Echoes of West Byzantine Anatolia

The West Byzantine presence in northwestern Anatolia unfolds across a landscape of lakes, trade routes and long-lived cities. Between 400 and 800 CE, sites such as Ilıpınar (Orhangazi district, Bursa) and the archaeological neighborhoods of İznik (Yenişehirkapı and the Basilica area) show continued occupation after the collapse of Western imperial authority. Archaeological data indicates reuse and adaptation of Roman and Late Antique urban cores: churches and basilica complexes persisted as focal points, while cemeteries and domestic quarters record changing burial practices and material culture.

Material traces—architecture, ceramics and funerary assemblages—evoke a world connected by maritime and overland exchange across the Marmara and Aegean. Limited evidence suggests communities here maintained local traditions while absorbing traders, soldiers and clerics passing through imperial networks. The DNA sampled from 13 individuals offers an opportunity to tie these archaeological patterns to biological ancestry, although the picture remains provisional: the sample size is modest and not every burial yielded genetic data.

Genetic data from 13 individuals dated to 400–800 CE in the Marmara region yields a maternal picture dominated by haplogroups common across Anatolia and the Mediterranean. Observed mtDNA lineages include T (3 individuals), H (2, including one assigned to an H87 subclade), J (1) and U (1). These maternal haplogroups are broadly distributed: H and U are frequent across Europe and Anatolia, while T and J have strong Near Eastern and Anatolian associations stemming from Neolithic and later demographic processes.

No consistent Y-DNA pattern is reported for this sample set, reflecting either preservation limits or that male-line data were not recovered in sufficient numbers. With only 13 sampled individuals and some incomplete genetic profiles, conclusions must remain cautious. Nevertheless, the mtDNA assemblage suggests local continuity with deep regional roots and a mosaic of maternal ancestries consistent with coastal Anatolia's role as a conduit between Europe and the Near East. Future larger datasets and autosomal analyses are needed to resolve questions of population continuity, migration and social structure.