Bioarchaeological analyses reveal long-lasting continuity at the periphery of the Late Antique Roman Empire.

ABSTRACT: The Basel-Waisenhaus burial community (Switzerland) has been traditionally interpreted as immigrated Alamans because of the location and dating of the burial ground - despite the typical late Roman funeral practices. To evaluate this hypothesis, multi-isotope and aDNA analyses were conducted on the eleven individuals buried there. The results show that the burial ground was occupied around AD 400 by people belonging largely to one family, whereas isotope and genetic records most probably point toward a regionally organized and indigenous, instead of an immigrated, community. This strengthens the recently advanced assumption that the withdrawal of the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian limes after the "Crisis of the Third Century AD" was not necessarily related to a replacement of the local pop

SUBMITTER: Depaermentier MLC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10285633 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature