Ancient genomes reveal origin and rapid trans-Eurasian migration of 7th Century Avar elites

The Avars settled the Carpathian Basin in 567/68 CE where they established an empire that lasted over 200 years. Who they were, and where exactly they came from is still highly debated. Contemporaries had already disagreed about whether they were (as they claimed) the direct successors of the Rouran whose steppe empire in present-day Mongolia had been destroyed by the Turks in ~550 CE. Here we analyze new genome-wide data from 66 pre-Avar and Avar-period individuals from the Carpathian Basin. These individuals include the 8 richest known burials from that time and further elite inhumations from the core area of the Avar empire. The remaining individuals were excavated from diverse archeological contexts in the immediate surrounding areas. Our results provide support for a rapid long-distance trans-Eurasian migration of Avar-period elites. These individuals carried a Northeast Asian ancestry matching the genomic profile of preceding populations from the eastern central Asian Steppe, including the only genome available from the Rouran-period Mongolia. Some of the later individuals from the Avar elites carried an additional non-local genetic component that can be best traced to the steppe. This new finding could point to a later migration, or could reflect greater genetic diversity within the initial migrant population.