Maros Bronze Age — Ostojicevo

The Maros-associated burials sampled at Ostojicevo and nearby Čoka lie on the flat alluvial plains of North Banat, in northern Serbia, within a cultural horizon archaeologists group with the broader Maros (Mureș) tradition. Radiocarbon-supported dates cluster between 2100 and 1800 BCE, placing these individuals in the early–middle Bronze Age transition of the central Danubian basin.

Archaeological data indicates that the Maros sphere in this region reflects long-standing local traditions blended with influences traveling down river corridors from the Carpathian Basin and the Transylvanian highlands. Excavations at Ostojicevo recovered funerary contexts and skeletal remains that allow direct radiocarbon dating and aDNA sampling; however, the total genetic sample for this study is small (five individuals), so interpretations about population origins remain tentative.

Limited evidence suggests continuity of local burial practices alongside incorporation of new material styles and possibly mobile groups. The cinematic sweep of this landscape — river reedbeds, low terraces, and clustered farmsteads — provides the archaeological stage on which threads of migration, trade, and cultural change are woven, but the precise drivers of those changes require further sampling and archaeological context to confirm.

The genetic dataset from Ostojicevo comprises five individuals dated to 2100–1800 BCE. Mitochondrial DNA (maternal lineages) is reported for all five: haplogroups V2, H, K, J, and U (each observed once). These mtDNA lineages are broadly distributed across prehistoric and modern Europe, appearing in Mesolithic hunter-gatherer and Neolithic farmer-derived contexts in varying frequencies.

Archaeological and comparative genetic studies suggest that a mix of ancestry components — local Mesolithic-derived hunter-gatherer lineages and incoming Neolithic farmer ancestries — persisted into the Bronze Age in the central Balkans. The presence of diverse maternal haplogroups in this small sample is consistent with a population that had multiple ancestral contributions. Importantly, no consistent Y-chromosome (paternal) signal is reported for this five-sample set, so inferences about male-mediated migration, patrilineal structure, or incoming paternal lineages cannot be made from these data.

Because the sample count is low (<10), conclusions are preliminary. Archaeological data combined with future broader aDNA sampling (including genome-wide and Y-DNA data) will be necessary to test hypotheses about population continuity, admixture timing, and the relationship of Maros-era groups to neighboring Bronze Age populations.