Publications by authors named "Anna Lasota-Kus"
The demographic history of East-Central Europe after the Neolithic period remains poorly explored, despite this region being on the confluence of various ecological zones and cultural entities. Here, the descendants of societies associated with steppe pastoralists form Early Bronze Age were followed by Middle Bronze Age populations displaying unique characteristics. Particularly, the predominance of collective burials, the scale of which, was previously seen only in the Neolithic.
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- The domestication of horses significantly changed mobility and warfare, but modern breeds do not trace back to the earliest domestic horses found in Central Asia around 3500 BC.
- Research reestablishes the Western Eurasian steppes, particularly the lower Volga-Don area, as the origin of modern domestic horses, based on genetic analysis from 273 ancient horse genomes.
- The study finds that the spread of modern domestic horses around 2000 BC coincided with the emergence of equestrian cultures, refuting the idea that horseback riding was linked to the expansion of Yamnaya pastoralists in Europe.
Objective: In this work we aim to investigate the origins and genetic affinities of Bronze Age populations (2,400-1,100 BC) from the region of southern Poland and to trace maternal kinship patterns present in the burials of those populations by the use of complete mitochondrial genomes.
Materials And Methods: We performed ancient DNA analyses for Bronze Age individuals from present-day Poland associated with the Strzyżow culture, the Mierzanowice culture, and the Trzciniec Cultural circle. To obtain complete mitochondrial genomes, we sequenced genomic libraries using Illumina platform.