Papers Athens Plague Likely Caused by Salmonella A City Under Siege and a Disease That Changed History In the summer heat of ancient Athens, while Spartan armies ravaged the countryside, another enemy moved silently inside the city walls. Thousands of rural refugees had flooded into a space never meant to hold them. The result was overcrowding, broken By Sara V ⢠3 min read
Papers Prehistoric Lethal Plague in Lake Baikal Hunter-Gatherers Lake Baikal and the World of Its Hunter-Gatherers On the western shores of Lake Baikal and along the Angara River, a remarkable prehistoric landscape emerges. Around 5,500 years ago, communities lived by skill and movement rather than farming, knowing river channels, fish runs and forest paths. Their cemeteries offer By Jamie L ⢠6 min read
Papers Ancient DNA, Diet and Mobility of Iron Age Umbrians at Spoleto Piazza d'Armi: A Window onto Early Umbrian Society High above the valleys of central Italy, the necropolis of Piazza d'Armi near Spoleto opens a remarkable window onto a wealthy, ambitious community connected to the wider world. Used between roughly 720 and 580 BC during the Orientalising By Caterina ⢠3 min read
Papers Archaic DNA and Long Isolation in Near Oceania Near Oceania: Islands at the Edge of the Human World Near Oceania stretches across New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the main Solomon Islands, a region of deep forests, high mountains, coral coasts, and difficult sea crossings. People were living there at least 42,000 years ago. These were among By Sven ⢠9 min read
Papers Ancient DNA reveals Hungaryâs ĂrpĂĄd dynasty burials The Royal Burials of SzĂŠkesfehĂŠrvĂĄr: ĂrpĂĄd Dynasty Archaeology and Ancient DNA The Royal Burials of SzĂŠkesfehĂŠrvĂĄr: ĂrpĂĄd Dynasty Archaeology and Ancient DNA The Royal Basilica as a Burial Ground and Its Archaeological Landscape The Royal Basilica at SzĂŠkesfehĂŠrvĂĄr stands at the heart of one of medieval Europe's most By Sven ⢠13 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines Clan Maule Clan Maule Clan Maule was one of the notable landed noble families of Lowland Scotland, most firmly associated with Angus and with the long social world of estates, public duty, and aristocratic service. Their story is less that of a Highland war-band and more that of a durable Lowland house: By Sven ⢠2 min read
Papers Etruscan Origins and Change in Bologna Ancient Bologna: From Villanovan Origins to Roman Integration Ancient Bologna: From Villanovan Origins to Roman Integration Villanovan-Etruscan Biological Continuity The archaeological investigation of ancient Bologna places one of the most compelling questions in early Italian history under examination: were the Etruscans of Felsina newcomers, or did they emerge from the By Sven ⢠5 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines Clan MacGill Clan MacGill Clan MacGill was not one of the great princely houses of Scotland, and that is precisely why it is so interesting. It belongs to the long, durable world of Gaelic family tradition, where identity was carried not only by land and power, but by name, memory, service, and By Sara V ⢠3 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines The Noble House of De Vere The Noble House of De Vere Who the de Veres were The de Vere family was one of the great Norman noble houses of England, best known as the Earls of Oxford, and remembered for the long, durable sort of power that shaped medieval England from court to battlefield. Their By Sven ⢠2 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines The Noble House of Burgh The Noble House of Burgh The House of Burgh was one of the great Norman-Irish noble families, a dynasty of conquest, castles, lordship, and political muscle whose story is deeply tied to medieval Ireland. The family came originally from the wider Anglo-Norman world shaped by the expansion that followed the By Jamie L ⢠2 min read
Papers Diet-Driven Natural Selection in Ancient Britain Diet-Driven Natural Selection in Ancient Britain: 6,000 Years of Food and Evolution Diet-Driven Natural Selection in Ancient Britain: 6,000 Years of Food and Evolution Introduction This comprehensive study tackles one of history's most intriguing questions: did changing food habits actually help shape human evolution in Britain? By Sven ⢠8 min read
Papers Archaeological Bone Microbiomes and Bioerosion Microbial Decay and Preservation in Medieval Norwegian Burials Microbial Decay and Preservation in Medieval Norwegian Burials: A Comprehensive Archaeological Investigation This comprehensive study examines one of archaeology's most compelling hidden narratives: the dramatic transformations that occur to human bone after burial, when the dead lie for centuries beneath By Sven ⢠5 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines Clan Wallace Clan Wallace DNA and History Clan Wallace was one of the great patriotic families of Scotland: a name rooted in the west of the country, especially Renfrewshire and Ayrshire, and forever tied to the memory of resistance in the Wars of Scottish Independence. The surname itself is usually understood to By Sara V ⢠3 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines Clan Ryan Clan Ryan Clan Ryan was one of the many enduring Gaelic Irish families whose identity was carried not by a single castle or one dramatic founder alone, but by surname, kinship, locality, and memory. The name Ryan, from the older Irish O Riain, belongs to that deeply rooted Irish tradition By Jamie L ⢠3 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines Clan Rose Clan Rose Origins and family background Clan Rose was one of the old landed families of northern Scotland, rooted for centuries in Nairnshire and most closely identified with Kilravock Castle near Nairn. In historical terms, the Roses fit a very recognisable Scottish pattern: a family built not simply by bloodline By Jamie L ⢠3 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines Clan Roche Clan Roche Clan Roche was one of the great Anglo-Norman families to put down roots in Ireland, especially in Munster, and in time to become thoroughly part of the Irish historical landscape. The name comes from de la Roche, or de Rupe, meaning "of the rock", and points By Jamie L ⢠2 min read
Papers African Maternal DNA Diversity and Population History African mtDNA Diversity and Maternal Lineages The study explores one of the most remarkable archives of human history: the maternal line. Passed from mothers to children, mitochondrial DNA preserves a record of descent that can stretch back deep into the African past. What emerges from this research is not a By Caterina ⢠6 min read
Papers Polovtsian Burial at the Krasny IV Kurgan Cemetery Polovtsian Burial at the Krasny IV Kurgan Cemetery: Archaeological and Genetic Analysis Archaeological and Genetic Analysis This comprehensive study examines one of the most remarkable discoveries from the Krasny IV kurgan cemetery in the Rostov region: kurgan 16, burial 3. This richly furnished Polovtsian grave provides an extraordinary glimpse into By Sven ⢠5 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines The Ottonian Dynasty The Ottonian Dynasty Who they were, where they came from, and their haplogroup link The Ottonian Dynasty was the great Saxon royal house that carried East Francia into the age of emperors, and in historical and genetic tagging terms it is here linked with haplogroup R1b1a1b1a1a2e1, the primary family haplogroup By Jamie L ⢠3 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines Kohanim Priestly Lineage Kohanim Priestly Lineage The Kohanim were, and in Jewish tradition still are, the hereditary priestly lineage of Judaism: families who traced their ancestry to Aaron, brother of Moses, in the world of ancient Israel. Their earliest remembered homeland lies in the southern Levant, in the historical landscape of ancient Israel By Sara V ⢠3 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines The House of Villeneuve House of Villeneuve Who they were, where they came from, and their haplogroup The House of Villeneuve was a French noble family rooted in the world of regional lordship, landed power, heraldic identity, and long aristocratic service. Their name is place-based, coming from one of the many "new towns& By Sara V ⢠2 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines The House of de Havilland House of de Havilland The House of de Havilland was a Norman-origin family rooted above all in the Channel Islands, especially Guernsey, where an old insular world preserved names, customs, loyalties, and landholding patterns that were neither simply French nor simply English. In that narrow stretch of sea between two By Caterina ⢠3 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines The House of de Crombrugghe House of de Crombrugghe Origins, identity, and haplogroup The House of de Crombrugghe was one of the noble families of the Low Countries, rooted in the old Flemish and later Belgian aristocratic world of land, office, heraldry, and long family memory. Their story belongs to that very characteristic landscape of By Jamie L ⢠3 min read
Haplogroups and Noble Lines The Piast Dynasty The Piast Dynasty Origins and family background The Piast Dynasty was the first historic ruling house of Poland, the family that stands at the beginning of Polish statehood and the making of the medieval Polish monarchy. Emerging from the early polity of the Polans in what is now Greater Poland, By Jamie L ⢠3 min read
