'Lifelong monogamy' and 'half orphans': DNA analysis reveals clues about life on the Roman frontier after the fall of Rome

A close up of a brown skull half unearthed in brown dirt with plastic numbers below it.

Burials that date to just after the fall of the Roman Empire are revealing the secrets of people who lived on the Roman frontier in what is now southern Germany.

A new DNA analysis of more than 200 skeletons in these cemeteries uncovered clues about the people who lived on the Roman frontier between 400 and 700. For example, many people engaged in lifelong monogamy, and nearly one-quarter of children lost at least one parent by age 10, the researchers wrote in the study, which was published Wednesday (April 29) in the journal Nature.