Lombards on the Move – An Integrative Study of the Migration Period Cemetery at Szólád, Hungary

Hungary. PLoS ONE 9(11): e110793. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0110793 Lombards on the Move - An Integrative Study of the Migration Period Cemetery at Szo la d, Hungary Kurt W. Alt 0 Corina Knipper 0 Daniel Peters 0 Wolfgang Mu ller 0 Anne-France Maurer 0 Isabelle Kollig 0 Nicole Nicklisch 0 Christiane Mu ller 0 Sarah Karimnia 0 Guido Brandt 0 Christina Roth 0 Martin Rosner 0 Bala sz Mende 0 Bernd R. Scho ne 0 Tivadar Vida 0 Uta von Freeden 0 Luca Bondioli, Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico 'L. Pigorini', Italy 0 1 Center for Natural and Cultural History of the Teeth, Danube Private University , Krems , Austria , 2 State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt and State Museum of Prehistory , Halle, Germany , 3 Institute for Prehistory and Archaeological Science, Basel University , Basel , Switzerland , 4 Curt Engelhorn Centre Archaeometry gGmbH , Mannheim, Germany , 5 Institut fu r Pra historische Archa ologie, Freie Universita t Berlin , Berlin, Germany , 6 Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London , London , United Kingdom , 7 Laborato rio Hercules , Universidade de E vora, E vora, Portugal, 8 Institute of Anthropology, University of Mainz , Mainz, Germany, 9 IsoAnalysis UG, Berlin, Germany , 10 Archaeological Institute, Research Centre for Humanities, Hungarian Academy of Sciences , Budapest , Hungary , 11 Institute of Geosciences, University of Mainz , Mainz, Germany , 12 Department of Prehistory and Protohistory, E o tvo s Lora nd University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary, 13 German Archaeological Institute, Roman Germanic Commission , Frankfurt a. M. , Germany In 2005 to 2007 45 skeletons of adults and subadults were excavated at the Lombard period cemetery at Szo lad (6th century A.D.), Hungary. Embedded into the well-recorded historical context, the article presents the results obtained by an integrative investigation including anthropological, molecular genetic and isotopic (d15N, d13C, 87Sr/86Sr) analyses. Skeletal stress markers as well as traces of interpersonal violence were found to occur frequently. The mitochondrial DNA profiles revealed a heterogeneous spectrum of lineages that belong to the haplogroups H, U, J, HV, T2, I, and K, which are common in present-day Europe and in the Near East, while N1a and N1b are today quite rare. Evidence of possible direct maternal kinship was identified in only three pairs of individuals. According to enamel strontium isotope ratios, at least 31% of the individuals died at a location other than their birthplace and/or had moved during childhood. Based on the peculiar 87Sr/86Sr ratio distribution between females, males, and subadults in comparison to local vegetation and soil samples, we propose a three-phase model of group movement. An initial patrilocal group with narrower male but wider female Sr isotope distribution settled at Szo lad, whilst the majority of subadults represented in the cemetery yielded a distinct Sr isotope signature. Owing to the virtual absence of Szo lad-born adults in the cemetery, we may conclude that the settlement was abandoned after approx. one generation. Population heterogeneity is furthermore supported by the carbon and nitrogen isotope data. They indicate that a group of high-ranking men had access to larger shares of animal-derived food whilst a few individuals consumed remarkable amounts of millet. The inferred dynamics of the burial community are in agreement with hypotheses of a highly mobile lifestyle during the Migration Period and a short-term occupation of Pannonia by Lombard settlers as conveyed by written sources. - Data Availability: The authors confirm that all data underlying the findings are fully available without restriction. All files including molecular data are available in GenBank (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank) under accession numbers KM114982 to KM115015. Funding: The excavations between 2005 and 2007 were funded by the German Archaeological Institute Berlin (no grant number exists). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation the manuscript. Competing Interests: Martin Rosner is employed by a commercial company "IsoAnalysis UG". This does not alter the authors adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. . These authors contributed equally to this work. Historical references to the Lombards or Longobards date back to the first century A.D. during which this gens inhabited the lower Elbe region in northern Germany [13]. In the second century they disappear from the Roman sources until the late 5th century, when reference to Longobards reoccurs in the region north of the middle Danube. There is fierce debate as to whether these new Longobards had anything in common with and whether there was any continuity between them and those mentioned during the Roman period, or whether a second ethnogenesis took place and resulted in a group that adopted the old name. Subsequent Roman and Byzantine sources as well as later records produced by Romanised Christian authors report on the Lombards being involved in battles, and in events of resettlement and land seizures, initially on the middle Danube in Moravia and lower Austria, and subsequently in Pannonia. Finally, and most notably the records describe their final invasion into Italy [46]. The history of the Lombards has been appraised as a key example of a protohistoric migration. It took place at the very end of the Great Germanic Migrations across Europe and involved only three generations approximately. It started around A.D. 500 with the reoccurrence of their name north of the middle Danube outside the former Roman Empire and ended in A.D. 568 with the foundation of the Lombard kingdom in Italy which marked the end of the period of the Great Migrations. Pannonia was the core area of Lombard settlement in the 6th century. Historical sources provide accounts of the gens occupying the north of the former Roman province of Pannonia in A.D. 526 and the south in A.D. 546; they also mention the year of their migration to Italy [1]. Archaeologically, some 40 cemeteries containing approximately 2,000 burials are known from the Lombard period [7]. They have yielded evidence of funerary customs and characteristics of material culture that are comparable to those in the surrounding areas and the regions around the postulated route of migration. This has raised questions and hypotheses regarding the identification and social structure of the Lombards as well as the impact of residential relocation. Despite snippets of information from written records and archaeological evidence it still remains unclear whether any migrations of larger groups took place, or whether the sources were biased by military interests and thus possibly exaggerated the role played by mass movement. It is furthermore unknown whether incoming groups had already been affiliated for several generations, or whether they were (...truncated)