The formation of human populations in South and Central Asia

By sequencing 523 ancient humans, we show that the primary source of ancestry in modern South Asians is a prehistoric genetic gradient between people related to early hunter-gatherers of Iran and Southeast Asia. After the Indus Valley Civilization’s decline, its people mixed with individuals in the southeast to form one of the two main ancestral populations of South Asia, whose direct descendants live in southern India. Simultaneously, they mixed with descendants of Steppe pastoralists who, starting around 4000 years ago, spread via Central Asia to form the other main ancestral population. The Steppe ancestry in South Asia has the same profile as that in Bronze Age Eastern Europe, tracking a movement of people that affected both regions and that likely spread the distinctive features shared between Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic languages

Data for: Dietary reconstruction of the Moravian Lombard population (Kyjov, 5th- 6th centuries AD, Czech Republic)

Complete list of isotopic dat

Data for: Dietary reconstruction of the Moravian Lombard population (Kyjov, 5th- 6th centuries AD, Czech Republic)

Complete list of isotopic dataTHIS DATASET IS ARCHIVED AT DANS/EASY, BUT NOT ACCESSIBLE HERE. TO VIEW A LIST OF FILES AND ACCESS THE FILES IN THIS DATASET CLICK ON THE DOI-LINK ABOV

Stature of the Great Moravian population in connection with social status

Stature is one of the basic anthropometric information relating to man. It reflects very sensitively a number of factors such as e.g. living conditions, sex, age, ethnicity, etc. We were mainly interested in the relationship between stature and living conditions that in each historical period are significantly influenced by social class. We compared the skeletons from the Mikulčice highest social class with skeletons from the area below the castle and from distant areas that represented the background of the first two groups. Subsequently, we compared the Great-Moravian population with recent statures acquired at the end of the 20th centur

Bone diagenesis in the medieval cemetery of Vratislavs’ Palace in Prague

Diagenetic modifications in human bones from the early-medieval cemetery discovered in the garden of Vratislavs’ Palace, in the central Malá Strana district of Prague, have been investigated combining histological analysis and instrumental analysis with X-ray diffraction, infrared, and 31P NMR spectroscopy. A total of 15 ribs samples were collected for the study. One sample belonged to a child, whereas, of the other samples from adults, 7 belonged to males, 5 to females, and for 2 the sex attribution was uncertain. A diagenetic pathway common to most of the studied samples was considered the result of a burial environment characterized by a nearly static water regime, with limited temperature excursions, moderately oxic to suboxic, and with pH fluctuations around the limit of apatite recrystallization window, in agreement with the fine textured clay-rich soil, its low hydraulic conductivity, and the measured soil pH. A second pattern, related to variations in the microenvironment, interested a limited number of samples with poorer histological preservation. This was interpreted as the result of higher pH and a better oxygenated environment, which favoured mineral recrystallization. Further reactivation of deterioration processes probably occurred later in some of the graves perturbed by works conducted in the seventeenth century. This work highlights the complementarity of the information obtained from the adopted techniques in order to gain insights into the post-mortem fate of the human remains and their sedimentary environment. In this respect, the quantification of the amount of phosphorus in the amorphous hydrated layer of apatite provided a unique type of information on the mineral component of bone and its reorganization during diagenesis, revealing that a relevant fraction can survive diagenesis, at variance with what previously supposed

A geometric approach to cranial sexual dimorphism in the upper palaeolithic skulls from Predmosti (Upper Palaeolithic, Czech Republic)

The recently rediscovered glass plate negatives of unique skeletal fossil material from Předmostí – their estimated ranges from 25–27 000 years but they were destroyed during World War II – were studied by means of geometric morphometrics. The aim of this study was to determine the sexual shape variability of the best preserved skulls of adult individuals, using the methods of statistical shape analysis. While the results roughly support Matiegka’s sex estimation, skull 1 (Matiegka’s female) is more similar to males. The differences between the skulls of the Předmostí specimens are “more striking” in the lateral, frontal and vertical views, whereas the inter-sexual differences affect the non-affine parts of changes in vertical, lateral and basal views in particular. The areas of the metopion, glabella, auriculare, porion, asterion, gnathion and opisthocranion landmarks present more striking variations, i.e. those with more discriminatory power. According to the computations made of the various skull distances, the male skulls are more similar to each other and the female skulls less similar. This suggests possible patrilocal behaviour on the part of the males

Variability of the Upper Palaeolithic skulls from Predmostí near Prerov (Czech Republic): craniometric comparison with recent human standards

One of the largest skeletal series of the Upper Palaeolithic period from Predmosti was destroyed during the Second World War, but the study of this material continues up to the present. The discovery of Matiegka’s original photographic documentation on glass plates [Velemınska et al., 2004. The use of recently re-discovered glass plate photo-documentation of those human fossil finds from Predmosti u Prerova destroyed during World War II. J. Nat. Mus. Nat. Hist. Ser. 173, 129–132] gives an opportunity to perform a new and detailed craniometric analysis of five adult skulls in their lateral projection. The craniometric data were analysed using specialised Craniometrics software, and the analysis included morphological and dimensional comparisons with current Central European norms. The aim of the study was not only to monitor the skull shape as a whole, but predominantly, to evaluate the size and shape of various parts of the splanchnocranium. The Upper Palaeolithic skulls are significantly longer, and male skulls are also higher than the current norms. The crania of anatomically modern humans are characterised by two general structural features: mid-lower facial retraction and neurocranial globularity. The height of the face of the Palaeolithic skulls corresponds to that of the current Central European population. The face has a markedly longer mandibular body (3–4 SD), while female mandibular rami are shorter. The skulls are further characterised by a smaller gonial angle, the increased steepness of the mandibular ramus, and the greater angle of the chin. These changes in the size and shape associated with anterior rotation of the face produce a strong protrusion of both jaws, but the sagittal inter-maxillary relationships remain unchanged. The observed facial morphology is similar to the Czech Upper Palaeolithic skulls from Dolni Vestonice. This study confirms the main diachronic changes between skulls of Upper Palaeolithic and present-day human populations

A genome sequence from a modern human skull over 45,000 years old from Zlatý kůň in Czechia

Modern humans expanded into Eurasia more than 40,000 years ago following their dispersal out of Africa. These Eurasians carried ~2–3% Neanderthal ancestry in their genomes, originating from admixture with Neanderthals that took place sometime between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, probably in the Middle East. In Europe, the modern human expansion preceded the disappearance of Neanderthals from the fossil record by 3,000–5,000 years. The genetic makeup of the first Europeans who colonized the continent more than 40,000 years ago remains poorly understood since few specimens have been studied. Here, we analyse a genome generated from the skull of a female individual from Zlatý kůň, Czechia. We found that she belonged to a population that appears to have contributed genetically neither to later Europeans nor to Asians. Her genome carries ~3% Neanderthal ancestry, similar to those of other Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers. However, the lengths of the Neanderthal segments are longer than those observed in the currently oldest modern human genome of the ~45,000-year-old Ust’-Ishim individual from Siberia, suggesting that this individual from Zlatý kůň is one of the earliest Eurasian inhabitants following the expansion out of Africa