European researchers studied the isotopic composition of the remains of fifteen people buried in Vilnius in the 13th or 14th centuries, in an area known as Civitas Rutenica. This area was a place of compact settlement for the Orthodox population. The analysis showed that among these individuals there might have been people who arrived from other places.
In particular, a young man was identified who was born hundreds of kilometers from the Lithuanian capital, presumably in the southwest of the territory of Old Rus'. These findings are presented in an article published in the journal Antiquity.
The city of Vilnius first appeared in written sources in 1323 as the capital of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas, but it likely began to form as a multi-confessional center as early as the 13th century. Here, Lithuanians who adopted Christianity in 1387 coexisted with two Christian groups: a smaller Catholic group and a larger Orthodox group located in Civitas Rutenica.
Since 2005, archaeologists have been conducting research at a large cemetery in the Old Town of Vilnius, on the territory of the former Russian end. Over eight years of work, 532 graves and many bones from at least 250 people were discovered. Radiocarbon dating and artifact study confirmed that the cemetery was used in the second half of the 13th–14th centuries. Although cremation was practiced in pagan Lithuania, inhumation was used in this necropolis, and the presence of Christian symbols indicated the presence of Orthodox people.
Scientists from Belgium and Lithuania, including Rytis Jonaitis from the Institute of Lithuanian History, who supervised the excavations, expanded the study by adding the analysis of nitrogen, oxygen, strontium, and carbon isotopes in the remains of 15 medieval people to determine their diet and origin. This group included three unusual individuals: a child about ten years old, two young men (age 15–19, gender undetermined), and twelve adult skeletons (seven men and five women).
The young man of about 18 years old from grave No. 311 generated the most scientific interest. Researchers found that his isotopic signature differed from the others. Furthermore, in childhood, his diet apparently contained a lot of millet, whereas in Lithuania at that time, hardier crops—rye and buckwheat—had already begun to be grown. These details convincingly indicate that he may have been born in the southwest of Old Rus', possibly in the lands of the Galician-Volhynian Principality.
It seems that the man from grave No. 214 may also have originated from the same region, as his strontium isotope ratio was similar to that of the young man from grave No. 311. Most of the analyzed women were likely local residents, with the exception of one lady from grave No. 312. This woman consumed a significant amount of millet or other C4-photosynthesis plants in childhood, and her strontium ratio was at the border of the local residents' range, which theoretically allows for a possible relationship with the young man from burial No. 311.
It was also noted that the strontium isotope ratio of two men from Vilnius matched the data of people from the vicinity of Kernave, an older Lithuanian capital where there was also an Orthodox community, which may indicate migrations between cities. Another person, buried in an unusual position in grave No. 226, had a distinctive isotopic signature similar to rituals practiced in southern Lithuania among the Yatvyags.
Russian scientists from the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of Peoples of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences have allegedly found the oldest human remains in Primorye. A fragment of a lower jaw with two teeth was discovered in the entrance area of the Khankayskaya-1 cave, located near the village of Prokhori, in the Spassky district of Primorsky Krai.
According to preliminary estimates by specialists, these remains are about 12 thousand years old, which was confirmed by radiocarbon dating results. Currently, paleogeneticists, according to information from the Russian Academy of Sciences website, are sequencing and analyzing the DNA of this ancient human.
In addition to skeletal remains, researchers also extracted a number of archaeological materials. Among them are small obsidian flakes used to create composite tools. The cave dwellers used green volcanic glass as raw material, the nearest deposits of which are approximately 250 kilometers from the settlement site.
Despite the significance of the ancient remains, such finds are extremely rare in Primorsky Krai due to the specific nature of the local soils. Previously, the earliest finds were considered to be the bones of seven hunter-gatherers from the Chertovy Vrata cave, who lived about 7,700 years ago and, according to DNA data, belonged to the population of ancient northeastern Asians.
Furthermore, researchers analyzed an ancient skeleton found in 2021 in the Treugolnaya cave in Primorye. This skeleton belonged to an elderly woman of Mongoloid appearance with a artificially deformed skull, who died approximately three thousand years ago. DNA analysis showed that this woman is genetically related both to ancient northeastern Asians from the Chertovy Vrata cave, who lived almost eight thousand years ago, and to modern Uljans. This information was published in the journal Archaeology, Ethnography and Anthropology of Eurasia.
