From the first century AD, Europe has been interested by population movements, commonly known as Barbarian migrations. Among these processes, the one involving the Longobard culture interested a vast region, but its dynamics and demographic impact remains largely unknown. Here we report 87 new complete mitochondrial sequences coming from nine early-medieval cemeteries located along the area interested by the Longobard migration (Czech Republic, Hungary and Italy). From the same areas, we sampled necropoleis characterized by cultural markers associated with the Longobard culture (LC) and coeval burials where no such markers were found, or with a chronology slightly preceding the presumed arrival of the Longobards in that region (NLC). Population genetics analysis and demographic modeling highlighted a similarity between LC individuals, as reflected by the sharing of quite rare haplogroups and by the degree of genetic resemblance between Hungarian and Italian LC necropoleis estimated via a Bayesian approach, ABC. The demographic model receiving the strongest statistical support also postulates a contact between LC and NLC communities, thus indicating a complex dynamics of admixture in medieval Europe.

Department of Ecology and Evolution Stony Brook University Stony Brook NY 11790 USA

Dipartimento di Biologia Università di Firenze 50122 Florence Italy

Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e Biotecnologie Università di Ferrara 44121 Ferrara Italy

Dipartimento di Storia Archeologia e Storia dell'arte Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore 20123 Milano Italy

Fondazione Edmund Mach 38010 San Michele all'Adige Italy

Heinrich Schliemann Institut für Altertumswissenschaften Universität Rostock Rostock 18055 Germany

Institute of Archaeological Sciences Eötvös Loránd University Múzeum körút 4 B Budapest 1088 Hungary

Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences Brno Czechia

Research Centre for the Humanities Hungarian Academy of Sciences Budapest Hungary

School of Historical Studies Institute for Advanced Study Princeton NJ 08540 USA

Soprintendenza Archeologia del Piemonte Avigliana 10051 Italy

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