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7. Sept. 2026
Archaeogeneticist Zuzana Hofmanová from Masaryk University has been awarded a prestigious ERC grant, which will enable her team to investigate the origins, movements and living conditions of enslaved people across Europe.
How important was the slave trade for early medieval Europe? Where did enslaved people come from, where were they brought to, and what were their lives like? Historical sources often provide no clear answers to these questions and this is why a new European research project led by Zuzana Hofmanová of Masaryk University will focus on these issues, utilising archaeogenetics, anthropology and other biomolecular methods. The researchers will focus on skeletal remains from various parts of Europe.
Early medieval slavery is one of the topics for which relatively little direct evidence has survived, compared with later periods. Historical sources from the period are limited in number, and references to people from the lower social strata are almost entirely absent, which complicates efforts to determine just how extensive the slave trade actually was and what role it played in the European economy of the time.
It is precisely this gap in European history that will be filled by a project which has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC). “We plan to use modern scientific methods to identify and understand people whose lives have been almost entirely left out of historical sources,” says Zuzana Hofmanová from the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University.
SLAVA, the project’s title, refers to the similarity between the English words “slave” and “Slav”. This similarity is not accidental and results from the early medieval slave trade, in which Slavic regions were one of the major sources of captives. The term “Slav” thus gradually came to mean a “slave” in many languages. However, the project will not focus solely on the Slavs. The researchers will examine material from several European regions, with the aim of tracing the slave trade within a broader European context.
Information from skeletal remains
The researchers will analyse skeletal remains that have already been discovered. Using archaeogenetic and other biomolecular methods, they will attempt to learn more from the human remains than would be possible using traditional archaeological methods. “The analyses will tell us where a person came from, what their family ties were, whether they moved between different regions during their lifetime, or how their diet changed over the course of their life. Anthropological examination may also reveal signs of physical strain or other conditions that affected their life,” explains Hofmanová.
The experts caution that none of these indicators on its own proves that a particular individual was a slave. What is important is the combination of these indicators and the historical context. “If, for example, an individual shows signs of a life of hardship, comes from a geographically distant region and was buried in an area where historical sources document significant slave trade, this may be an important clue,” she adds.
The project therefore brings together several different methods. In addition to human remains, experts will also examine silver that may have been used to purchase slaves. The researchers will verify its origin and investigate whether it was ever remelted.
The research will include skeletal remains from the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden. One of the key locations will be Prague, which, according to historical records, may have been one of the most significant – or, according to some interpretations, even the largest – slave markets in Europe at that time.
One of the key questions is where enslaved people were buried when they died. It is not clear, for example, whether there were specific burial contexts associated with slaves, or whether they were buried alongside other members of the community. Therefore, researchers will not only analyse the burial sites that have already been identified, but they will also seek to establish further archaeological contexts that may be linked to people who experienced slavery.
How extensive was the slave trade?
The scale of the early medieval slave trade is the subject of heated debate amongst experts, with estimates varying by several orders of magnitude. Some even suggest that hundreds of thousands of enslaved people were traded each year. One of the project’s potential benefits is the possibility to test these estimates. If, even with extensive research, only a small number of individuals can be identified for whom an experience of slavery can reasonably be assumed, this may serve as an argument against the higher estimates. “It will be no less important to determine how the trade network operated. Which regions were source areas, which served as transit centres, and who profited economically from the trade? Historical hypotheses in this context mention, for example, the Franks, the Vikings, Italian cities and Jewish merchants. However, there is little direct evidence as yet,” adds Hofmanová.
The project will begin in April 2027 and will be carried out at Masaryk University’s Department of Archaeology and Museology and at CEITEC MU. The team will also collaborate with international institutions, including the Max Planck Institute, as well as with experts and museums in the individual regions under investigation. Among those involved in the project will be the historian and archaeologist Janel Fontaine, author of an acclaimed book on early medieval slavery.
The archaeologists do not plan to carry out any fieldwork. They will work primarily with finds that have already been discovered during previous archaeological excavations and are stored in museum repositories. Modern analytical methods make it possible to extract information from these finds that could not have been determined at the time of their discovery.
From broad strokes of history to individual lives
According to Zuzana Hofmanová, the project will offer remarkable insights. This will be the case even when experts are unable to determine unequivocally whether or not a particular individual was a slave. “The analyses will provide detailed information about the lives of people from the lower social strata of early medieval Europe. That is what is so important to me about this project – bringing together different disciplines and regions and looking at early medieval slavery not only as an economic or political phenomenon, but also through the lens of the specific people who experienced it,” emphasises Hofmanová.
The SLAVA project represents an extension of Zuzana Hofmanová’s previous research focused primarily on Central Europe. Whilst previous work made it possible to reconstruct the lives of past populations and communities, the new research will focus more on individual life stories and their placement within a broader European context. The project findings may thus contribute not only to a better understanding of early medieval slavery, but also to the formulation of new questions about the movement of people, social inequalities and the functioning of European society during a period for which there is only a limited amount of documentary evidence. “Securing an ERC Starting Grant is difficult and a rare achievement. I would like to thank my entire team for their effort,” adds Hofmanová.