Ancient DNA: a direct window into the human past

Abstract

The origin and history of our species have for long captured our imagination and guided philosophical and scientific inquiry alike. Traditionally, the study of the human past was a central theme of various disciplines across the humanities, in particular history, archaeology, anthropology, or linguistics. These disciplines mostly focus on understanding the roots and cultural evolution of contemporary human populations, including the plethora of religions, ethnicities, behaviours, and languages that characterize the diversity of human life on the planet. Recently, a technological revolution in molecular biology, which made it possible to obtain genetic material from biological remains and cultural artefacts unearthed at archaeological sites and stored in museum collections, has provided unparalleled information on the biological history of past human populations. Over the last decade, ancient DNA emerged as a crucial tool for understanding human origins, population movement, or environmental adaptation. The exponential growth in ancient DNA studies makes cooperative, interdisciplinary research efforts imperative to enable appropriate integration of knowledge across complementary scientific disciplines. These interdisciplinary approaches are particularly relevant for studying the recent human past, where the higher availability of historical, archaeological, anthropological, and linguistic data can successfully allow for meaningful interpretations of the genetic data. Show more