The genetic origin of Huns, Avars, and conquering Hungarians.

Huns, Avars, and conquering Hungarians were migration-period nomadic tribal confederations that arrived in three successive waves in the Carpathian Basin between the 5th and 9th centuries. Based on the historical data, each of these groups are thought to have arrived from Asia, although their exact origin and relation to other ancient and modern populations have been debated. Recently, hundreds of ancient genomes were analyzed from Central Asia, Mongolia, and China, from which we aimed to identify putative source populations for the above-mentioned groups. In this study, we have sequenced 9 Hun, 143 Avar, and 113 Hungarian conquest period samples and identified three core populations, representing immigrants from each period with no recent European ancestry. Our results reveal that this "immigrant core" of both Huns and Avars likely originated in present day Mongolia, and their origin can be traced back to Xiongnus (Asian Huns), as suggested by several historians. On the other hand, the "immigrant core" of the conquering Hungarians derived from an earlier admixture of Mansis, early Sarmatians, and descendants of late Xiongnus. We have also shown that a common "proto-Ugric" gene pool appeared in the Bronze Age from the admixture of Mezhovskaya and Nganasan people, supporting genetic and linguistic data. In addition, we detected shared Hun-related ancestry in numerous Avar and Hungarian conquest period genetic outliers, indicating a genetic link between these successive nomadic groups. Aside from the immigrant core groups, we identified that the majority of the individuals from each period were local residents harboring "native European" ancestry.

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

Hun, Avar and conquering Hungarian nomadic groups arrived to the Carpathian Basin from the Eurasian Steppes and significantly influenced its political and ethnical landscape, however their origin remains largely unknown. In order to shed light on the genetic affinity of above groups we have determined Y chromosomal haplogroups and autosomal loci, suitable to predict biogeographic ancestry, from 49 individuals, supposed to represent the power/military elit. Haplogroups from the Hun-age are consistent with Xiongnu ancestry of European Huns. Most of the Avar-age individuals carry east Eurasian Y haplogroups typical for modern north-eastern Siberian and Buryat populations and their autosomal loci indicate mostly un-admixed Asian characteristics. In contrast 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.

[Dental morphological and metric characteristics in contemporary and historical population of Târgu Mureș]. / Fogak morfológiai és metrikus jellegzetességeinek vizsgálata marosvásárhelyi középkori leleteken és a jelenkori helyi populáció körében.

INTRODUCTION: Teeth, as an integral part of human organism, are not exceptions from the physical anthropology changes caused by biological evolution and the way of living. Different stress factors and the natural selection are contributing to the emphasis of certain morphological characteristics. AIM: Comparison of dental metric characteristics and the presence of accessory tooth cusps between human remains from the Middle Ages and dental study models of today's patients. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Morphological characteristics of 132 teeth from 19 skulls and 694 teeth on dental models of 30 patients were examined. The mesiodistal, incisivocervical and buccolingual diameters of crowns were measured by a validated 2D image analysis method. Carabelli and talon cusps were also examined using a magnifying glass. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences between the size of the 14th-century and the present-day teeth were found in some of the teeth groups. In medieval artifacts, lateral teeth had smaller crown width than teeth measured in the contemporary population. The Carabelli cusps found in the archeological human remains belonged to grades 1 and 3 on Dahlberg scale (23.07%), while the Carabelli cusps observed in the contemporary group belonged to grades 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 (50.90%). Talon cusp occurred only once in the contemporary group. CONCLUSION: In case of the contemporary teeth, the Carabelli cusps appeared in a more pronounced morphological form and with a higher frequency, which emphasizes the European origin of today's population. Orv Hetil. 2018; 159(30): 1235-1240.