ancient DNA (Other Keyword)
176-200 (239 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. DNA acquisition from skeletal remains reveals a wealth of information that observational analysis alone does not offer. Researchers can glean an individual’s ancestry, lineage, and biological sex and review genetic diversity. However, most current methods require some form of destruction to extract genetic material, which can dissuade entities (museum...
The Not Very Patrilocal European Neolithic (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Two decades of strontium isotope and aDNA research on Central European Neolithic cemetery populations have consistently interpreted patrilocality, which is now a foregone conclusion. This paper questions those interpretations from a social anthropological perspective. Models are presented for interpreting strontium isotope ratios and aDNA that consider the...
Of Rabbits and Men: Using Ancient DNA and GMM to Investigate Rabbit Domestication (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Questioning the Fundamentals of Plant and Animal Domestication" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Rabbits are one of the most recently domesticated animals, and yet, over thousands of years, they have lived in a diverse range of relationships with people. This close interaction is recorded in archaeological and historical records and reflected today in the diversity of breeds worldwide. Whilst extensive research has been...
The ones who stayed behind? Genome-wide affinities of Okunev remains from Bronze Age South Siberia and the enduring dialogue of ancient DNA and physical anthropology. (2017)
Genome-wide ancient DNA data from Upper Paleolithic Siberians and deep time series in Europe challenge many traditional models of relationships between Native Americans, West Eurasians, and East Asians — commonplace units in physical anthropology — by recasting them as fusions of prehistoric ancestry streams that may unexpectedly cross-cut or fracture these categories. We evaluate new and published genome-wide data from remains attributed to Okunev — an archaeological culture of the Middle...
Optimization of a Minimally Invasive DNA Extraction Protocol for Teeth (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ancient DNA extraction protocols are inherently destructive and, therefore, are often controversial and problematic. For some communities, destructive processing of human remains could be perceived as a desecration of ancestors. For laboratory scientists, the destruction of samples limits the ability to replicate results. Harney et al. (2021) present a...
Oral Metagenomes from Native American Ancestors Reveal Distinct Microbial Lineages in the Precontact Era (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Disruption of the microbial community in the oral cavity, by diet, host genetics, or environmental factors, can lead to dysbiosis, promoting preferential growth of pathogenic microorganisms leading to a diseased state. The calcified matrix of dental calculus is a good source for ancient biomolecules belonging to bacterial species, allowing researchers to...
Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction at Poverty Point Using Ancient Sedimentary DNA: Potential and Challenges (2024)
This is an abstract from the "*SE Not Your Father’s Poverty Point: Rewriting Old Narratives through New Research" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Poverty Point is a wonder of engineering, with over two square kilometers of earthworks constructed over several hundred years around 3500 BP. While the timing of the deposit’s construction has been a topic of research for nearly 100 years, there has been relatively little investigation into the resources...
Paleogenetic and Paleopathological Studies at Pachacamac: Methodological Issues and Preliminary Results (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis can be a useful tool for sex determination, general mitochondrial lineage (haplogroup), and disease diagnosis in human remains. However, non-endogenous DNA contamination of archaeological material is a recurrent problematic, since excavation, handling, and storage usually don’t fit with the precautions recommended for aDNA...
A Paleogenetic Perspective on the Early Population History of the High Altitude Andes (2016)
The peopling of the high altitude Andes marks an important episode in South American population history, eventually leading to the formation of the most complex societies of the late pre-Columbian period, namely Wari, Tiwanaku, and Inca. Little is known about how population dynamic processes and genetic adaptation to physical stressors like hypoxia shaped the genetic diversity of the Andean highland populations over the ~10,000 years of human presence in high altitude leading to the emergence of...
A Paleogenomic Approach toward Reconstructing Bison Evolutionary History (2023)
This is an abstract from the "A Further Discussion on the Role of Archaeology in Resource and Public Land Management" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. At the end of the nineteenth century, overexploitation of bison reduced the population from an estimated 30 million to approximately 1,000 individuals. Despite the magnitude of this bottleneck, we do not understand how bison were affected at the genetic level, nor do we know past bison population...
A Paleogenomic Investigation of Historical Human Skeletal Remains from Rapparee Cove, North Devon, UK (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 1997, human bones were discovered ashore at Rapparee Cove in North Devon, United Kingdom. Since then, much news coverage and public speculation has suggested that the remains belong either to French soldiers or enslaved African-descended rebels from St. Lucia who had drowned when the London had shipwrecked off the coast two centuries earlier in 1796. A...
Phoenician Settlements: A Story of Integration and Cultural Assimilation (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since the second millennium BCE, the Phoenicians linked east and west through their established trade networks across the Mediterranean. We investigate the extent of Phoenician integration with the communities they settled across the western Mediterranean. Skeletal samples from Phoenician burial sites in Lebanon, Italy, Spain, and Tunisia were collected. We...
A Piece of Salted Snakehead and Its Implications for the Nineteenth-Century Chinese Diaspora Fish Trade (2019)
This is an abstract from the "One of a Kind: Approaching the Singular Artifact and the Archaeological Imagination" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Archaeologists have traditionally relied upon large datasets to investigate historical fishing industries, the distribution of fish products, and the effect of fishing on the environment. Such studies make critical contributions to understandings of past fisheries; however, not all fish stories require...
The Population Genetics of Machu Picchu (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since its discovery a century ago, Machu Picchu has become an iconic archaeological site, inspiring researchers and visitors alike. Its history and function, however, are unclear and hypotheses have been advanced ranging from Machu Picchu as a royal estate, sacred shrine, or city. Here we present the preliminary results of our genomic study of human burials...
Poultry in Motion: The Translocation of Turkeys (Meleagris spp.) in Ancient Greater Nicoya, Costa Rica (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Materials in Movement in the Isthmo-Colombian Area" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The trade and movement of animals and animal-derived artifacts was widespread and varied significantly throughout the ancient Americas, often requiring substantial efforts comparable to that employed in acquiring other material resources or prestige items. Originally native to parts of modern-day Mexico and the United States, turkeys...
Precolumbian Tuberculosis in the Chachapoya from the Northeastern Peruvian Andes (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The application of molecular methods to paleopathology has revealed a strain of tuberculosis (TB) closely related to a variety currently adapted to seals and sea lions that caused human infection in the western Andes of prehispanic South America. Our understanding of ancient TB distribution in terms of geography and genetic diversity is, however, limited since...
The Prehistoric Diet: Genomic Analysis of Bonneville Estates Paleofeces, Nevada (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The genetic composition of paleofeces from Bonneville Estates Rockshelter (BER) can aid environmental and dietary reconstruction, as the genomic content of coprolites change as environmental conditions shifted from cool and moist in the Pleistocene to hot and dry in the Holocene and as new food sources appeared locally. In order to analyse the potential shift...
Prehistoric Mobility and Population Movements in Palau: New Data from aDNA and Stable Isotope (Sr, Pb) Analysis (2015)
Ongoing research at the Chelechol ra Orrak rockshelter in Palau, Micronesia, has revealed the presence of one of the oldest (ca. 3000-1700 BP) and most demographically diverse cemeteries in the Pacific. Archaeological excavation of only a small portion of the site indicates that dozens of individuals were buried here for more than a millennia. Subsequent osteological analysis coupled with recent attempts to extract ancient DNA and stable isotopes (Sr and Pb) have shed new light on genetic...
Prehistoric Population Mobility in the Caribbean: Genetic and Isotopic Investigations at Grand Bay, Carriacou, West Indies (2015)
Archaeological research at Grand Bay, a large Late Ceramic Age (ca. AD 400-1300) Amerindian village site on Carriacou in the southern Caribbean, has revealed vast amounts of evidence that sheds light on Pre-Columbian adaptations to small island environments. More than a decade of research here and at other locations on Carriacou have revealed dozens of human burials, including many found in mortuary contexts rarely seen in this part of the Lesser Antilles. Ongoing research on past lifeways of...
Prehistoric World Systems in the Age of the Genetic Revolution: The Eurasian Evidence (2024)
This is an abstract from the "World-Systems and Globalization in Archaeology: Assessing Models of Intersocietal Connections 50 Years since Wallerstein’s “The Modern World-System”" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The third science revolution has reintroduced migration and mobility as major drivers of change throughout later prehistory in western Eurasia. However, it has also allowed us to revisit and redefine different types of migrations and their...
Preliminary ancient DNA analysis suggests a complex origins scenario for pre-contact Puerto Rican populations (2016)
Recent archaeological research suggests that indigenous groups in Puerto Rico stemmed from multiple and continuous migrations of continental indigenous populations. This view is supported by contemporary genetic studies, which have found evidence of genetic affinity between multiple modern Native American groups and the native ancestry components of modern, admixed Puerto Ricans. Overall, these findings challenge the traditional single-migration model for the peopling of Puerto Rico, and suggest...
Preliminary archaeogenomic insights on the domestication of the avocado tree (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The avocado is one of the most popular fruits exported worldwide and was originally domesticated in three independent episodes that resulted in the three main horticultural varieties we see today. One region of origin spans from the highlands of southern Mexico to the highlands of Honduras. The El Gigante Rockshelter is a site in the Southern highlands...
Presence of the Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Complex (MTBC) in ancient skeletal samples from Ukraine (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Ancient DNA in Service of Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This research aims to investigate biocultural interactions by studying ancient disease among the Tripolye, a Neolithic group dating to 4,900-2,900 calBC, and one of the first agricultural populations in Eastern Europe. The Tripolye lived at higher population densities and had closer contact with bovines than the hunter-gatherers that came before...
Prospects for the Recovery of aDNA from Asphaltic Faunal Remains (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Asphaltic deposits are a valuable source of well-preserved faunal assemblages; however, DNA extraction from such deposits has remained problematic. Harsh chemical treatments and boiling are generally used to remove asphalt from faunal material in these contexts as it does not damage the morphology; however, it may impact biomolecule preservation....
Putting Heads Together: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Museum Archaeology of the National Tsantsa Collection at the Pumapungo Museum, Cuenca (2018)
There are many collections of Tsantsas around the world. These shrunken heads were created by the Shuar and Achuar peoples of the Ecuadorian and Peruvian amazon until the mid-20th century. Though most of these museum collections have a known provenience, the individual histories and the authenticity of some of the heads has been contested. Similar questions have risen for Tsantsas held at the Pumapungo Ethnographic museum in the city of Cuenca, Ecuador. Using the approach of museum...