Avar

From Avar funeral customs, and from written reports of their neighbours, scholars have reconstructed some of their social practices and ways of life.

Yet now, archaeogenetics offer a totally new viewpoint on Avar communities who lived more than 1000 years ago.

The historical knowledge on the Avar period populations was passed on to us by their enemies, mainly the Byzantines and the Franks, so we lack information on the internal organisation of their clans.

We know that some groups came to Europe from the East Asian and Pontic steppes, but to what extent, if at all, were steppe traditions maintained in Avar society if at all?

Contrary to common practice in ancient DNA research, the team aimed to study whole communities and therefore focused on sampling all available human remains from four fully excavated Avar period cemeteries.