Category: In the Media
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The genomic ancestry of the Scandinavian Battle Axe Culture people and their relation to the broader Corded Ware horizon
Our study on the Battle Axe Culture by Helena Malmström with others (2019) is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The study caught the attention of media outlets (“Mysterious ‘Battle Axe Culture’ reveals its secrets thanks to DNA discovery“, by James Rogers, Fox News) Abstract The Neolithic period is characterized by major…
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Megalithic tombs in western and northern Neolithic Europe were linked to a kindred society
A new phenomenon of constructing distinctive funerary monuments, collectively known as megalithic tombs, emerged around 4500 BCE along the Atlantic façade. The megalithic phenomenon has attracted interest and speculation since medieval times. In particular, the origin, dispersal dynamics, and the role of these constructions within the societies that built them have been debated. We generate…
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Ancient DNA pushes human emergence back
The complete genomes of southern African human remains reveals that modern humans emerged more than 300,000 years ago A genomic analysis of ancient human remains from KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) revealed that southern Africa has an important role to play in writing the history of humankind. A research team from Uppsala University, Sweden, the Universities of…
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Southern African ancient genomes estimate modern human divergence to 350,000 to 260,000 years ago
Carina Schlebusch with her team just published analyses of the ancient remains from South Africans in Science today. You can find more information about this fascinating study in our post: Ancient DNA pushes human emergence back. Anatomically modern humans evolved in Africa, but pinpointing when has been difficult. Schlebusch et al. sequenced three ancient African genomes from the…
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A female Viking warrior confirmed by genomics
A new publication in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology involving a few of us and the ATLAS of a 1000 Ancient genomes team unmasked a high ranking Viking warrior to be a woman. The story received ample media coverage in international news. Abstract Objectives The objective of this study has been to confirm the…
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Genomic Diversity and Admixture Differs for Stone-Age Scandinavian Foragers and Farmers
An international team led by researchers at Uppsala University and Stockholm University reports a breakthrough in understanding the demographic history of Stone-Age humans. The findings are published in Science, Skoglund et al. (2014). Abstract Prehistoric population structure associated with the transition to an agricultural lifestyle in Europe remains a contentious idea. Population-genomic data from 11…