IMC 2024: Sessions

In many parts of Eastern Central Europe, the archaeological evidence becomes very patchy after the 6th century, apart from traces of cremation burials, simply pottery and sunken huts. This cultural crisis that affected all observable aspects of life is often associated with at least partial demographic change, the arrival of new groups and/or the adaptation of old ones to very simple lfe-styles, and the spread of Slavic language in these areas. ‘Slavic’ communities and elites begin to emerge more clearly in the 8th, and take shape in the 9th century, in the wake of the Carolingian expansion into former Avar territories. The main power centres that came into their own, if under more or less intrusive Carolingian influence, were the Moravian duchy with its centres at Mikulčice, Nitra or Pohansko, and a duchy in Pannonia at Mosapurc/Zaláar close to Lake Balaton. All these sites have yielded a rich archaeological heritage. Now a considerable number of samples have undergone genetic analysis in the context of the HistoGenes and the related FORMOR project. This and the following session in this strand present first results of this research in its archaeological and historical context. Who were the people leaving their marks in the centres of the new Slavic powers, what was their relationship to the Carolingian empire, and how did their communities cease?