Cultural Change and Ethnic Change in the Early Middle Ages – the Example of Central and Eastern Europe in the Context of Contemporary Biological Studies of the Continent’s Past Populations
Cultural Change and Ethnic Change in the Early Middle Ages – the Example of Central and Eastern Europe in the Context of Contemporary Biological Studies of the Continent’s Past Populations of the Continent’s Past Populations

Summary/Abstract: The author of the article aims at revealing the serious difference that has emerged between the traditional interpretations of the history of Central and Eastern Europe, present in the works of historians and archaeologists, and the new data brought by the DNA research of the past populations of this area. The former, based on the results of archaeological research pointing to cultural changes, assume a thorough population exchange that supposedly took place in the early Middle Ages, while the latter indicate the continuity of the same biological population peopling the region since over a thousand years BC. The author tries to explain these discrepancies by pointing to the cases of cultural and even ethnic changes within the large population taking place under the influence of small groups of strangers.

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