The role of emerging elites in the formation and development of communities after the fall of the Roman Empire.

Elites played a pivotal role in the formation of post-Roman Europe on both macro- and microlevels during the Early Medieval period. History and archaeology have long focused on their description and identification based on written sources or through their archaeological record. We provide a different perspective on this topic by integrating paleogenomic, archaeological, and isotopic data to gain insights into the role of one such elite group in a Langobard period community near Collegno, Italy dated to the 6-8th centuries CE. Our analysis of 28 newly sequenced genomes together with 24 previously published ones combined with isotope (Sr, C, N) measurements revealed that this community was established by and organized around a network of biologically and socially related individuals likely composed of multiple elite families that over time developed into a single extended pedigree. The community also included individuals with diverse genetic ancestries, maintaining its diversity by integrating newcomers and groups in later stages of its existence. This study highlights how shifts in political power and migration impacted the formation and development of a small rural community within a key region of the former Western Roman Empire after its dissolution and the emergence of a new kingdom. Furthermore, it suggests that Early Medieval elites had the capacity to incorporate individuals from varied backgrounds and that these elites were the result of (political) agency rather than belonging to biologically homogeneous groups.

Evidence for dynastic succession among early Celtic elites in Central Europe.

The early Iron Age (800 to 450 BCE) in France, Germany and Switzerland, known as the 'West-Hallstattkreis', stands out as featuring the earliest evidence for supra-regional organization north of the Alps. Often referred to as 'early Celtic', suggesting tentative connections to later cultural phenomena, its societal and population structure remain enigmatic. Here we present genomic and isotope data from 31 individuals from this context in southern Germany, dating between 616 and 200 BCE. We identify multiple biologically related groups spanning three elite burials as far as 100 km apart, supported by trans-regional individual mobility inferred from isotope data. These include a close biological relationship between two of the richest burial mounds of the Hallstatt culture. Bayesian modelling points to an avuncular relationship between the two individuals, which may suggest a practice of matrilineal dynastic succession in early Celtic elites. We show that their ancestry is shared on a broad geographic scale from Iberia throughout Central-Eastern Europe, undergoing a decline after the late Iron Age (450 BCE to ~50 CE).

Genomic portrait and relatedness patterns of the Iron Age Log Coffin culture in northwestern Thailand.

The Iron Age of highland Pang Mapha, northwestern Thailand, is characterised by a mortuary practice known as Log Coffin culture. Dating between 2300 and 1000 years ago, large coffins carved from individual teak trees have been discovered in over 40 caves and rock shelters. While previous studies focussed on the cultural development of the Log Coffin-associated sites, the origins of the practice, connections with other wooden coffin-using groups in Southeast Asia, and social structure within the region remain understudied. Here, we present genome-wide data from 33 individuals from five Log Coffin culture sites to study genetic ancestry profiles and genetic interconnectedness. The Log Coffin-associated genomes can be modelled as an admixture between Hòabìnhian hunter-gatherer-, Yangtze River farmer-, and Yellow River farmer-related ancestry. This indicates different influence spheres from Bronze and Iron Age individuals from northeastern Thailand as reflected by cultural practices. Our analyses also identify close genetic relationships within the sites and more distant connections between sites in the same and different river valleys. In combination with high mitochondrial haplogroup diversity and genome-wide homogeneity, the Log Coffin-associated groups from northwestern Thailand seem to have been a large, well-connected community, where genetic relatedness played a significant role in the mortuary ritual.