Social genomics in Late Antique and Early-Medieval Societies

Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages were periods of dramatic population and social changes, associated with the fall of the Western Roman Empire. For decades, historians and archaeologists have focused on political turmoil, migrations, economic crises, cultural changes and the expansion of Christianity. Research on social structure has mainly been focused on the identities and lifestyles of those who supplanted the Roman aristocracy and came to rule: mainly new military and ecclesiastical elites. Genetic studies are adding significant insights into the identity of these strata, previously only known through the information transmitted by historical sources or archaeologically through grave goods and typologies. Little is known, however, regarding the ancestry and general characteristics of those who were not among the privileged and how their conditions changed during this period. While some studies imply an improvement of general conditions of lower social classes due to the end of Roman state control, bioarchaeological evidence suggests a worsening diet and health conditions, also probably related to large scale environmental transformations. There are no studies on how the settlement of new barbarian populations affected the life conditions of those at the bottom of the social pyramid, including eventual changes in their genetic composition. Our purpose is to understand how society and particularly the composition of the lower status population changed after the end of the Roman Empire. We will analyse their genetic ancestry and general conditions of life in different contexts in Northern Italy across a timespan of four centuries. We will genetically, archaeologically and bioarchaeologically analyse individuals from 13 cemeteries, 11 of which comprise burials of lower class individuals, from rural and urban contexts and 2 cemeteries of privileged individuals, 90 individuals in total. We have established this identification through a combination of different archaeological indicators. We will focus on studying their different ancestries, diets, health status and occupational markers in order to build a global picture of the society of their time. We expect to find differences that can be explained by their unequal life conditions. This study takes an innovative approach by using genetics to understand the ancestry components and life conditions of Late Antique low class groups. Previous studies have genetically studied the privileged elites of Late Antique Italy, but no previous project has focused on non-elite individuals. We will use consistent multiple approaches to seek an integrated archaeological, historic and genetic assessment of this former society. Primary researchers involved Pere Gelabert, Universität Wien Alexandra Chavarria, Università degli Studi di Padova Emanuela Cristiani, Sapienza Università di Roma