This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Visigothic and Vandal forces marched into Italy and conquered Rome; the Huns spread fear and terror on their campaigns through Western Europe; the Franks expanded their domain southward—the fifth century was an era of profound, often violent upheavals in Europe, and at the same time one of great mobility. Researchers from the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology (IKMB) at Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel and the Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research (NIhK) have now identified a specific example of this mobility in the Fallward burial ground in what is now the district of Cuxhaven.
"Genetic analyses confirm that a man buried at Fallward originated from the Danube region. He was also infected with a very rare leprosy pathogen. He is the first individual from this group to have been identified in Europe," says Daniel Myburgh of the IKMB, lead author of the study, which has now been published in the journal iScience.
The Cuxhaven district's archaeological heritage conservation department had already investigated the Fallward burial ground back in the 1990s. Thanks to the damp soil, wooden and textile grave goods were preserved in their entirety. Findings and artifacts from the burial site are currently being fully analyzed for the first time as part of a project at the NIhK in Wilhelmshaven.
The focus is on objects that were recovered in blocks at the time and stored in a frozen state, which the researchers will now examine under laboratory conditions. In this context, the Ancient DNA Working Group at the IKMB in Kiel received bone samples from 11 individuals to clarify possible genetic relationships and detect traces of infectious diseases. "Three of the individuals provided sufficient data for a population genetic analysis.
The results were particularly striking in the case of one individual," says the study's lead researcher, professor Ben Krause-Kyora of the IKMB. The man had been buried in a boat along with numerous grave goods made of wood, pottery and metal. "The grave goods placed in the tomb aroused particular scientific interest; these included a chair, artfully decorated and carved from an alder trunk.
Furthermore, the man possessed a late Roman military belt, which suggested that the deceased had had connections across great distances," explains Dr. The new genetic analyses have confirmed these findings. They confirm that the man originated from the Danube region and that he had an unusual form of leprosy.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
