[ad_1]
A genetic study revealed fascinating new perspectives on the social organization and migrations of the mysterious Longobards – a barbarian people who invaded and ruled over vast areas of Italy for over 200 years after the fall of Rome.
Western Europe experienced significant social, cultural and economic changes between the third and the tenth century – a period marked by the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the migrations and invasions of Western Europe. barbarian groups across the continent. However, knowledge of this key historical era is limited in many ways.
"There are many so-called" barbarian people "described in historical texts that are supposed to have invaded Europe as the Roman Empire declined between the 4 and 6 th century, with names such as as Franks, Goths, Angles, Saxons and Vandals. author of Nature Communications study, Krishna Veeramah of Stony Brook University, said Newsweek.
"However, as the barbarians themselves have left no written record, their origins and way of life are somewhat mysterious. Until its fall, these groups lived mainly north of the Roman Empire, beyond the Rhine and the Danube, formerly called "Germania". The only written texts of the present time of the events in question come from the Romans who lived this invasion, offering a very partial and particularly violent point of view. "
As a result, almost every aspect of these migrations is debated among researchers. In an attempt to address this uncertainty in historical knowledge, an international team of researchers decided to use genetic data to see if they could spotlight one of the most intriguing barbarian groups.
The Longobards – also known as Lombards or "Longbeards" – were a polyethnic confederation of barbarians who created a kingdom in the region of modern Austria and Western Hungary in the sixth century, according to Veeramah. From there, they conquered most of Italy at the end of the sixth century, under the leadership of their ruler, King Albion.
Veeramah and his colleagues used advanced DNA techniques to sequence all the genomes of 63 individuals from two ancient cemeteries in Szólád, Hungary, and Collegno, Italy, previously associated with Longobards.
See all best photos of the week in these slideshows
This allowed them to examine the genetic data in the context of the archaeological material of these sites to get an idea of the social organization of these communities in a way that has not been done before. Each cemetery was organized around a large family, with at least two groups of ancestry and different funeral customs identified at each location.
The team's findings demonstrate that the inhabitants of these cemeteries were very diverse genetically, some resembling modern Europeans in the North or Center, and others resembling modern Southern Europeans. According to Veeramah, this range of diversity was surprising even for a modern European village.
"More interestingly, in both cemeteries, individuals with this more Nordic genetic ancestry tended to have a lot of funerary goods – weapons, jewelry, and so on. – and to be buried in a very elaborate way, while having such artifacts, "he said.
"The Nordic-looking individuals also seemed to have much better diets in general – a lot of meat, for example," he said. "This suggests that even though these individuals were all part of the same global community – because they were buried together – there was a social structure that manifested itself in the way they were buried and reflected different genetic origins.
Finally, the team was able to reconstruct complete genealogies of the inhabitants of these ancient cemeteries, said Veeramah. "Strangely, we found mostly male families buried together over three generations, but involving only people with North European genetic ancestry and rich funerary objects."
"The women did not show such close relationships and showed that they were born elsewhere," he said. "We would not have expected to see this kind of Nordic genetic ancestry in Italy. This leads us to think that we are witnessing the migration of barbarians – in this case "Lombard migration" – described in the historical texts, and that closely related groups of men were an important part of this process. migration. The women may have been acquired en route or brought elsewhere once the group is installed. "
The barbarians have certainly contributed to a major change in the socio-economic and cultural landscape of the continent and provide a basis for modern European society, according to Veeramah.
"However, historians and archaeologists debate much about the extent to which barbarians have invaded the continent. en masseas opposed to a more modest change involving only the ruling elite of medieval towns and villages, the majority of those present at the time of the empire remaining essentially in place, "he said.
"Although we know that the Barbarians entered the Roman Empire once it fell, we had no idea how they were doing it and in what kind of numbers," did he declare. "Our work, by combining genomic data from everyone in an old cemetery and comparing them to archaeological and textual data, provides a first glimpse into this process, suggesting that biological parenthood between groups of men was a key element of the process. for the Longobards.
According to the researchers, the next step will be to examine other cemeteries of this period, associated with both Lombards and other barbarian groups, to see how widespread these phenomena were and to make themselves better off. idea of life at the time.
[ad_2]
Source link
