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.

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Publication Details

Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2024-08-19
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2317868121
Citations
11
Primary Topic
Forensic and Genetic Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
6.05

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article

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

David Caramelli, Caterina Giostra, Alessandra Modi, Cosimo Posth et al.
11 citations
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Forensic and Genetic Research
6.05
article

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

David Caramelli, Caterina Giostra, Alessandra Modi, Cosimo Posth, Elena Bedini, Patrick J. Geary, Axel Steinhof, István Koncz, Deven N. Vyas, Adam Izdebski, Guido Brandt, Paolo Francalacci, Stefania Vai, Yijie Tian, Martina Lari, Arkadiusz Sołtysiak, Krishna R. Veeramah, Rafał Fetner, Luisella Pejrani Baricco, Walter Pohl, Johannes Krause, Ricardo Fernandes, Sarah Defant
article en
11 citations

Abstract

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.

Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesVol. 121(36)
Eötvös Loránd University (HU), Jagiellonian University (PL), University of Vienna (AT), Austrian Academy of Sciences (AT), University of Cagliari (IT), Princeton University (US), Masaryk University (CZ), Institute for Advanced Study (US), Institute for Medieval Research (AT), Accademia Albertina delle Belle Arti (IT), Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (DE), ELTE Research Centre for the Humanities (HU), Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (DE), Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (DE), Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, University of Florence (IT), University of Warsaw (PL), Stony Brook University (US), Freie Universität Berlin (DE), University of Tübingen (DE)
Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, Dipartimenti di Eccellenza, European Commission, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Narodowe Centrum Nauki, Narodowym Centrum Nauki, HORIZON EUROPE European Research Council
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 3%
Forensic and Genetic Research
6.05
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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