《自然-通讯》近日发表的一项研究Understanding 6th-century barbarian social organization and migration through paleogenomics 深入分析了欧洲蛮族伦巴第人的古基因组DNA，揭示了伦巴第人的社会组织和迁徙情况。公元568年，伦巴第人从潘诺尼亚（如今的匈牙利西部）侵入意大利，并开始了对意大利大部分地区超过200年的统治。
摘要：Despite centuries of research, much about the barbarian migrations that took place between the fourth and sixth centuries in Europe remains hotly debated. To better understand this key era that marks the dawn of modern European societies, we obtained ancient genomic DNA from 63 samples from two cemeteries (from Hungary and Northern Italy) that have been previously associated with the Longobards, a barbarian people that ruled large parts of Italy for over 200 years after invading from Pannonia in 568 CE. Our dense cemetery-based sampling revealed that each cemetery was primarily organized around one large pedigree, suggesting that biological relationships played an important role in these early medieval societies. Moreover, we identified genetic structure in each cemetery involving at least two groups with different ancestry that were very distinct in terms of their funerary customs. Finally, our data are consistent with the proposed long-distance migration from Pannonia to Northern Italy.
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