Evidence for dynastic succession among early Celtic elites in Central Europe

Joscha Gretzinger, Felicitas Schmitt, Angela Mötsch, Selina Carlhoff, Thiseas Christos Lamnidis, Yilei Huang, Harald Ringbauer, Corina Knipper, Michael Francken, Franziska Mandt, Leif Hansen, Cäcilia Freund, Cosimo Posth, Hannes Rathmann, Katerina Harvati, Günther Wieland, Lena Granehäll, Frank Maixner, Albert Zink, Wolfram Schier, Dirk Krausse (), Johannes Krause () and Stephan Schiffels ()
Additional contact information
Joscha Gretzinger: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Felicitas Schmitt: Landesamt für Denkmalpflege im Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart
Angela Mötsch: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Selina Carlhoff: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Thiseas Christos Lamnidis: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Yilei Huang: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Harald Ringbauer: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Corina Knipper: Curt Engelhorn Zentrum Archäometrie gGmbH
Michael Francken: Landesamt für Denkmalpflege im Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart
Franziska Mandt: Landesamt für Denkmalpflege im Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart
Leif Hansen: Landesamt für Denkmalpflege im Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart
Cäcilia Freund: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Cosimo Posth: Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen
Hannes Rathmann: Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen
Katerina Harvati: Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen
Günther Wieland: Landesamt für Denkmalpflege im Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart
Lena Granehäll: EURAC Research
Frank Maixner: EURAC Research
Albert Zink: EURAC Research
Wolfram Schier: Freie Universität Berlin
Dirk Krausse: Landesamt für Denkmalpflege im Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart
Johannes Krause: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Stephan Schiffels: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Nature Human Behaviour, 2024, vol. 8, issue 8, 1467-1480

Abstract: Abstract The early Iron Age (800 to 450 BCE) in France, Germany and Switzerland, known as the ‘West-Hallstattkreis’, stands out as featuring the earliest evidence for supra-regional organization north of the Alps. Often referred to as ‘early Celtic’, suggesting tentative connections to later cultural phenomena, its societal and population structure remain enigmatic. Here we present genomic and isotope data from 31 individuals from this context in southern Germany, dating between 616 and 200 BCE. We identify multiple biologically related groups spanning three elite burials as far as 100 km apart, supported by trans-regional individual mobility inferred from isotope data. These include a close biological relationship between two of the richest burial mounds of the Hallstatt culture. Bayesian modelling points to an avuncular relationship between the two individuals, which may suggest a practice of matrilineal dynastic succession in early Celtic elites. We show that their ancestry is shared on a broad geographic scale from Iberia throughout Central-Eastern Europe, undergoing a decline after the late Iron Age (450 BCE to ~50 CE).

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01888-7

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