Papers Ancient DNA reveals how selection shaped modern human genomes Ancient DNA: Reconstructing Human Lives from Bones and Dust Ancient DNA: Reconstructing Human Lives from Bones and Dust Ancient DNA, Neanderthals, Denisovans, and Encounters with Homo sapiens This comprehensive study plunges the reader into caves, mountain valleys, and burials to show how fragments of ancient DNA, recovered from bones, teeth, By Sara V ⢠7 min read
Papers Ancient DNA Reveals 4,000 Years of Population Shifts at the Ningxia Crossroads of Steppe and Yellow River China Late Neolithic Ningxia: A Genetic Crossroads Between Rivers, Mountains, and Steppe The article plunges the reader into late Neolithic Ningxia, more than four thousand years ago, when this bend of the Yellow River was already a busy corridor between very different worlds. By analysing the DNA of people buried at By Sara V ⢠7 min read
Papers Potato-Driven Evolution: Adaptive Expansion of Salivary Amylase Genes in Indigenous Andeans Starch, Mummies, and Mountain Kingdoms: AMY1 in the Ancient Andes Starch, Mummies, and Mountain Kingdoms: AMY1 in the Ancient Andes Introduction: Life on the Andean Altiplano This comprehensive study takes readers high into the Andean plateau, to a world of terraced fields, burial towers, and lakeside villages, exploring how ancient By Sara V ⢠6 min read
Papers Bronze Age Mohenjo-daro: How Urban Growth Went Hand-in-Hand with Falling Inequality Bronze Age Urbanism and Social Equality at Mohenjo-daro Bronze Age Urbanism and Social Equality at Mohenjo-daro: Archaeological Evidence for Collective Governance and Urban Planning Introduction: A Planned City in Brick and Water Mohenjo-daro stands as one of the Bronze Age's most ambitious experiments in urban living, flourishing between By Sara V ⢠5 min read
Papers Kinship and Violence in a Rare Viking-Age Multiple Burial from Semigallia, Latvia Viking Age Semigallian Burial Customs and a Rare Multiple Grave Viking Age Semigallian Burial Customs and a Rare Multiple Grave The article opens in the river valleys of southern Latvia, in the lands once held by the Semigallians â a Baltic people who lived along the Lielupe river system during the By Sara V ⢠6 min read
Papers Kin, Empire, and DNA: How Roman Rule Reshaped (and Failed to Reshape) Family Mating Practices Roman Imperial Impact on Kinship and Consanguinity Across Regions Roman Imperial Impact on Kinship and Consanguinity: A Comprehensive Genomic Analysis Introduction: The Genomic Revolution in Roman Studies This comprehensive study explores how the Roman Empire fundamentally reshaped family life and marriage practices across its vast territories, while simultaneously revealing where By Sara V ⢠8 min read
Papers Ancient Roman Sculptures as Early Depictions of Occult Spinal Dysraphism Occult Spinal Dysraphism and Its Cutaneous Stigmata in Clinical Neurosurgery Occult Spinal Dysraphism and Its Cutaneous Stigmata in Clinical Neurosurgery This comprehensive study takes readers on an extraordinary journey from modern neurosurgical clinics to the marble halls of ancient Roman museums, examining how subtle cutaneous markers of spinal anomalies may By Sara V ⢠6 min read
Papers Histological Study of Cremated Human Remains from the Imperial Roman Necropolis of La Cona Roman Cremation Rituals at La Cona: Fire, Bones, and Changing Ways of Death The article follows the story of cremation in Italy from its Bronze Age rise to its Roman heyday, before examining the Imperial Roman necropolis of La Cona at Teramo, in central Italy. Here, archaeologists have traced how By Sara V ⢠8 min read
Papers RomanââBarbarianâ Blending on the German Frontier, 400â700 CE Demographic Upheaval around 470 CE: When Northerners Met the Roman Provincials The article plunges the reader into the thick of one of the most dramatic demographic moments in late Roman and early medieval Europe: a sweeping population shift, centred roughly on the year 470 CE, when people with roots in By Sara V ⢠6 min read
Papers Ancient DNA Reveals Cave-Burial Ancestry in the Formation of KraâDai and HmongâMien Peoples of Southwest China Cave Burial Traditions in Guangxi: Ancient DNA and the Origins of Kra-Dai and Hmong-Mien Peoples Cave Burial Traditions in Guangxi: Ancient DNA and the Origins of Kra-Dai and Hmong-Mien Peoples Introduction: Doorways into the Deep Past This comprehensive study takes readers into the dramatic limestone landscapes of Guangxi in southwest By Sara V ⢠7 min read
Papers Genetic Links Between Ancient Corinth and Its Colony Amvrakia Revealed by Ancient DNA Ancient Greek Colonisation and the Corinth-Amvrakia Network: A Genetic Study Ancient Greek Colonisation and the Corinth-Amvrakia Network: A Genetic Study Introduction: From Trading Routes to Planned Colonies This comprehensive study examines the genetic relationships between the Corinthian settlement of Tenea and its colony Amvrakia (later the Roman Ambracia) within the By Sara V ⢠6 min read
Papers Ancient DNA Shows Social Hierarchy in Late Shang Xisima Was Not Based on Genetic Differences Late Shang Social Hierarchy at the Xisima Cemetery The Xisima cemetery, near today's Xingyang City in Henan Province, offers a vivid snapshot of life and death in the waning centuries of the Shang dynasty, roughly 1300â1046 BCE. Excavated in 2005, the site preserves the burials of people By Sara V ⢠7 min read
Papers Ancient DNA Shows PapuanâEast Asian Mixing Before First Settlement of Palau Ancient DNA and the Peopling of Palau: A Comprehensive Study Ancient DNA and the Peopling of Palau: A Comprehensive Archaeological and Genetic Investigation Introduction: PapuanâEast Asian Mixing Before the First People Reached Palau This comprehensive investigation takes readers deep into the limestone caves and rock islands of Palau, revealing By Sara V ⢠12 min read
Papers Ancient Genomes Reveal Three Waves of Settlement and Deep Genetic Diversity in Indigenous Americas By Sara V ⢠5 min read
Papers Life and Mobility in Late Bronze Age Central Europe Revealed by Ancient DNA, Isotopes and Burials Late Bronze Age Mobility and Population Continuity in Central Germany The Late Bronze Age communities of central Germany offer a fascinating window into a world balanced between continuity and change. In the Weida valley of today's Saxony-Anhalt, two remarkable sitesâKuckenburg and Esperstedtâreveal the complex lives of By Sara V ⢠8 min read
Papers Climate-Driven Population Replacement and Expansion in Late European Neanderthals Neanderthals on the Move: A Population Upheaval Around 65,000 Years Ago Neanderthals on the Move: A Population Upheaval Around 65,000 Years Ago The story of Neanderthal Europe reveals a dynamic population far from static. Around 65,000 years ago, their world underwent dramatic transformation driven by climate and By Sara V ⢠6 min read
Papers Ancient DNA from Ladakh reveals a 2,800âyearâold TibetanâSouth Asian mixed population By Sara V ⢠6 min read
Papers Neandertal Genomes from Denisova Cave Reveal Deep Population Structure and Denisovan Admixture Altai Neandertals of Denisova Cave: A High-Coverage Genome from 110,000 Years Ago Altai Neandertals of Denisova Cave: A High-Coverage Genome from 110,000 Years Ago This comprehensive study takes readers deep into Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia, where archaeologists and geneticists have pieced together the By Sara V ⢠7 min read
Papers Reconstructing Complex Hominin Gene Flow from Single Genomes Using a New TwoâLocus Statistic Ancient Human Population Dynamics in Eurasia Ancient Encounters Between Early Humans and Neanderthals This comprehensive analysis reconstructs a surprisingly busy history of contact between early anatomically modern humans and Neanderthals, not as a single romantic encounter, but as a series of episodes spread over hundreds of thousands of years. By By Sara V ⢠5 min read
Papers Genetic Origins and Dynastic Connections of the Medieval Polish Piast Rulers Piast Origins Written in Bone: A Non-Local Line of Kings Piast Origins Written in Bone: A Non-Local Line of Kings This comprehensive study takes readers beneath cathedral floors and into royal crypts to examine a fundamental question about the founders of the early Polish kingdom. By analyzing the male Y-chromosome By Sara V ⢠7 min read
Papers Ancient Dogs of Eurasia: from Palaeolithic Caves to Mesolithic Rivers Ancient Dogs of Eurasia: From Palaeolithic Caves to Mesolithic Rivers Palaeolithic Dogs and Their Break from Wolves The research plunges us into a world 16,000 years ago, when western Eurasia was home not just to mammoths and reindeer hunters, but to dogs that were already genetically distinct from wolves. By Sara V ⢠7 min read
Papers Modern Human Expansion 300,000 Years Ago as a Driver of Neandertal Origins By Sara V ⢠6 min read
Papers The âBeachy Head Womanâ: Ancient DNA Shows a Local Romano-Briton Beachy Head Woman: A Romano-British Life Revealed Beachy Head Woman: A Romano-British Life Revealed Through Modern Science Introduction: From Basement Box to Scientific Discovery In 2012, a forgotten skeleton emerged from a dusty box in Eastbourne Town Hall, bearing only a simple label: "Beachy Head (1959)". This discovery By Sara V ⢠6 min read
