A genetic probe into the ancient and medieval history of Southern Europe and West Asia (original) (raw)

Gene-flows and social processes: the potential of genetics and archaeology

Scales and units of analysis Over the past forty years, a fascinating dialogue has been developing between archaeology and gene-tics, specifically in relation to the question of the dispersal of domesticated plants and animals into Europe and its relationship with the movements of human populations. This debate has often been mar-ked by a degree of mutual confusion, owing largely to the different temporal and spatial scales at which the two disciplines operate, and the different ques-tions that they address (Brown and Pluciennik 2001. 101). While genetics generally concerns itself with the global or continental scale, archaeology is often more focused on the regional and the local, with the result that phenomena that are described at differ-ent levels of magnitude may appear to contradict each other. Some common ground is now beginning to emerge, but from an archaeological point of view it is especially interesting to ask whether the fine-grained patterns that we think we can discer...

The Science of Genealogy by genetics

This summary lays out the basic science and methodology used in genetic testing that investigates historical population migrations and the ancestry of living individuals. The genetic markers used in this testing, and the distinction between Y-chromosome, mitochrondial and autosomes analysis, are explained and the shortcomings of these methodologies are explored.

Genetics, archaeology and culture

Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, 14(1), 297-315. ISSN 1108-9628 (Print), 2241-8121 (Online), 2014

This article explores historical and contemporary approaches to the use of genetic and archaeological evidence in the interpretation of European Prehistory. It begins by reviewing the early work of anthropologists, which was ambitious in scientific scope and effort, but doomed in interpretation by the framework of colonial expansion and racial hierarchy within which it arose. It briefly considers the emergence of serology and genetic studies, and the gradual displacement of the racial paradigm following the Second World War. The Neolithic transition and the genetics of populations in Europe model of Ammerman and Cavalli-Sforza is used to generate a fuller discussion of the dimensions involved in combining archaeological and genetic evidence, and alternative mechanisms are explored. The potential for ancient DNA to contribute to this and other debates is raised, and the prospects offered by more recent scientific developments in human genetics are considered. Genetic studies-modern and ancient-have become established as having the potential to support archaeological investigations with considerable breadth and time-depth. The paper aims to offer a nuanced consideration of a number of issues arising from this discussion and concludes that genes, environment, language and archaeology are individually and together legitimate and pressing subjects of enquiry for the scholar of the past.

Summary: The Science of Genealogy by Genetics

Developing World Bioethics, 2003

This summary lays out the basic science and methodology used in genetic testing that investigates historical population migrations and the ancestry of living individuals. The genetic markers used in this testing, and the distinction between Y-chromosome, mitochrondial and autosomes analysis, are explained and the shortcomings of these methodologies are explored.