Keri A. Brown

Ancient DNA and the archaeologist

Out of molecular biology – the revolution of past decades in biological science – there now begins to come molecular archaeology, the study of DNA in ancient plants, animals and people to address questions of history as well as biology. Here is set out what molecular archaeology is about, how it works and what it has begun to do.

Phenomenology in Practice: Towards a Methodology for a 'Subjective' Approach

The article deals with the practice of phenomenological archaeological fieldwork, which is concerned with sensory experience of landscapes and locales. Phenomenological approaches in archaeology ha...

DNA in wheat seeds from European archaeological sites

We have used hybridization analysis to detect ancient DNA in wheat seeds collected from three archaeological sites in Europe and the Middle East. One of these samples, carbonizedT. spelta dated to the first millennium BC, has yielded PCR products after amplification with primers directed at the leader regions of the HMW (high molecular weight) glutenin alleles. Sequences obtained from these products suggest that the DNA present in the Danebury seeds is chemically damaged, as expected for ancient DNA, and also indicate that it should be possible to study the genetic variability of archaeological wheat by ancient DNA analysis. Finally, we describe a PCR-based system that enables tetraploid and hexaploid wheats to be distinguished.

Biomolecular archaeology of wheat: Past, present and future

Abstract The study of ancient biomolecules in preserved wheat remains could provide information on both the initial development of agriculture and its subsequent trajectories and spread in relation to changing human society. We have detected ancient DNA in extracts prepared from charred, waterlogged and mineralized wheat seeds, and have used the polymerase chain reaction to study specific genetic regions of the ancient DNA preserved in Triticum spelta from Danebury, UK and T. dicoccum from Assiros, Greece. We discuss future developments in the biomolecular archaeology of wheat, including the possibility of a genetic test that may enable tetraploid and hexaploid wheat remains to be distinguished by ancient DNA analysis.

Archaeology and human genetics : lessons for both

New research fields and areas of scientific specialization often bring division and disciplinary divides. Here Brown & Pluciennik discuss the impact of genetic research on archaeology.

DNA analysis of bones from Grave Circle B at Mycenae: a first report.

Following the successful identification of at least two different family groups in Grave Circle B using facial reconstruction (BSA 90 [1995], 107–36), a pilot project was carried out at Manchester to identify, analyse and match 22 DNA samples from burials in the Grave Circle. The first step was to determine whether ancient DNA has survived, as proved to be the case; the next was to use this information to sex the individual by polymerase chain reactions (PCRs). In some cases the results provided information which the excavators had not been able to achieve because of the poor state of the skeletal remains; in one there was an apparent disagreement between the DNA result and the conclusion reached on archaeological and anatomical grounds. The overall results suggest that these methods have considerable potential for kinship studies in Aegean Bronze Age populations.

Excavations at Copse Farm, Oving, West Sussex.

Two farmsteads, one of late Iron Age (second-first centuries BC) date and the other dating to the early Romano-British period (first-second centuries AD), were excavated at Copse Farm, Oving. The site is situated within the Chichester dykes on the Sussex/Hampshire Coastal Plain. The Iron Age farmstead produced pottery spanning ‘saucepan’ and ‘Aylesford-Swarling’ traditions, a transition in ceramic production which is poorly understood in Sussex. Information on the agricultural economy and small-scale industries (principally metalworking) practised at this site give an insight into the way the Coastal Plain was settled and exploited at the end of the first millennium BC.

Kinship in Aegean Prehistory? Ancient DNA in Human Bones from Mainland Greece and Crete

Attempts were made to detect ancient DNA (aDNA) in samples of 89 human skeletons from Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in Greece and Crete. Ancient DNA was absent in specimens from Nea Nicomedia, Lerna, Kato Zakro: Karaviádena, and Mycenae Grave Circle A. For each of three skeletons sampled from Antron Grave Circle B, polymerase chain reactions (PCRs) gave products for nuclear but not mitochondrial DNA, but the yield of DNA was low and inconsistent, with replicate PCRs failing to give reproducible results. At Kouphovouno evidence for mitochondrial and/or nuclear aDNA was obtained from eight of the 20 skeletons that were examined, while at Mycenae Grave Circle B evidence for mitochondrial aDNA was obtained for four of the 22 skeletons that were studied, and in two cases confirmed the evidence of close kinship that had already been suggested by facial reconstruction: this in turn raises interesting questions of social relationships and the role of high-status women in MBA/LBA society. We conclude that, although aDNA might be present in some Eastern Mediterranean skeletons from later centuries of the Bronze Age, it is not commonly found in material from this period and is likely to be absent from older material. Στη μελέτη αυτή έγιναν προσπάθειες να αναγνωριστεί αρχαίο DNA (aDNA) σε δείγματα ογδόντα εννέα ανθρώπινων σκελετών προερχομένων από θέσεις της Νεολιθικής περιόδου και της Εποχής του Χαλκού στην Ελλάδα και την Κρήτη. Αρχαίο DNA δεν εντοπίστηκε σε δείγματα από τη Νέα Νικομήδεια, τη Λέρνα, την Κάτω Ζάκρο (Καραβιάδενα) και τον Ταφικό Κύκλο Α των Μυκηνών. Για κάθε έναν από τους τρεις σκελετούς, οι οποίοι εξετάστηκαν από τον Ταφικό Κύκλο Β της Αντρώνας, οι αλυσιδωτές αντιδράσεις πολυμεράσης (PCRs) απέφεραν αποτελέσματα για πυρηνικό αλλά όχι μιτοχονδριακό DNA. Η παραγωγή DNA ήταν χαμηλή και αντιφατική, με τα αντίγραφα πολυμεράσης να αποτυγχάνουν να αποφέρουν αναπαραγώγιμα αποτελέσματα. Στο Κουφόβουνο οκτώ από τους είκοσι σκελετούς, που εξετάστηκαν, έδωσαν στοιχεία για μιτοχονδρνακό ή/και πυρηνικό DNA, ενώ στον Ταφικό Κύκλο Β των Μυκηνών ενδείξεις για μιτοχονδριακό DNA έδωσαν τέσσερεις από τους είκοσι δύο σκελετούς, που μελετήθηκαν. Σε δύο περιπτώσεις επιβεβαιώθηκε η ένδειξη στενής συγγένειας, κάτι το οποίο είχε ήδη προταθεί με την αποκατάσταση των προσώπων: το γεγονός αυτό εγείρει ενδιαφέροντα ερωτήματα σχετικά με τις κοινωνικές σχέσεις και το ρόλο γυναικών υψηλής κοινωνικής στάθμης στην κοινωνία της Μέσης και της Ύστερης Εποχής του Χαλκού. Συμπεραίνουμε ότι, αν και μπορεί να αναγνωριστεί DNA σε ορισμένους σκελετούς της Ανατολικής Μεσογείου των τελευταίων αιώνων της Εποχής του Χαλκού, δεν εντοπίζεται συχνά σε υλικό αυτής της εποχής και ενδεχομένως απουσιάζει από παλαιότερο υλνκό.

Sex identification of ancient DNA samples using a microfluidic device.

Ancient DNA is the name given to the degraded, fragmented, and chemically damaged biomolecules that can be recovered from archaeological remains of plants, animals, and humans. Where ancient human DNA has survived at archaeological sites, it can give valuable information and is especially useful for its potential to identify kinship, population affinities, pathogens, and biological sex. Here, we describe the operation of a microfluidic device for the sex identification of ancient DNA samples using an efficient sample handling process. DNA is extracted from powdered bone samples and abasic sites labeled with biotin. Streptavidin-coated superparamagnetic particles are used to isolate the labeled DNA prior to amplification of the Amelogenin sex marker.

DNA | Modern, and Archaeology

DNA sampled from present day populations can be analyzed to give information about population history, migrations and human evolution. Two areas of DNA have been the focus of intense study; mitochondrial DNA which is maternally inherited, and the non-recombining region of the Y chromosome DNA which is paternally inherited. This article concentrates on the contribution that mtDNA has made to understanding major events in human prehistory, notably the movement out of Africa by modern Homo sapiens (known as Out of Africa II), and the transition from the Mesolithic/Neolithic transition in Europe. Predictions could be made as to the genetic outcomes to be seen in present day populations, which could be tested by the genetic data. The importance of hypothesis testing in archaeological science is stressed in this article. In both cases the genetic evidence challenged the orthodox archaeological interpretation, however a more nuanced understanding has been achieved by reassessing and reconsidering both archaeological and genetic types of evidence. MtDNA supports the Out of Africa hypothesis and has been used to trace the southern route taken into the Old World by H. sapiens, while in Europe the Mesolithic/Neolithic transition is now being recognised as being a complex social event for which no one overarching explanation is sufficient. The movement of early agriculturalists from the Near East into Europe is now seen as a contributing factor for the spread of agriculture in some areas, whereas in other areas acculturation by Mesolithic gatherer/hunters accounts for the introduction of domesticates.