Patrick J. Geary

Genetic variation in the Sorbs of eastern Germany in the context of broader European genetic diversity.

Population isolates have long been of interest to genetic epidemiologists because of their potential to increase power to detect disease-causing genetic variants. The Sorbs of Germany are considered as cultural and linguistic isolates and have recently been the focus of disease association mapping efforts. They are thought to have settled in their present location in eastern Germany after a westward migration from a largely Slavic-speaking territory during the Middle Ages. To examine Sorbian genetic diversity within the context of other European populations, we analyzed genotype data for over 30 000 autosomal single-nucleotide polymorphisms from over 200 Sorbs individuals. We compare the Sorbs with other European individuals, including samples from population isolates. Despite their geographical proximity to German speakers, the Sorbs showed greatest genetic similarity to Polish and Czech individuals, consistent with the linguistic proximity of Sorbian to other West Slavic languages. The Sorbs also showed evidence of subtle levels of genetic isolation in comparison with samples from non-isolated European populations. The level of genetic isolation was less than that observed for the Sardinians and French Basque, who were clear outliers on multiple measures of isolation. The finding of the Sorbs as only a minor genetic isolate demonstrates the need to genetically characterize putative population isolates, as they possess a wide range of levels of isolation because of their different demographic histories.

Genealogical relationships between early medieval and modern inhabitants of Piedmont.

In the period between 400 to 800 AD, also known as the period of the Barbarian invasions, intense migration is documented in the historical record of Europe. However, little is known about the demographic impact of these historical movements, potentially ranging from negligible to substantial. As a pilot study in a broader project on Medieval Europe, we sampled 102 specimens from 5 burial sites in Northwestern Italy, archaeologically classified as belonging to Lombards or Longobards, a Germanic people ruling over a vast section of the Italian peninsula from 568 to 774. We successfully amplified and typed the mitochondrial hypervariable region I (HVR-I) of 28 individuals. Comparisons of genetic diversity with other ancient populations and haplotype networks did not suggest that these samples are heterogeneous, and hence allowed us to jointly compare them with three isolated contemporary populations, and with a modern sample of a large city, representing a control for the effects of recent immigration. We then generated by serial coalescent simulations 16 millions of genealogies, contrasting a model of genealogical continuity with one in which the contemporary samples are genealogically independent from the medieval sample. Analyses by Approximate Bayesian Computation showed that the latter model fits the data in most cases, with one exception, Trino Vercellese, in which the evidence was compatible with persistence up to the present time of genetic features observed among this early medieval population. We conclude that it is possible, in general, to detect evidence of genealogical ties between medieval and specific modern populations. However, only seldom did mitochondrial DNA data allow us to reject with confidence either model tested, which indicates that broader analyses, based on larger assemblages of samples and genetic markers, are needed to understand in detail the effects of medieval migration.

Land, Language and Memory in Europe 700-1100

Literacy and property have been among the dominant themes of early medieval history for more than a decade. Since the work of Rosamund McKitterick, Janet Nelson and others, contrary to the assumptions of an earlier generation of scholars, scholars have recognised that die written word profoundly influenced die transmission of die past and the control of the present in early medieval Europe. This was true not only in die highest circles of ecclesiastical and royal life, but also at much more humble levels across Europe. If, as Janet Nelson reminds us, even freedmen could still be referred to in die ninth century as ‘ cartularii ’, literally charter-men, ‘because of the written carta of manumission required by law courts as symbol and proof of liberation’, die written word reached indeed deeply into society.

Power and Ethnicity History and Anthropology

This essay reflects on the relationship between anthropological and historical scholarship of ethnicity, picking up on themes explored by Andre Gingrich, by considering the epistemological and evidentiary limitations of social scientific and historical analysis and reconstruction. Beginning with the consideration of the pioneering transdisciplinary efforts of Robert Darnton and Clifford Geertz, it argues that many of the weaknesses ascribed to such efforts are actually part of the nature of social scientific investigation which, in the terms of Peter Winch, must take into account two sets of relationships: that of the relationship between the scientist and the phenomena that he or she observes and the symbolic system that he or she shares with other scientists, which can only be understood from the social context of common activity. How these two relationships challenge social scientific analysis of ethnicity are examined through a consideration of the difficulties of applying Anthony Smiths definition of an ethnie to either Fredrik Barths classic essay on “Pathan Identity and its Maintenance” or Helmut Reimitzs study of Frankish identity. It concludes that neither anthropologists nor historians are simply describing societies as they are or as they were but rather attempt to describe societies as witnesses within them thought they should be, and we do this for our own society, not for those of the participants, past or present.

Understanding 6th-Century Barbarian Social Organization and Migration through Paleogenomics

Despite centuries of research, much about the barbarian migrations that took place between the fourth and sixth centuries in Europe remains hotly debated. To better understand this key era that marks the dawn of modern European societies, we obtained ancient genomic DNA from 63 samples from two cemeteries (from Hungary and Northern Italy) that have been previously associated with the Longobards, a barbarian people that ruled large parts of Italy for over 200 years after invading from Pannonia in 568 CE. Our dense cemetery-based sampling revealed that each cemetery was primarily organized around one large pedigree, suggesting that biological relationships played an important role in these early medieval societies. Moreover, we identified genetic structure in each cemetery involving at least two groups with different ancestry that were very distinct in terms of their funerary customs. Finally, our data are consistent with the proposed long-distance migration from Pannonia to Northern Italy.The Longobards invaded and conquered much of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Here, the authors sequence and analyze ancient genomic DNA from 63 samples from two cemeteries associated with the Longobards and identify kinship networks and two distinct genetic and cultural groups in each.

A genetic perspective on Longobard-Era migrations

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 locations, we sampled necropolises characterized by cultural markers associated with the Longobard culture (LC) and coeval burials where no such markers were found (NLC). Population genetics analysis and ABC modeling highlighted a similarity between LC individuals, as reflected by a certain degree of genetic continuity between these groups, that reached 70% among Hungary and Italy. Models postulating a contact between LC and NLC communities received also high support, indicating a complex dynamics of admixture in medieval Europe.

Phantoms of Remembrance: Memory and Oblivion at the End of the First Millennium

This text makes important inroads into the widely discussed topic of historical memory, evoking the everyday lives of 11th-century people and both their written and nonwritten ways of preserving the past. Women praying for their dead, monks creating and recreating their archives, scribes choosing which royal families of the past to applaud and which to forget - it is from such sources that most of our knowledge of the medieval period comes. Through descriptions of various acts of remembrance, including the naming of children and the recording of visions, the author unearths a wide range of approaches to preserving the past as it was or formulating the past that an individual or group prefers to imagine. By focusing on a turning point in medieval history, one in which an effort was made to make a cultural break with the previous centuries, Geary offers an example of specific mental and social structures that filtered the memories communicated by social elites and ordinary individuals alike. The author focuses on the former Carolingian empire to compare how people from Provence to Bavaria recalled their familial, institutional, and regional pasts. In examining written accounts and documents, he considers attitudes toward a wide range of topics - from gender and fashion to politics and religious practices - and shows how these attitudes reveal the social transformations taking place in the 11th century as well as the ways in which people had already begun to think about the past. Throughout his investigation, the author maintains that what matters is not so much the content of what is remembered but rather the ways in which memories are structured and represented, and ultimately what is forgotten along the way.

Manufacturing Middle Ages

Manufacturing Middle Ages explores the entangled history of European national discourses grounded in medievalist and archaic traditions and developed by the emerging disciplines of humanities across the long nineteenth century.

Index of Proper Names

Manufacturing Middle Ages explores the entangled history of European national discourses grounded in medievalist and archaic traditions and developed by the emerging disciplines of humanities across the long nineteenth century.

Die Bedeutung von Religion und Bekehrung im frühen Mittelalter

“Die Bedeutung von Religion und Bekehrung im fruhen Mittelalter,” in Dieter Geuenich ed. Die Franken und die Alemannen bis zur “Schlacht bei Zulpich (496/97) Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 1998, 438-450.