By Will DunhamApril 29 (Reuters) – The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD was a pivotal moment in human history, when Germanic chieftain Odoacer deposed teenage emperor Romulus Augustulus in Italy and set in motion the collapse of centralized authority in much of Europe.New research based on genome data from inhabitants of the fortified Roman frontier in what is now southern Germany documents how these dramatic political changes affected ordinary people, while contradicting the popular notion of a violent “barbarian invasion” sweeping through the defunct empire’s former domain.AdvertisementAdvertisementFor instance, the researchers found that the abandonment of imperial-era marriage restrictions led to swift intermingling between the garrison and urban population of Romans and low-status locals including some of Northern European descent.”The temporal alignment between the fall of the Western Roman Empire in Italy and the genetic shift we detect in southern Germany is remarkably precise,” said anthropologist and population geneticist Joachim Burger of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany, senior author of the research published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.The researchers analyzed the genomes of 258 people who were buried in what are called row graves in the modern-day German states of Bavaria and Hesse, 112 of whom were interred at the Bavarian village of Altheim. Most dated to between 450 and 620 AD.”Row grave cemeteries were a newly emerging early-medieval burial practice where individuals were buried in rows, often containing grave goods like clothing, jewelry and weapons. These cemeteries stretched across the former Roman frontier from the Netherlands to Hungary,” Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz population geneticist and study lead author Jens Blöcher said.AdvertisementAdvertisementRoman authorities had established military …
