Several researchers from the Lab were involved in writing this article, which is part of Natalija Kashuba’s doctoral thesis.
Kashuba, N., Bernhardsson, C., Boethius, A., Fraser, M., Günther, T., Götherström, A., … & Jakobsson, M. (2024). Transformation of the Scandinavian hunter-fisher-gatherer population throughout the Mesolithic. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A1842112
Paper summary
A joint archaeogenetic perspective integrates diverse lines of evidence from archaeology and paleogenetics to advance our understanding of human prehistory. In this thesis I contribute to the corpus of archaeogenetic data by producing and analysing ancient genomic data from osseous and masticated material.
Masticated birch bark pitch (also called resin) is presented as a novel source for ancient DNA that contains an abundance of data from different species. The masticated lumps analysed in this work, which come from a Mesolithic site in western Scandinavia, encapsulated human genetic information (individual genomes and oral microbiomes) and environmental aDNA from species (plants and animals) consumed or used as raw material at the site. Ancient DNA from this archaeological material transpires as a direct link between a practised archaeological culture and the genotype of the practitioners, in this case a particular lithic technology (the eastern pressure blade concept) and Scandinavian hunter-gatherers (SHG). The paleopathological information obtained from the microbiomes from this masticated material suggests poor oral health in the Early Mesolithic population of Scandinavia.