Population Replacement and Radiation and the Decline of the Great Moravian State

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Life and Death in Medieval Central Europe" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Great Moravia is credited by historians as the first Slavic state, existing briefly in the ninth and early tenth centuries. Internal disputes, Magyar incursions, conflicts with the Frankish Empire, and climate change events contributed to the decline and demise of the Great Moravian state. Although these events are supported by archaeological and historical records, the fate of the people and potential changes to population structures throughout Moravia is not well understood. This study examines potential population replacement events corresponding with the demise of the Great Moravian state from neighboring areas, as well as potential destinations of displaced people from the center of Mikulčice. Dental morphological data from ninth- to thirteenth-century sites throughout Moravia, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, and Germany are compared using biological distance analysis. Results support a major shift in the biological population structures of settlements in Moravia after the tenth century, likely as a result of colonization from modern-day Hungary and Germany. Additionally, the results support a multidirectional radiation of migrants from Mikulčice to Hungary and Bohemia. This study sheds light on the nature of migration events to and from an area within Central Europe that experiences a major cultural shift coinciding with the decline of a state.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Life and Death in Medieval Central Europe   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38337.0