Genetic Variation and Sociocultural Dynamics in Two Early Christian Cemeteries from Kulubnarti

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ancient DNA in Service of Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Skeletal remains from two contemporaneous Early Christian Period (550–800 CE) cemeteries at Kulubnarti in Sudanese Nubia have been the subject of a decades-long biocultural research program. Craniometric and dental analyses have suggested biological similarity between members of the "R" and "S" cemetery communities, while analyses of health and survival have suggested that the "S community" experienced more stress and disease than the "R community." These data support a hypothesis of a single population, biologically related and culturally unified, but divided into socially-distinct communities.

To test this hypothesis from a new perspective, ancient DNA data were generated for 14 individuals from each community. These data were analyzed to investigate if the two communities were a single genetic population and to assess their ancestry and genetic affinity to present-day populations. Results identified no genetic population substructure and suggested that both communities showed most genetic affinity to present-day Northeastern African populations. Unexpectedly, Eurasian-associated patrilineal ancestry was overrepresented in the "S community", while Eurasian-associated matrilineal ancestry was overrepresented in the "R community." These data revealed a previously-unknown pattern of sex-specific and community-based genetic variation and demonstrated the importance of investigating patterns of genetic variation within a context of known sociocultural dynamics.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ancient DNA in Service of Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23915