What can aDNA analysis tell us more on an old funerary discovery

The human osteological material that makes the subject of the current study was discovered and exhumed in 2011 archaeological excavations, at the Palace of Culture in Iași (Iași County, Romania). We have identified 10 inhumation skeletons from individual graves, and fragments from reinhumations that belonged to six subjects. According to the information provided by the archaeologists, the skeletons were dated to the 13 th century. The orientation of the deceased was according to the Christian ritual. The preservation status of the skeletons is satisfactory. From the total of 16 skeletons, three didn't live past the age of 20 (two women and one man), three subjects were between 35 and 40 years old (two men and one woman) and the other 10 subjects (seven men and three women) lived past the age of 40. Biometric and morphological characteristics were revealed to estimate the anthropological type. Pathologies and abnormalities were identified and analysed.

Forensic Science International: Genetics Supplement Series, 2017

The aim of the present study was to compare the mtDNA haplotypes (haplogroups H and W) obtained from 2 young females buried within a Neolithic circular enclosure (rondel) with the results of the scientific studies on Neolithic and Mesolithic skeletal material. We collected 164 mtDNA literature sequences and data concerning the age of the specimen, location of the excavation site (Denmark,

The osteological material was exhumed in 2013 by archaeologists from the Archaeology Department of the Cultural Heritage Institute of the Academy of Science of Moldova, in the mediaeval necropolis of Lăpuşna (Hânceşti County, Republic of Moldova). Thirty graves were fully or partially researched, the deceased having been buried lying on their backs, with the upper limbs placed on the chest or abdomen. Based on the funerary inventory (which includes six mediaeval coins), the graves were chronologically placed between the XV th and the XVII th centuries. The cemetery belonged to a local Christian rural community. The preservation status of skeletons is satisfactory. Twenty-two human skeletons (seven males, ten females, and five children) have been analyzed so far. Sex ratio in the osteological sample from Lăpuşna is subunitary, indicating a higher number of female skeletons, comparatively with the male ones. A quarter of the analysed subjects did not survive after adolescence. The max...

Homines, Funera, Astra 3-4: The Multiple Faces, Oxford, Archaeopress of Death and Burial, 2023

Meeting a medieval community of Bizere Monastery: lifestyle, occupation and nutritional status ……………… Luminița Andreica-Szilágyi Disappearance of grave goods: changes in burial practices in 14 th century Ivanec, Croatia ……………………………. Juraj Belaj and Filomena Sirovica Can the position of the forearms serve as a dating determinant in medieval and early modern cemeteries on the territory of the northern Croatia? …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Siniša Krznar Coin finds at Crkvari-Saint Lawrence Church site (northern Croatia) as terminus ante quem non for funerary features ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Tatjana Tkalčec

Scientific Reports, 2019

one of the best documented Indo-european civilizations that inhabited Bulgaria is the thracians, who lasted for more than five millennia and whose origin and relationships with other past and present-day populations are debated among researchers. Here we report 25 new complete mitochondrial genomes of ancient individuals coming from three necropolises located in different regions of Bulgaria-shekerdja mogila, Gabrova mogila and Bereketska mogila-dated to II-III millennium BC. the identified mtDNA haplogroup composition reflects the mitochondrial variability of Western Eurasia. In particular, within the ancient eurasian genetic landscape, thracians locate in an intermediate position between early Neolithic farmers and Late Neolithic-Bronze Age steppe pastoralists, supporting the scenario that the Balkan region has been a link between eastern europe and the Mediterranean since the prehistoric time. spatial principal Component Analysis (spCA) performed on thracian and modern mtDNA sequ...

Studii de Preistorie, 2015

A new archaeological site was discovered in 2012 in Romania in the river Mureș Valley, at Tărtăria (Alba County). Researchers have been able to date it during the first period of the Iron Age (middle Hallstatt, Basarabi culture). Excavation has revealed a collective burial containing the remains of seven individuals (six of which were articulated and a seventh only partially represented). Due to the very poor preservation and extreme degree of fragmentation of the material, the anthropological analysis could only determine the age at death for some of the individuals. This article discusses this common burial together with other individual funerary features that have also been discovered in one of the trenches bordering the site. The skeletal assemblage from Tărtăria has analogies in other contemporary assemblages recovered from Hungary and Serbia and remains particularly important for our understanding of funerary rites during the early Iron Age in the Carpathian basin

Forensic Science International: Genetics, 2017

We applied an interdisciplinary approach to investigate kinship patterns and funerary practices during the middle Neolithic. Genetic studies, radiocarbon dating, and taphonomic analyses were used to examine two grave clusters from Krusza Zamkowa, Poland. To reconstruct kinship and determine biological sex, we extracted DNA from bones and teeth, analyzed mitochondrial genomes and nuclear SNPs using the HID-Ion AmpliSeq™ Identity panel generated on Illumina and Ion Torrent platforms, respectively. We further dated the material (AMS 14 C) and to exclude aquatic radiocarbon reservoir effects, measures of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes for diet reconstruction were used. We found distinct mitochondrial genomes belonging to haplogroups U5b2a1a, K1c and H3d in the first grave cluster, and excluded maternal kin patterns among the three analyzed individuals. In the second grave cluster one individual belonged to K1a4. However, we could not affiliate the second individual to a certain haplogroup due to the fragmented state of the mitochondrial genome. Although the individuals from the second grave cluster differ at position 6643, we believe that more data is needed to fully resolve this issue. We retrieved between 26 and 77 autosomal SNPs from three of the individuals. Based on kinship estimations, taking into account the allelic dropout distribution, we could not exclude first degree kin relation between the two individuals from the second grave cluster. We could, however, exclude a first degree kinship between these two individuals and an individual from the first grave cluster. Presumably, not only biological kinship, but also social relations played an important role in the funerary practice during this time period. We further conclude that the HID-Ion AmpliSeq™ Identity Panel may prove useful for first degree kin relation studies for samples with good DNA preservation, and that mitochondrial genome capture enrichment is a powerful tool for excluding direct maternal relationship in ancient individuals.

The problems discussed represent a caveat for all contributors to the archaeogenetic literature. Mistakes can occur when authors of archaeogenetic studies neglect both the archaeological context of the skeletons studied and the archaeological literature about the sites involved. While one cannot expect molecular biologists to scrutinise minor excavation reports, let alone hunt for unpublished documentation, it is all the more important to integrate archaeologists into the research process. This would not only solve the problem of dating a skeleton 6000 years earlier than its real age, but would also share responsibility for the results and establish real interdisciplinarity between archaeology and the natural sciences.