Generations: grandparents, parents, children. We are all familiar with this. But what if we discover the relations of people who lived over 1,200 years ago? Then we see human connections that provided stability in a time of great upheaval and change. This way we can tell a new story of the so-called migration period. 
 
The special exhibition will be on display from 13 October 2026 until 26 July 2027 in Room 21 on level 2 of NHM Vienna.
  

Welcome & Introduction

Dr. Katrin Vohland, Director General and Scientific Director, NHM Vienna
 

About the HistoGenes research project

em. Prof. Dr. Walter Pohl, corresponding project leader ERC SyG Project HistoGenes, Institute for Medieval Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, em. Professor of Medieval History and Auxiliary Historical Sciences, University of Vienna
 

The curators talk about the exhibition

Dr. Margit Berner, Group Leader Anthropology ERC SyG Project HistoGenes Project, Interim Director of the Anthropological Department, NHM Vienna
Dr. Doris Pany-Kucera, research assistant in the ERC SyG project HistoGenes, research assistant and co-curator in the Anthropological Department, NHM Vienna
Mag. Ingrid Hartl, Project Coordinator ERC SyG Project HistoGenes, Institute for Medieval Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
 

 
What was so far impossible becomes possible through the integration of genetics into the wide research of the early Middle Ages, and what was so far invisible becomes visible: the lives of the broader population.

Taking as its starting point two early medieval burial grounds found in the towns of Mödling and Leobersdorf near Vienna, this special exhibition provides an insight into the lives of common people: how they settled and lived their community and culture. Who was related to whom, had children together, was buried next to each other. At the same time, we learn more about their diet, childhood, health and mobility. From here, our view broadens to include connections and differences to other communities in Central Europe. Communities that did not necessarily migrate as entire people and were also sedentary for long periods of time.

The title of the exhibition makes it clear: GENEchangers refers to the terms gene, genetics, genome, generation. These factors work together as true gamechangers. How? This is illustrated by the results of the interdisciplinary research project HistoGenes, coordinated at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Through the interdisciplinary cooperation of four scientific disciplines, 7,700 burials from the period between 400 and 900 AD were analyzed for the first time using the most modern genomic, anthropological, archaeological and historical methods.
 
The results of the world's largest early medieval archaeogenetic research project will be presented in this show at NHM Vienna.
 
Please register for the press conference at: presse@nhm.at
 
Press photos can be found here. 
 
Inquiry note
Mag. Irina Kubadinow
Head of Press & Public Relations, Press Spokesperson
Telephone: +43 1 521 77-410
irina.kubadinow@nhm.at
 
Mag. Klara Vakaj
Press officer
Telephone: +43 1 521 77-626
klara.vakaj@nhm.at