Beyond Demographics: Utilizing Ancient Biomolecules to Reconstruct Individual Health and Societal Dynamics in Prehistoric Northern Europe

How prehistoric people lived, interacted and died have been investigated and debated since the dawn of archaeology.

Recently, an unpreceded number of new repositories for bioinformation with potential to aid our understanding of the human past have been discovered.

We have assembled a team of researchers specialized in archaeology, osteology, genomics and medical science that, within a six-year project, will analyze data from such repositories.

This far, we have been able to infer prehistoric demographic events and kinship structures by using ancient DNA from skeletal remains from Stone and Bronze Age Northern European sites.

Our large dataset also enables us to investigate phenotypic traits including presence of genetically inherited diseases.

As we used shotgun sequencing, along with the human DNA we also retrieved massive amounts of metagenome data that we now can use to detect possible pathogens present in the human host.

A large portion of the skeletal remains we have investigated further showed signs of dental calculus which we can use to retrieve oral health-indicating microbiome data and palaeodietary-indicating animal and plant DNA.

By integrating this data with analyses of skeletal morphology, dietary and mobility indicating isotopes, specific chronologies and archaeological contexts, we can answer questions previously out of reach, such as what caused the death of particular individuals or what role did infectious diseases play in the decline of certain societies.