The number of ancient human DNA studies has drastically increased in recent years. This results in a substantial record of mitochondrial sequences available from many prehistoric sites across Western Eurasia, but also growing Y-chromosome and autosomal sequence data. We review the current state of research with specific emphasis on the Holocene population events that likely have shaped the present-day genetic variation in Europe. We reconcile observations from the genetic data with hypotheses about the peopling and settlement history from anthropology and archaeology for various key regions, and also discuss the data in light of evidence from related disciplines, such as modern human genetics, climatology and linguistics.
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Population expansion from central plain to northern coastal China inferred from ancient human genomes.
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December 2024
Department of Anthropology and Ethnology, Institute of Anthropology, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Philosophy and Social Sciences in Bioanthropology, School of Sociology and Anthropology, Xiamen University Xiamen 361005, China.
The population history of the northern coastal Chinese is largely unknown due to the lack of ancient human genomes from the Neolithic to historical periods. In this study, we reported 14 newly generated ancient genomes from Linzi, one of China's densely populated and economically prosperous cities from the Zhou to Han Dynasties. The ancient samples in this study were dated to the Warring States period to the Eastern Han Dynasty (∼2,000 BP).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCorroborating written history with ancient DNA: The case of the Well-man described in an Old Norse .
iScience
November 2024
Department of Natural History, NTNU University Museum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
The potential of ancient DNA analyses to provide independent sources of information about events in the historical record remains to be demonstrated. Here we apply palaeogenomic analysis to human remains excavated from a medieval well at the ruins of Sverresborg Castle in central Norway. In , the Old Norse of King Sverre Sigurdsson, one passage details a 1197-CE raid on the castle and mentions a dead man thrown into the well.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBioarchaeological Perspectives on Late Antiquity in Dalmatia: Paleogenetic, Dietary, and Population Studies of the Hvar - Radošević burial site.
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Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Article Synopsis
- The Late Antique burial site of Hvar - Radošević on the Croatian island of Hvar provides insights into a diverse population influenced by political unrest in the Roman Empire during the 3rd to 5th centuries CE.
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The Population History of Domestic Sheep Revealed by Paleogenomes.
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Department of Anthropology, Hacettepe University, Ankara 06800, Turkey.
Sheep was one of the first domesticated animals in Neolithic West Eurasia. The zooarchaeological record suggests that domestication first took place in Southwest Asia, although much remains unresolved about the precise location(s) and timing(s) of earliest domestication, or the post-domestication history of sheep. Here, we present 24 new partial sheep paleogenomes, including a 13,000-year-old Epipaleolithic Central Anatolian wild sheep, as well as 14 domestic sheep from Neolithic Anatolia, two from Neolithic Iran, two from Neolithic Iberia, three from Neolithic France, and one each from Late Neolithic/Bronze Age Baltic and South Russia, in addition to five present-day Central Anatolian Mouflons and two present-day Cyprian Mouflons.
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November 2024
Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, MCC, PACEA, UMR 5199, F-33600 Pessac, France. Electronic address:
Grotte Mandrin is located in the middle Rhône River Valley, in Mediterranean France, and has yielded 11 Pleistocene archeological and paleoanthropological layers (ranging from the oldest layer J to the youngest layer B) dating from Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 to MIS 3. We report here the nearly complete dentition of an adult Neanderthal individual, nicknamed 'Thorin,' associated to the last phase of the Post-Neronian II, in layer B2 (∼44.50-42.
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