E-V13 - Theories on its Origin and New Data

[rafc]

I'm also looking forward to this paper I posted about before:

CONTRASTING GENETIC IMPACTS OF EASTERN MIGRANTS ON EARLY IRON AGE COMMUNITIES IN HUNGARY AND TRANSYLVANIA

Luka Papac1, Mariana Egri2, Angela Mötsch1, Thiseas Lamnidis1, Szilárd Gál3, Aurel Rustoiu2, Stephan Schiffels1

1 Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
2 Institute of Archaeology and Art History, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
3 Mureş County Museum, Târgu Mureş, Romania.

Ancient DNA from Iron Age nomads across the Eurasian steppe, including individuals from “Scythian” contexts, has revealed their varied genetic origins and high genetic diversity. However, little is known about their genetic impact and legacy on European communities. By analysing genomes of “Scythian” Age individuals from Transylvania (n=67, unpublished) and Hungary (n=7, previously published), we find ~40% eastern admixture in Transylvania but 0% in Hungary. In contrast to the trans-Eurasian migrations to the Pannonian Basin in the Avar period, the eastern ancestry in Transylvanian “Scythians” largely came from “Scythian” communities in neighbouring Moldova and Ukraine, which admixed into the pre-existing Balkan genetic substratum. In addition to eastern ancestry, we find multiple genetic outlier individuals from central/northern Europe and southern Balkans buried in “Scythian” contexts, implying a dynamic admixture process associated with the formation of these “Scythian” communities. From Transylvania, we reconstruct several families from “Scythian” burial contexts up to three generations deep, most consisting of members with and without eastern ancestry, documenting real-time admixture between locals and eastern migrants. Among these is also a case of siblings buried 11km apart. However, this eastern ancestry did not persist after the “Scythian” period, with subsequent “Celtic” Age associated individuals (n=6) carrying primarily the pre-existing local ancestry with limited evidence of additional central European or eastern gene flow.

This completely debunks the idea of the "Balkan ancestry" spreading only in the Roman era North of the Danube and it proves, what I have been saying all along, that the local ancestry persisted during the Scythian, Celtic and Sarmatian period in the East Carpathians. There can be little doubt that this local (mostly Dacian) element will yield E-V13.

Hard to say much on it as long as we don't see the data. It seems to be complementary to the Rohrlach paper (also from the Max Planck institute) which goes up to the LBA, while this paper seems to pick up somewhere in the EIA. I wonder if they are meant to come out together.

But note that the paper you cite is not on the current list of accepted papers for E-A-A 2024. It was submitted in any case, it's where we got all those abstracts we were not supposed to see from, so there is still a chance it will be accepted, the list is not final. The Rohrlach paper is on the list of accepted ones.