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Ancient DNA illuminates 15,000 years of history at Europe-Asia crossroads
Harvard Medicine magazine ^ | August 25, 2022 | Stephanie Dutchen

Posted on 08/28/2022 3:16:52 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

Growing up in Greece, Iosif Lazaridis shared his compatriots’ appreciation that they lived in “the crossroads of Europe and Asia,” past and present...

Featuring the genomes of more than 1,300 ancient people, 727 of them sequenced for the first time, the work represents one of the largest analyses to date of ancient human DNA...

In addition to illuminating shifts in different populations’ genetic makeup across the centuries, the analyses provide fresh genetic insights into old mysteries such as the identities of Minoan and Mycenaean peoples and the geographic origin of Indo-European languages...

Until a few years ago, it was difficult or impossible to recover DNA from ancient people buried in regions like the Middle East because heat degrades the delicate material. The discovery in 2015 that an inner-ear bone does an exceptional job of preserving DNA and the development of new sequencing and analytic techniques threw open the doors to studying large collections of ancient DNA from previously inaccessible environments.

Co-authors in different fields worked together to interpret the findings in light of what was already known through archaeological evidence, ancient texts, and other materials. Some of the discoveries add detail to existing histories. Others fill in gaps. Still others challenge conventional theories...

“These findings are another example of how archaeogenetic results can provide a missing layer of information that cannot be obtained from other sources,” said Alpaslan-Roodenberg.

For Lazaridis, the papers provide a jumping-off point for yet more investigations even as they scratch his lifelong itch to know more about the people who live beside one another today.

(Excerpt) Read more at hms.harvard.edu ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: ancientautopsies; carians; catastrophism; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; hurrians; urartu
Fresco of a horse from the ancient kingdom of Urartu in what is now Armenia and Turkey. The new DNA analyses included several individuals associated with the kingdom.
Image: EvgenyGenkin/CC BY-SA 3.0
Image: EvgenyGenkin/CC BY-SA 3.0

1 posted on 08/28/2022 3:16:52 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: 75thOVI; Abathar; agrace; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AnalogReigns; AndrewC; aragorn; ...
One of *those* topics.


Sidebars elsewhere in the news:

2 posted on 08/28/2022 3:23:45 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...

3 posted on 08/28/2022 3:24:12 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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Comment #4 Removed by Moderator

To: Honest Nigerian

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3928396/posts


5 posted on 08/28/2022 3:44:44 PM PDT by TexasGator (ice )
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To: SunkenCiv

Inner ear DNA from a henpecked Mycenaean warrior cannot be recovered. It quickly degrades after the honeymoon.


6 posted on 08/28/2022 4:03:32 PM PDT by bunkerhill7 (t)
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To: Honest Nigerian

The proof is in the ability to sequence DNA

Just how illogical are you?


7 posted on 08/28/2022 4:06:32 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds )
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To: bunkerhill7

Heh... probably the only known example from ancient lit is the murder of Agamemnon, but that was a pretty dysfunctional family. ;^)


8 posted on 08/28/2022 4:07:13 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Nifster
Just how illogical are you?

Unfortunately this blanket mistrust in conservative circles of all intellectual activity and academic pursuits is a fallout of the Deep State activities against conservatives over the past decade. Conservatives are retreating into an illogical and conspiratorial cave of anti-intellectualism, rejecting all pedigreed intellectuals as suspicious, but have no other response.

9 posted on 08/28/2022 4:26:26 PM PDT by nwrep
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To: SunkenCiv

Did they Ayla and Jonathon’s bones?


10 posted on 08/28/2022 4:31:08 PM PDT by libertylover (Our biggest problem, BY FAR, is that almost all of big media is agenda-driven, not-truth driven.)
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To: SunkenCiv
The discovery in 2015 that an inner-ear bone does an exceptional job of preserving DNA and the development of new sequencing and analytic techniques threw open the doors to studying large collections of ancient DNA from previously inaccessible environments.

I've got my reparations claim against Alexander the Great all prepared and ready to go.

11 posted on 08/28/2022 4:48:58 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (“May your neighbors respect you, trouble neglect you, angels protect you and heaven accept you”)
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To: SunkenCiv
Heh... probably the only known example from ancient lit is the murder of Agamemnon, but that was a pretty dysfunctional family. ;^)
When your sister is your brother is your father, too... gets complicated.

That, and the spelling of "Aggammennon"
12 posted on 08/28/2022 5:54:06 PM PDT by nicollo (arbitrary law is not rule of law)
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To: nwrep

Good post, some conservatives are giving the same knee-jerk reactions to all kinds of things.


13 posted on 08/28/2022 6:49:10 PM PDT by ansel12 (NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.)
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To: nwrep

Sadly you are correct


14 posted on 08/28/2022 7:49:11 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds )
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