June 01, 2009

Y chromosomes from 7th c. Ergolding (Bavaria, Germany)

From the paper:
Men from the grave 244 (marked 244A to 244F) were buried together into a single wooden burial chamber. Individuals found in the western part of the chamber (244A, 244B, and 244C) lied straight on the back, body-by-body, and all 3 men were buried with swords, spears, shields, and spurs, like heavily armored mounted warriors (9). Historic value of the artifacts found in the grave 244 makes this place one of the richest Bavarian burial sites from the late-Merowig period (9). The grave 244 dates to the period around 670 AD. The eastern part of the burial chamber with the individuals 244D, 244E, and 244F was robbed and therefore no valuable artifacts
were found.
The haplotypes are on p. 291 of the paper. Two men probably belonged to haplogroup G2a, and four men to haplogroup R1b. The R1b men were probably patrilineally related, and two of them, (244A/244B) based on their autosomal profiles were probably full siblings.

Someone ought to re-run the haplotypes in ysearch and also the autosomal profiles using something like OmniPop. Feel free to comment/link if you do.

Added to the Ancient Y chromosome studies compendium.

Croat Med J. 2009 Jun;50(3):286-95.

Kinship and y-chromosome analysis of 7th century human remains: novel DNA extraction and typing procedure for ancient material.

Vanek D, Saskova L, Koch H.

Daniel Vanek, Forensic DNA Service, Janovskeho 18, 170 00 Prague 7, Czech Republic, daniel.vanek@DNA.com.cz.

Aim. To develop novel DNA extraction and typing procedure for DNA identification of the 7th century human remains, determine the familiar relationship between the individuals, estimate the Y-chromosome haplogroup, and compare the Y-chromosome haplotype with the contemporary populations. Methods. DNA from preserved femur samples was extracted using the modified silica-based extraction technique. Polymerase chain reaction amplification was performed using human identification kits MiniFiler, Identifiler, and Y-filer and also laboratory-developed and validated Y-chromosome short tandem repeat (STR) pentaplexes with short amplicons. Results. For 244A, 244B, 244C samples, full autosomal DNA profiles (15 STR markers and Amelogenin) and for 244D, 244E, 244F samples, MiniFiler profiles were produced. Y-chromosome haplotypes consisting of up to 24 STR markers were determined and used to predict the Y-chromosome haplogroups and compare the resulting haplotypes with the current population. Samples 244A, 244B, 244C, and 244D belong to Y-chromosome haplogroup R1b and the samples 244E and 244F to haplogroup G2a. Comparison of ancient haplotypes with the current population yielded numerous close matches with genetic distance bellow 2. Conclusion. Application of forensic genetics in archaeology enables retrieving new types of information and helps in data interpretation. The number of successfully typed autosomal and Y-STR loci from ancient specimens in this study is one of the largest published so far for aged samples.



Creative said...

I know little about the historical background of these graves. But after doing a quick background check on grave 244 in Ergolding ,some details came forth. If I understand the text correctly 2 men had Spurs “horse riders” in their burial .Another one had an AVAR SABRE between his legs. Avars/horse nomads = G2a ?

Search "Ergolding 244"

Shawn Sinclair said...

Can you tell me if they were related to Merovech or not, thank you.

Creative said...

No idea, I think some individuals where Avaras, If you look up "Avar March" on Wikipedia you will see that the "Avar March" compromises Ergolding "Bavaria" till the beginning of the 8th century.