From ad 567–568, at the onset of the Avar period, populations from the Eurasian Steppe settled in the Carpathian Basin for approximately 250 years¹. Extensive sampling for archaeogenomics (424 individuals) and isotopes, combined with archaeological, anthropological and historical contextualization of four Avar-period cemeteries, allowed for a detailed description of the genomic structure of these communities and their kinship and social practices. We present a set of large pedigrees, reconstructed using ancient DNA, spanning nine generations and comprising around 300 individuals. We uncover a strict patrilineal kinship system, in which patrilocality and female exogamy were the norm and multiple reproductive partnering and levirate unions were common. The absence of consanguinity indicates that this society maintained a detailed memory of ancestry over generations. These kinship practices correspond with previous evidence from historical sources and anthropological research on Eurasian Steppe societies². Network analyses of identity-by-descent DNA connections suggest that social cohesion between communities was maintained via female exogamy. Finally, despite the absence of major ancestry shifts, the level of resolution of our analyses allowed us to detect genetic discontinuity caused by the replacement of a community at one of the sites. This was paralleled with changes in the archaeological record and was probably a result of local political realignment.

从公元567 年到 568 年，阿瓦尔时期开始，来自欧亚草原的人们在喀尔巴阡盆地定居了大约 250 年¹。对考古基因组学（424 个人）和同位素进行广泛采样，结合四个阿瓦尔时期墓地的考古学、人类学和历史背景，可以详细描述这些社区的基因组结构及其亲属关系和社会实践。我们展示了一组使用古代 DNA 重建的大型谱系，跨越九代，由大约 300 个人组成。我们发现了严格的父系亲属制度，其中父系制和女性异族通婚是常态，多重生殖伴侣和娶寡嫂制联盟也很常见。血缘关系的缺失表明这个社会代代相传地保留着对祖先的详细记忆。这些亲属关系实践与先前来自欧亚草原社会的历史资料和人类学研究的证据相符²。对血统身份 DNA 连接的网络分析表明，社区之间的社会凝聚力是通过女性异族通婚来维持的。最后，尽管没有发生重大的血统转变，但我们分析的分辨率水平使我们能够检测到由于其中一个地点的群落更换而引起的遗传不连续性。这与考古记录的变化是平行的，可能是当地政治重组的结果。