Comparison of maternal lineage and biogeographic analyses of ancient and modern Hungarian populations

Abstract

The Hungarian language belongs to the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic family, but Hungarian speakers have been living in Central Europe for more than 1000 years, surrounded by speakers of unrelated Indo-European languages. In order to study the continuity in maternal lineage between ancient and modern Hungarian populations, polymorphisms in the HVSI and protein coding regions of mitochondrial DNA sequences of 27 ancient samples (10th-11th centuries), 101 modern Hungarian, and 76 modern Hungarian-speaking Sekler samples from Transylvania were analyzed. The data were compared with sequences derived from 57 European and Asian populations, including Finno-Ugric populations, and statistical analyses were performed to investigate their genetic relationships. Only 2 of 27 ancient Hungarian samples are unambiguously Asian: the rest belong to one of the western Eurasian haplogroups, but some Asian affinities, and the genetic effect of populations who came into contact with ancient Hungarians during their migrations are seen. Strong differences appear when the ancient Hungarian samples are analyzed according to apparent social status, as judged by grave goods. Commoners show a predominance of mtDNA haplotypes and haplogroups (H, R, T), common in west Eurasia, while high-status individuals, presumably conquering Hungarians, show a more heterogeneous haplogroup distribution, with haplogroups (N1a, X) which are present at very low frequencies in modern worldwide populations and are absent in recent Hungarian and Sekler populations. Modern Hungarian-speaking populations seem to be specifically European. Our findings demonstrate that significant genetic differences exist between the ancient and recent Hungarian-speaking populations, and no genetic continuity is seen.

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“…The decrease of N1a could, for example, be explained by the progressive disappearance of elite lineages through time. Such a phenomenon has recently been described in Hungary, where Tömöry et al (2007) demonstrated the rapid and comprehensive dilution of the haplogroups associated with the Magyar conquerors. Finally, large-scale movements of people in Europe are recorded in both the archaeological record and in historical accounts.…”

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“…However, the current low frequency of those markers is not what one would expect to observe, had a substantial demographic replacement occurred (Nadasi et al, 2007; Hellenthal et al, 2014). Careful analyses of 10th century ancient DNA in Hungary showed a predominance of European mitochondrial haplotypes in burials attributed to the lower classes, and a high incidence of Asian haplotypes in high‐status individuals of that period (Tömöry et al, 2007), which points to the Asian immigrants as representing a social élite, rather than the bulk of the population. The exception to the results of the present study is thus nicely justified in this scenario, suggesting that when a Finno‐Ugric language was introduced in Hungary, the genetic buildup of the population changed only in part, thus retaining similarities with its geographic neighbors, an example of the process called élite dominance by Renfrew (1992).…”

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“…The question of social stratification has been posed for Etruscan groups, and palaeogenetic results may support the hypothesis of elite class extinction during an assimilation process [63] . The progressive disappearance of elite lineages through time has also been described in Hungary, where the rapid and comprehensive dilution of the haplogroups associated with the Magyar conquerors has been demonstrated [60] . The same question can even be posed for more remote periods, such as the Neolithic.…”