Cranial deformation and genetic diversity in three adolescent male individuals from the Great Migration Period from Osijek, eastern Croatia

Abstract

Three individuals dating to the Great Migration Period (5th century CE) were discovered in a pit at the Hermanov vinograd site in Osijek, Croatia. We were inspired to study these individuals based on their unusual burial context as well as the identification of two different types of artificial cranial deformation in two of the individuals. We combine bioarchaeological analysis with radiographic imaging, stable isotopes analysis, and ancient DNA to analyze their dietary patterns, molecular sex, and genetic affinities in the context of the archaeological data and their bioarchaeological attributes. While all three individuals were adolescent males with skeletal evidence of severe malnutrition and similar diets, the most striking observation is that they had major differences in their genetic ancestry. Results of the genetic analyses of the nuclear ancient DNA data for these individuals indicate that the individual without artificial cranial deformation shows broadly West Eurasian associated-ancestry, the individual with tabular oblique-type has East Asian ancestry and the third individual with circular erect-type has Near Eastern associated-ancestry. Based on these results, we speculate that artificial cranial deformation type may have been a visual indicator membership in a specific cultural group, and that these groups were interacting intimately on the Pannonian Plain during the Migration Period.

Fig 1

A-C) CT reconstruction showing the artificially deformed cranium belonging to individual SU 259, frontal and lateral views. The shape axis is dislocated posteriorly above the Frankfort horizontal plane while the cranium exhibits a depressed and strongly inclined frontal bone strongly indicating tabular oblique type of deformation. D) X-ray of the same cranium (lateral view) showing a significant thickening of the posterior part.

Fig 2

A-C) CT reconstruction showing the artificially deformed cranium belonging to individual SU 751, frontal and lateral views. A pronounced flattening of the frontal bone resulting in a remarkable growth of cranium height suggests the circular erect type of ACD. D) The flattening and significant thickening of the frontal bone anterior of bregma is visible on the X-ray image (lateral view).

Fig 3

A) Principal component analysis of ancient samples (wheels and diamonds) projected onto variation of modern Eurasian and North-African populations. B) Model-based ancestry clustering with ADMIXTURE using K = 5 as the number of ancestral populations. Most informative modern populations where individual components were maximized are plotted.

Fig 4. Outgroup-f3 results for individual SU 259 with thick and thin bars representing 1 and 2 standard deviations, respectively.

The results show this individual shares higher affinities with East Asian than with West Eurasian, even when the standard deviations are considered.

Fig 5. The pit from Osijek—Hermanov vinograd site during the excavation.

A) The upper layer containing commingled skeletal remains, mostly human. B) The lower layer with commingled human and animal remains.