EAA 2023: Abstract

Non-metric dental traits were used to evaluate the biological relationships among Iron Age contexts attesting the Celtic presence in Hungary (Sopron-Krautacker and Pilismarót-Basaharc), continental and non-continental Europe (Hallstatt, Munsingen-Rain, Yorkshire), and northern Italy (Monte Bibele and Monterenzio Vecchio for which strontium isotopes were analysed to identify likely Etruscans and Celts). Biological distances among Celts and Scythians (Tápiószele) from Hungary, 13 Iron Age central-southern Italic sites, and an Italian Bronze Age necropolis (Scalvinetto) were also investigated.
Dental morphology outlined the divergence between Celts and the Italian autochthonous samples, plus a significant biological closeness of Hungarian and Italian Celts, supporting historical records mentioning a common origin for Celts migrated eastwards and southwards, and attested by several recent studies on Celtic migration.
A strong local background concerns all the autochthonous Italian samples, where the northern Italian Bronze and Iron Age local communities (Scalvinetto, Monte Bibele and Monterenzio Vecchio locals) share a branch, suggesting the existence of migratory routes in Bronze and Iron Age northern Italy.
Interestingly, a Scythian-related background emerges both in Celts from Hungary and Italy, suggesting that they could share a similar non-Celtic ancestry from the Steppe, the original Scythian homeland. In line with recent genetic studies, we might suggest that both Iron Age Celts from Hungary and Italy could have inherited a “Steppe-related ancestry”, coming from a westward flow of Bronze Age Steppe populations, probably arrived in the Carpathian Basin during Bronze Age and genetically influencing the local Iron Age descendants. Since supported by the lack of Scythian-related background in Celts from core and western sites, we propose the existence of a westward migratory route bringing people from the Carpathian Basin to Italy, here establishing an intake of eastern genes then merged with the rearrangement of biological variability in Europe due to Iron Age Celtic migration.

Non-metric dental traits, Iron Age, Biological affinity, Strontium isotopes, Celts

Oral presentation

  Abstract (PDF)

Erica Piccirilli⁵

Rita Sorrentino²
Federico Lugli^4,5
Eugenio Bortolini^1,5
Sara Silvestrini⁵
Claudio Cavazzuti⁶
Antonio Gottarelli⁶
Maria Giovanna Belcastro²
Tamás Hajdu³
Stefano Benazzi⁵