. Institute of Archaeological Sciences, ELTE - Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
6. Institute of Archaeogenomics, Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, Budapest
7. Curt-Engelhorn-Centre of Archaeometry, Mannheim
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