@article{bdc7ed0ce55e44e9b87fae34b4bc20fd,
title = "Ancient genomes reveal origin and rapid trans-Eurasian migration of 7th century Avar elites",
abstract = "The Avars settled the Carpathian Basin in 567/68 CE, establishing an empire lasting over 200 years. Who they were and where they came from is highly debated. Contemporaries have disagreed about whether they were, as they claimed, the direct successors of the Mongolian Steppe Rouran empire that was destroyed by the Turks in ∼550 CE. Here, we analyze new genome-wide data from 66 pre-Avar and Avar-period Carpathian Basin individuals, including the 8 richest Avar-period burials and further elite sites from Avar{\textquoteright}s empire core region. Our results provide support for a rapid long-distance trans-Eurasian migration of Avar-period elites. These individuals carried Northeast Asian ancestry matching the profile of preceding Mongolian Steppe populations, particularly a genome available from the Rouran period. Some of the later elite individuals carried an additional non-local ancestry component broadly matching the steppe, which could point to a later migration or reflect greater genetic diversity within the initial migrant population.",
keywords = "Avars, Carpathian Basin, Pannonia, ancient DNA, early medieval, human migration, migration period, population genomics, steppe nomads, Genetics, Population, History, Ancient, Humans, DNA, Ancient, Human Migration/history, Asians/genetics, Genome, Sulfur, GENETIC HISTORY, PATTERNS, ADMIXTURE, CAVE, SEQUENCE, FRAMEWORK",
author = "Gnecchi-Ruscone, {Guido Alberto} and Anna Sz{\'e}cs{\'e}nyi-Nagy and Istv{\'a}n Koncz and Gergely Csiky and Zs{\'o}fia R{\'a}cz and Rohrlach, {A B} and Guido Brandt and Nadin Rohland and Veronika Cs{\'a}ky and Olivia Cheronet and Bea Szeifert and R{\'a}cz, {Tibor {\'A}kos} and Andr{\'a}s Benedek and Zsolt Bernert and Norbert Berta and Szabolcs Czifra and J{\'a}nos Dani and Zolt{\'a}n Farkas and Tamara H{\'a}ga and Tam{\'a}s Hajdu and M{\'o}nika J{\'a}szber{\'e}nyi and Vikt{\'o}ria Kisjuh{\'a}sz and Barbara Kolozsi and P{\'e}ter Major and Ant{\'o}nia Marcsik and Kovacs{\'o}czy, {Bernadett Ny} and Csilla Balogh and Lezs{\'a}k, {Gabriella M} and {\'O}dor, {J{\'a}nos G{\'a}bor} and M{\'a}rta Szelekovszky and Tam{\'a}s Szeniczey and Judit T{\'a}rnoki and Zolt{\'a}n T{\'o}th and Tutkovics, {Eszter K} and Mende, {Bal{\'a}zs G} and Patrick Geary and Walter Pohl and Tivadar Vida and Ron Pinhasi and David Reich and Zuzana Hofmanov{\'a} and Choongwon Jeong and Johannes Krause",
note = "Copyright {\textcopyright} 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.",
year = "2022",
month = apr,
day = "14",
doi = "10.1016/j.cell.2022.03.007",
language = "English",
volume = "185",
pages = "1402--1413",
journal = "Cell",
issn = "0092-8674",
publisher = "CELL PRESS",
number = "8",
}