Genetic study comparison of the Huns, Avars, and Hungarian Conquerors

"The conquering Hungarians seem to be a recently assembled population incorporating un-admixed European, Asian as well as admixed components. Their heterogeneous paternal and maternal lineages indicate similar supposed phylogeographic origin of males and females, derived from Central-Inner Asian and European Pontic Steppe sources.

Hg Q1a2- M25 is very rare in Europe, where it has highest frequency among Seklers [Székelys] (a Hungarian speaking ethnic group in Transylvania) according to Family Tree DNA database. Ancient samples with Hg Q1a2- M25 are known from the Bronze Age Okunevo and Karasuk cultures, as well as Middle Age Tian Shan Huns and Hunnic-Sarmatians implying possible Hunnic origin of this lineage in Europe, which is confirmed by the Hg of our Hun/1 sample, derived from Transylvania.

Hun/3 belongs to Hg R1a1a1b2a2- Z2124, a subclade of R1a1a1b2-Z93, the east Eurasian subbranch of R1a. Today Z2124 is most frequent in Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan, but is also widespread among Karachai-Balkars and Baskhirs. Z2124 was widespread on the Bronze Age steppe, especially in the Afanasievo and Sintashta cultures and R1a detected in Xiongnus very likely belong to the same branch. Two samples from the Karos Conqueror cemeteries (K1/3286 and K2/61) were also classified as R1a-Z2124 and two Avar age individuals (DK/701 and MM/227) belong to the same R1a1a1b2a-Z94 branch but marker Z2124 was not covered in latter samples.

Three Conqueror samples belonged to Hg N1a1a1a1a2-Z1936, the Finno-Permic N1a branch, being most frequent among northeastern European Saami, Finns, Karelians, as well as Komis, Volga Tatars and Bashkirs of the Volga-Ural region.

All Hun and Avar age samples had inherently dark eye/hair colors, DK/701 being the only exception (Fig. 3). In contrast the Conquerors showed a wide variety of phenotypes clustered by cemeteries (Fig. 4).

The origin and composition of the Conqueror paternal lineages fairly mirrors that of their maternal ones; 20,7% of the Y-Hg-s originated from East Eurasia, this value is 30,4% for mtDNA; proportion of west Eurasian paternal lineages is 69% compared to 58,8% for mtDNA; while proportion of lineages with north-western European and Caucasus-Middle East origin are nearly the same affirming that both males and females of similar origin migrated together. Both MDS analysis of the entire Conqueror Y chromosome pool and PCA of their N1a lineages indicates that their admixture sources are found among Central Asians and eastern European Pontic Steppe groups, a finding comparable to what had been described for maternal lineages. Composition of the Conqueror paternal lineages is very similar to that of Baskhirs, while their maternal composition was found most similar to Volga Tatars. These modern populations are located next to each other, have similar prehistory and genetic structure derived from the same admixture sources detected in the Conquerors.

The Conqueror-Bashkir relations are also supported by historical sources, as early Hungarians of the Carpathian Basin were reported to be identical to Baskhirs by Arabic historians like al-Masudi, al Qazwini, al-Balhi, al-Istahri and Abu Hamid al-Garnati, latter visited both groups at the same time around 1150 AD and used the term Bashgird to refer to the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin. In addition parallels were found between several Conqueror and Bashkir tribe names and Bashkiria has been identified with Magna Hungaria, the motherland of Conquerors.

We identified potential relatives within Conqueror cemeteries but not between them. The uniform paternal lineages of the small Karos3 (19 graves) and Magyarhomorog (17 graves) cemeteries approve patrilineal organization of these communities. The identical I2a1a2b Hg-s of Magyarhomorog individuals appears to be frequent among high-ranking Conquerors, as the most distinguished graves in the Karos2 and 3 cemeteries also belong to this lineage. The Karos2 and Karos3 leaders were brothers with identical mitogenomes and Y-chromosomal STR profiles (Fóthi unpublished). The Sárrétudvari commoner cemetery seems distinct from the others, containing other sorts of European Hg-s. Available Y-chromosomal and mtDNA data from this cemetery suggest that common people of the 10th century rather represented resident population than newcomers. The great diversity of Y Hg-s, mtDNA Hg-s, phenotypes and predicted biogeographic classifications of the Conquerors indicate that they were relatively recently associated from very diverse populations."

-Y-chromosome haplogroups from Hun, Avar and conquering Hungarian period nomadic people of the Carpathian Basin





Source/Quote:

Comments