ancient DNA (Other Keyword)
26-50 (239 Records)
Recent advancements in DNA sequencing has initiated a revolution in the field of Archaeogenetics. The results of these new studies have fundamentally affected our understanding of early human migration and peoples. Limitations, however, still exist, notably in tropical environments. These environments are believed to affect the preservation of DNA in human fossils, to the extent where DNA extraction and analysis is at the limit of even the newest technologies. A specialized facility has been...
Ancient DNA Research during a Global Pandemic: Insights from Fieldwork at St. Mary’s Basilica in Norfolk, VA (2021)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Pandemic Fieldwork: Doing Fieldwork During a Pandemic" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. DNA sampling from human remains is becoming a common practice in archeological studies, as genetic data provide important insights into ancestry and kinship in burial settings. To ensure the authenticity of ancient DNA results, contamination of human remains with DNA from living people must be minimized. Here, we describe...
Ancient DNA Studies in Tropical Environments: A Study into the Genetics of the Pre-Columbian Indigenous Population of Puerto Rico (2017)
Studies into ancient DNA have advanced significantly in the last few years, but these have largely been absent in tropical environments. In the Caribbean, a number of questions still pertain as to the bioarchaeology of the indigenous pre-Columbian populations and the exact origin of these early inhabitants. Focusing on the skeletal remains of a late Saladoid population from Punta Candelero site (AD 640-1200), three correlated and simultaneous studies have been coordinated with the aim to...
Ancient DNA Studies of Domesticated Cattle in Northern China (2017)
This study aims to use ancient DNA techniques to characterize the genetic features of ancient domesticated cattle in order to trace the origin and spread of cattle in ancient China from eight Late Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in Northern China. DNA was successfully extracted from ancient cattle bone or tooth samples in dedicated ancient DNA labs following vigorous protocols for contamination controls. This study was focused on amplifying mitochondrial D-loop using standard PCR techniques....
Ancient DNA: Investigating Maya Domesticated Waterscapes (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Environmental DNA (eDNA), or the genetic material obtained from sediments, ice, or water, is a relatively new and untapped methodology in archaeology. This technique provides important insight into the biodiversity of different plant, animal, and microbial communities, positioning archaeologists to understand human-landscape interactions of the past...
Ancient Dog Genome Preserved in Tumor Provides Novel Insights into the Domestication of Dogs (2018)
Transmissible cancers are mostly known from Tasmanian devils, soft shell clams and dogs. In dogs, the Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumors (CTVT) manifests as genital tumors and spreads between dogs (usually during mating) by the transfer of living cancer cells. This tumour first originated in the cells of an individual dog, up to 11,000 years ago, and possesses the genome of that founder dog. As such, CTVT cells contain an ancient living genome (the founder’s dog genome) that was passed along...
Ancient Egyptian mummy genomes suggest an increase of Sub-Saharan African ancestry in post-Roman periods (2017)
Egypt, located on the isthmus of Africa, is an ideal region to study historical population dynamics due to its geographic location and documented interactions with ancient civilizations in Africa, Asia, and Europe. Particularly, in the first millennium BCE Egypt endured foreign domination leading to growing numbers of foreigners living within its borders possibly contributing genetically to the local population. Here we mtDNA and nuclear DNA from mummified humans recovered from Middle Egypt that...
Ancient Genomics Is Archaeobiology (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Enduring Relationships: People, Plants, and the Contributions of Karen R. Adams" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeo- or paleoethnobiology is the study of how humans interact with their environment; the most extreme and intimate expression of this relationship is domestication. Domesticates are not only a biological organism, with their own unique evolutionary trajectories that they bring into domestication, but...
Ancient Genomics of Hunter-Gatherers at Lake Baikal: Shamanka II Case Study (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Northeast Asian Prehistoric Hunter-Gather Lifeways: Multidisciplinary, Individual Life History Approach" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This talk will discuss the utility of ancient genomic data to gain insight into prehistoric hunter-gatherer lifeways and social organization at Lake Baikal. Specifically, we will focus on familial relationships in a putative massacre instance from the Early Bronze Age at the cemetery...
Ancient Herring DNA from the Burton Acres Shell Midden (45KI437) and Pacific Herring Population Dynamics in the South Salish Sea (2019)
This is an abstract from the "From Middens to Museums: Papers in Honor of Julie K. Stein" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Pacific herring (Clupea harengus pallasi) is an important forage fish and staple food of many Northwest Coast indigenous peoples. Archaeological evidence throughout the south Salish Sea extends this ecological relationship back at least several millennia, but the presence of herring in archaeological deposits is often considered...
Ancient Human DNA Analysis from Central California: Interpreting the Penutian Migration through Genetics. (2017)
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) data was collected from over 300 individuals to further understand the hypothesized spread of Penutian populations from the Columbian Plateau into Central California around 5,000 BP. While living and ethnographic Ohlone groups- specifically in the San Francisco Bay area- speak Penutian languages, it is unclear what effect immigrating Penutians speakers had on existing Hokan populations between 2500-3000 BP. Distinct maternal lineages that belong to either immigrating...
Ancient Human DNA from Shum Laka (Cameroon) in the Context of African Population History (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. We generated genome-wide DNA data from four people buried at the site of Shum Laka in Cameroon between 8000–3000 years ago. One individual carried the deeply divergent Y chromosome haplogroup A00 found at low frequencies among some present-day Niger-Congo speakers, but the genome-wide ancestry profiles for all four individuals are very different...
Ancient Maya Inequality and Oral Microbiome Ecologies from Classic Period Maya Contexts in Southern Belize (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Oral microbial ecologies are shaped by an interaction among environmental and cultural factors, including wealth and status inequalities, which were pervasive throughout ancient Maya society. Few studies have directly integrated the oral microbiome of ancient individuals with a detailed analysis of their status from archaeological contexts. To interrogate...
Ancient Migrations in the Aztatlán Region: aDNA Analyses (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While mounting evidence suggests that the Aztatlán tradition in west Mexico was a major cosmopolitan region during the Postclassic period (AD 900-1521), archaeologists have characterized items and beliefs as being culturally distinct from the rest of Mesoamerica. Recently, endogenous and exogenous material culture distribution has been interpreted as the...
Ancient Mitochondrial DNA and Genetic Variation in Northwest Mexican Populations (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Looking to the West: New insights into Postclassic Archaeology in Michoacán" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The development of genetic sequencing technology has allowed for the recovery of ancient DNA from bone samples belonging to individuals who lived thousands of years ago, opening a window to the past and to better understand the dynamics of ancient civilizations. This study describes the genetic variation found...
An ancient mitochondrial DNA approach to explore pre-Columbian inhabitants ancestry at Paquimé, Casas Grandes (2016)
The genetic analysis of different periods in specific spatial territories could contribute to understand patterns of interactions for pre-Columbian populations that lived in northwest Mexico. Especially for those sites that show debated cultural traits such as Paquimé, the use of all possible bioarchaeological approaches may be key to identify their population ancestry, affinities, and to evaluate possible migrants origin. This research analyzes ancient mitochondrial DNA, HVI and HVII, of 14...
Ancient mitochondrial DNA provides high-resolution timescale of the peopling of the Americas (2016)
Archaeological evidence indicates human presence as far as southern Chile and Argentina by 14.6-14.0 kya (thousand years ago), shortly after the Pleistocene ice sheets blocking access from eastern Beringia began to retreat. Genetic estimates of the timing and route of entry have been constrained by the lack of suitable calibration points and low genetic diversity of Native Americans. We sequenced 92 whole mitochondrial genomes from pre-Columbian South American skeletons dating from 8.6-0.5 kya,...
Ancient Mitogenomes from Oregon Sea Otters (Enhydra lutris): Genetic and Archaeological Contributions to the Historical Ecology of an Extirpated Population (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Zooarchaeology and Technology: Case Studies and Applications" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The sea otter (Enhydra lutris) was nearly driven to extinction on the Pacific Coast in the 19th century due to the commercial maritime fur trade. Despite successful reintroduction efforts in North America, the Oregon sea otter population remains locally extirpated and endangered. Prior studies have used precontact and modern...
Ancient Mongolian Aurochs Genomes Reveal Connections to East Asian Cattle (2023)
This is an abstract from the "From the Altai to the Arctic: New Results and New Directions in the Archaeology of North and Inner Asia" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Societies in East Asia have utilized domesticated cattle since approximately 5,000 years ago, but the origins of East Asian cattle remain understudied. Possible experimentation with management of wild aurochs (Bos primigenius) and other bovids has been hypothesized but not explored in...
Ancient Oral Metagenomes from La Real: Insights into Health and Infectious Disease Across the Middle Horizon Period (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. La Real is a site located in the Majes Valley of southern Peru associated with two chronologically distinct burial contexts dated to the early and late Middle Horizon periods. Previous analysis of these funerary assemblages has shown similarities in the demographic profiles and incidence of trauma between burials from the two periods. Documented increases...
Ancient Pathogen Genomes from Pre- and Early Colonial Epidemics in Mesoamerica and the Evolution of Parathyphi C (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. Genome wide data from ancient microbes may help to understand mechanisms of pathogen evolution and adaptation for emerging and re-emerging infectious disease. Ancient pathogen genomes provide furthermore the possibility to identify causative agents of past pandemics and therefore elucidate mortality crisis such as the early contact period in the New...
Andean Population Dynamics Revealed by Genome-wide Data from the High Elevation Cuncaicha Rock Shelter (2017)
Present-day Andean human populations harbor a relatively high genetic diversity but a minimal population structure and differentiation among them. Moreover, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosome studies on pre-contact human remains suggest that both modern and ancient Andean populations derive from a single ancestral origin. However, nuclear ancient DNA (aDNA) data from the Andes in particular and South America in general are still too scarce to fully address questions on genetic continuity...
An Archaeogenetic Approach to Studying the Demographic History of Rome (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. From shipwrecks to monuments, coins to mosaics, the Aeneid to the Satyricon, classicists, archeologists, and historians draw on a range of media to study ancient Rome. As a new media to study the past, ancient genomes provide direct insight into the demographic histories of Rome’s inhabitants. This talk highlights our team’s interdisciplinary...
Archaeogenomic Evidence from the American Southwest Points to a Pre-Hispanic Scarlet Macaw Breeding Colony North of the Endemic Neotropical Range in Mexico between 900 And 1200 CE (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Frontiers in Animal Management: Unconventional Species, New Methods, and Understudied Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Hundreds of scarlet macaw skeletons have been recovered from archaeological sites across the American Southwest and northwestern Mexico. The location of these skeletons more than 1,000 km outside their Neotropical endemic range has suggested a far-reaching pre-Hispanic acquisition network....
Archaeogenomics and the Mammals of California’s Channel Islands (2016)
As many recent genetic and archaeological studies have shown, humans have intentionally and unintentionally moved plants and animals around the world. The California Channel Islands provide a unique environment to explore ancient translocations due to their close proximity to the California mainland, long human occupation (~13,000 years) and limited terrestrial diversity. Here we present our interdisciplinary approach to investigating the origins of California Channel Island terrestrial mammals...