Ancient DNA Reveals 1,400 Years of Population Continuity and East Asian-Linked Shifts in the Altai Region Jamie L April 16, 2026 – 8 min read Share this post Papers Genetic ancestry of ancient Amiternum from Roman to early medieval Italy A forgotten city in the hills of central Italy In the uplands of Abruzzo, near modern L'Aquila, the buried city of Amiternum occupies a curious space between grandeur and ruin. Once a proper Roman town with public buildings and civic swagger, it later became a Christian landscape of By Caterina • 5 min read Papers Denmark’s Mesolithic–Neolithic Transition: Culture, Genetics, and Timing The dramatic arrival of farming in Denmark For thousands of years, communities across prehistoric Denmark lived by sea, marsh, river, and forest. Then, around 4000 BC, farming arrived with startling force: cattle, crops, new pottery, and new burial customs grouped under the Funnel Beaker tradition. This was not a technical By Sara V • 4 min read Papers Paleogenomics of Ancient Italian Islands Sicily Before Farming: Caves, Burials, and the First Island Foragers Sicily's earliest people survive not in chronicles but in caves: limestone chambers holding broken bones, stone tools, and burials that have become almost characters in their own right. Grotta di San Teodoro, Grotta d'Oriente, Grotta dell& By Sven • 6 min read Haplogroups and Noble Lines Khnum-Nakht Egyptian Priest Khnum-Nakht was a high-status Egyptian priest of the Middle Kingdom, living around 1800 BC in Middle Egypt, a world of provincial elites, temple offices, careful funerary preparation, and deeply local religious identities. His inscriptions connect him to the cult of Khnum, the ram-headed creator god, and to ancient Shashotep, while By Jamie L • 4 min read Haplogroups and Noble Lines Nekht-Ankh Egyptian Noble Nekht-Ankh was a high-status Egyptian nobleman who lived in Middle Egypt around 1800 BC, in the later Middle Kingdom, a period when Egypt was governed through a mixture of royal authority and powerful provincial families. His inscriptions identify him as the son of a provincial governor, which places him firmly By Caterina • 5 min read Haplogroups and Noble Lines The Gladiator from the Near East The man often called the Headless Gladiator from the Near East was buried in Roman York, ancient Eboracum, around the middle of the 3rd century AD. He is known to researchers as sample 3DRIF-26, and he matters because his bones and his DNA together illuminate something the Roman Empire was By Jamie L • 5 min read Haplogroups and Noble Lines Golden Man of Issyk The Golden Man of Issyk is one of those archaeological finds that has all but walked off with the public imagination. Buried around 296 BC in the Tian Shan region of what is now Kazakhstan, this Saka elite was laid to rest inside the Issyk kurgan near modern Almaty in By Sara V • 4 min read Haplogroups and Noble Lines Duke Béla of Macsó Duke Béla of Macsó was one of those medieval princes who seem to stand at the hinge of several worlds at once. Living in the 13th century and dying in 1272, he was the son of Rostislav Mikhailovich, a Rurikid prince descended from the rulers of Chernigov, and Anna of By Sven • 4 min read Haplogroups and Noble Lines Elite Viking Warrior of Bodzia The man known from sample VK157, the Elite Viking Warrior of Bodzia, was buried in Poland around 1015-1020 AD in one of the most extraordinary cemeteries of the Viking Age. Bodzia was no ordinary burial ground. Its chamber graves, timber enclosures, imported goods and armed burials speak of people who By Sven • 5 min read
Papers Genetic ancestry of ancient Amiternum from Roman to early medieval Italy A forgotten city in the hills of central Italy In the uplands of Abruzzo, near modern L'Aquila, the buried city of Amiternum occupies a curious space between grandeur and ruin. Once a proper Roman town with public buildings and civic swagger, it later became a Christian landscape of By Caterina • 5 min read
Papers Denmark’s Mesolithic–Neolithic Transition: Culture, Genetics, and Timing The dramatic arrival of farming in Denmark For thousands of years, communities across prehistoric Denmark lived by sea, marsh, river, and forest. Then, around 4000 BC, farming arrived with startling force: cattle, crops, new pottery, and new burial customs grouped under the Funnel Beaker tradition. This was not a technical By Sara V • 4 min read
Papers Paleogenomics of Ancient Italian Islands Sicily Before Farming: Caves, Burials, and the First Island Foragers Sicily's earliest people survive not in chronicles but in caves: limestone chambers holding broken bones, stone tools, and burials that have become almost characters in their own right. Grotta di San Teodoro, Grotta d'Oriente, Grotta dell& By Sven • 6 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines Khnum-Nakht Egyptian Priest Khnum-Nakht was a high-status Egyptian priest of the Middle Kingdom, living around 1800 BC in Middle Egypt, a world of provincial elites, temple offices, careful funerary preparation, and deeply local religious identities. His inscriptions connect him to the cult of Khnum, the ram-headed creator god, and to ancient Shashotep, while By Jamie L • 4 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines Nekht-Ankh Egyptian Noble Nekht-Ankh was a high-status Egyptian nobleman who lived in Middle Egypt around 1800 BC, in the later Middle Kingdom, a period when Egypt was governed through a mixture of royal authority and powerful provincial families. His inscriptions identify him as the son of a provincial governor, which places him firmly By Caterina • 5 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines The Gladiator from the Near East The man often called the Headless Gladiator from the Near East was buried in Roman York, ancient Eboracum, around the middle of the 3rd century AD. He is known to researchers as sample 3DRIF-26, and he matters because his bones and his DNA together illuminate something the Roman Empire was By Jamie L • 5 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines Golden Man of Issyk The Golden Man of Issyk is one of those archaeological finds that has all but walked off with the public imagination. Buried around 296 BC in the Tian Shan region of what is now Kazakhstan, this Saka elite was laid to rest inside the Issyk kurgan near modern Almaty in By Sara V • 4 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines Duke Béla of Macsó Duke Béla of Macsó was one of those medieval princes who seem to stand at the hinge of several worlds at once. Living in the 13th century and dying in 1272, he was the son of Rostislav Mikhailovich, a Rurikid prince descended from the rulers of Chernigov, and Anna of By Sven • 4 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines Elite Viking Warrior of Bodzia The man known from sample VK157, the Elite Viking Warrior of Bodzia, was buried in Poland around 1015-1020 AD in one of the most extraordinary cemeteries of the Viking Age. Bodzia was no ordinary burial ground. Its chamber graves, timber enclosures, imported goods and armed burials speak of people who By Sven • 5 min read
