Scientific research has discovered Plato’s burial site and revealed two chapters of historical interest shedding light on the historical significance of the Avars, a Caucasian ethnic group northeast of Athens.
Plato (427–348 BC) was a prominent Greek philosopher, a disciple of Socrates (470–399 BC) and teacher of Aristotle (384–322 BC).
In North India and Pakistan, they are known as ‘Socrates’, ‘Aflatoon’ and ‘Aristotle’ respectively.
Ancient papyrus scrolls (a writing material used in ancient Egypt and the Mediterranean) discovered in Herculaneum in the 18th century revealed the site of Plato’s burial in the gardens of the Accademia in Athens/Greece.
The Avars were a major power in East Central Europe from the late 6th to the early 9th century.
The Avars originated in East Central Asia and settled in the Carpathian Basin. The researchers collected DNA from the burial sites of the Avars and used a method called ancIBD to investigate their social practices.
ancIBD detects lineage-based identification in ancient human DNA (aDNA). IBD segments are long DNA sequences shared between two individuals and serve as an indicator of current genealogical relationship.
The findings show that Avars do not intermarry with cousins and intermarry less commonly with non-Avars.
They followed levirate union (a widow marrying a man from her deceased husband’s family), which is not common in Europe but is an established feature of the steppe peoples of Asia and they follow a traditional patriarchal system.
