Migration and Dental Nonmetric Variation in Medieval and Early Modern Hungary

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.

Throughout history, the Carpathian Basin has been a natural crossroads for populations migrating between Europe and the rest of Eurasia. During the medieval and early modern periods, three major migrations shaped the demography of the basin: 1) the migration of the Avars; 2) the conquest of the Magyars; and 3) the invasion of the Ottomans. While the cultural impact of these migrations is well understood, their impact on biological variation is not. This study uses biodistance analysis and trait frequency comparisons to explore dental variation in medieval and early modern Hungary. Using ASUDAS, 27 dental nonmetric traits were scored on bioarchaeological collections housed at the Hungarian Natural History Museum and Szeged University (Avar = 139, Carolingian = 226, Post-Magyar Conquest Medieval = 481, Ottoman = 381). The collapse of the Avar empire is associated with the greatest shift in dental variation with subsequent transitions resulting in comparatively subtle fluctuations. After the Avars, Hungarian dental nonmetric variation stayed relatively consistent, even with major demographic and cultural changes. Expanding the available dental nonmetric data from this region promises to further refine these interpretations and expand our understanding of diversity and variability in medieval Eurasia. ***Presentation may include images of human remains.

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): 39613.0