Sarah Defant
PhD candidate investigating changes in human diet, nutrition, health and mobility during the transition from Roman Antiquity into the Early Middle Ages.
MSc Human Osteology & Funerary Archaeology, University of Sheffield
BA Classical Archaeology, University of Vienna
MSc Human Osteology & Funerary Archaeology, University of Sheffield
BA Classical Archaeology, University of Vienna
less
InterestsView All (7)
Uploads
Papers by Sarah Defant
Europe on both macro-
and
microlevels during the Early Medieval period. History and archaeology have long
focused on their description and identification based on written sources or through their
archaeological record. We provide a different perspective on this topic by integrating
paleogenomic, archaeological, and isotopic data to gain insights into the role of one such
elite group in a Langobard period community near Collegno, Italy dated to the 6-8th
centuries CE. Our analysis of 28 newly sequenced genomes together with 24 previously
published ones combined with isotope (Sr, C, N) measurements revealed that this community
was established by and organized around a network of biologically and socially
related individuals likely composed of multiple elite families that over time developed
into a single extended pedigree. The community also included individuals with diverse
genetic ancestries, maintaining its diversity by integrating newcomers and groups in later
stages of its existence. This study highlights how shifts in political power and migration
impacted the formation and development of a small rural community within a key
region of the former Western Roman Empire after its dissolution and the emergence of
a new kingdom. Furthermore, it suggests that Early Medieval elites had the capacity to
incorporate individuals from varied backgrounds and that these elites were the result of
(political) agency rather than belonging to biologically homogeneous groups.