The flanks of the Caucasus Mountains and the steppe landscape to their north offered highly productive grasslands for Bronze Age herders and their flocks of sheep, goat, and cattle. While the ...archaeological evidence points to a largely pastoral lifestyle, knowledge regarding the general composition of human diets and their variation across landscapes and during the different phases of the Bronze Age is still restricted. Human and animal skeletal remains from the burial mounds that dominate the archaeological landscape and their stable isotope compositions are major sources of dietary information. Here, we present stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data of bone collagen of 105 human and 50 animal individuals from the 5.sup.th millennium BC to the Sarmatian period, with a strong focus on the Bronze Age and its cultural units including Maykop, Yamnaya, Novotitorovskaya, North Caucasian, Catacomb, post-Catacomb and late Bronze Age groups. The samples comprise all inhumations with sufficient bone preservation from five burial mound sites and a flat grave cemetery as well as subsamples from three further sites. They represent the Caucasus Mountains in the south, the piedmont zone and Kuban steppe with humid steppe and forest vegetation to its north, and more arid regions in the Caspian steppe. The stable isotope compositions of the bone collagen of humans and animals varied across the study area and reflect regional diversity in environmental conditions and diets. The data agree with meat, milk, and/or dairy products from domesticated herbivores, especially from sheep and goats having contributed substantially to human diets, as it is common for a largely pastoral economy. This observation is also in correspondence with the faunal remains observed in the graves and offerings of animals in the mound shells. In addition, foodstuffs with elevated carbon and nitrogen isotope values, such as meat of unweaned animals, fish, or plants, also contributed to human diets, especially among communities living in the more arid landscapes. The regional distinction of the animal and human data with few outliers points to mobility radii that were largely concentrated within the environmental zones in which the respective sites are located. In general, dietary variation among the cultural entities as well as regarding age, sex and archaeologically indicated social status is only weakly reflected. There is, however, some indication for a dietary shift during the Early Bronze Age Maykop period.
Hansen's disease (leprosy), widespread in medieval Europe, is today mainly prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions with around 200,000 new cases reported annually. Despite its long history and ...appearance in historical records, its origins and past dissemination patterns are still widely unknown. Applying ancient DNA approaches to its major causative agent, Mycobacterium leprae, can significantly improve our understanding of the disease's complex history. Previous studies have identified a high genetic continuity of the pathogen over the last 1500 years and the existence of at least four M. leprae lineages in some parts of Europe since the Early Medieval period.
Here, we reconstructed 19 ancient M. leprae genomes to further investigate M. leprae's genetic variation in Europe, with a dedicated focus on bacterial genomes from previously unstudied regions (Belarus, Iberia, Russia, Scotland), from multiple sites in a single region (Cambridgeshire, England), and from two Iberian leprosaria. Overall, our data confirm the existence of similar phylogeographic patterns across Europe, including high diversity in leprosaria. Further, we identified a new genotype in Belarus. By doubling the number of complete ancient M. leprae genomes, our results improve our knowledge of the past phylogeography of M. leprae and reveal a particularly high M. leprae diversity in European medieval leprosaria.
Our findings allow us to detect similar patterns of strain diversity across Europe with branch 3 as the most common branch and the leprosaria as centers for high diversity. The higher resolution of our phylogeny tree also refined our understanding of the interspecies transfer between red squirrels and humans pointing to a late antique/early medieval transmission. Furthermore, with our new estimates on the past population diversity of M. leprae, we gained first insights into the disease's global history in relation to major historic events such as the Roman expansion or the beginning of the regular transatlantic long distance trade. In summary, our findings highlight how studying ancient M. leprae genomes worldwide improves our understanding of leprosy's global history and can contribute to current models of M. leprae's worldwide dissemination, including interspecies transmissions.
Introduction. One of the main issues in the analysis of human remains in paleoanthropology and forensic examination is the sex determination. A large number of reliable methods for sex determination ...in adult individuals exist. However, when examining the remains of children and adolescents, the problem of sex determination is much more complicate. Various methods of such determination have been developed. All of them have different degrees of accuracy, applicable to different osteological series. Methods and materials. The early Medieval Mamisondon series (North Ossetia) was chosen for the study, in which the sex of the buried, including children, determined the location of the corpse. Genetic analysis and peptide analysis of tooth enamel were carried out to confirm the connection of body location with sex. Three methods of morphological sex determination in children’s skeletons have been tested: the use of discriminant functions for the size of the teeth and the use of descriptive characteristics of the mandible and pelvis shape. Mesiodistal and bucco-lingual tooth sizes were measured in 60 adults and 43 children. Morphological features of the mandible were evaluated in 37 individuals and the ilium in 33. The evaluation of the descriptive characteristics of the postcranial skeleton was carried out by the blind method, and then the data obtained were compared with sex determination data confirmed by laboratory methods. Analysis. By the method of step-by-step discriminant analysis, the characters were selected that most successfully dividing individuals by sex in our series. Results. We have built several discriminant equations based on deciduous and permanent molars, which allow us to determine sex with an accuracy of 70–80%. In our work, we especially note the importance of the first permanent molar for sex determination in children, since it appears first among permanent teeth, which are more dimorphic than deciduous teeth. We consider this method to be promising, however, due to the unequal level of sexual dimorphism and the size of teeth in different populations, the discriminant functions created by us are not universal and are applicable only specifically to our series, or to another series with the same level of sexual dimorphism and dimensional characteristics of the teeth. The descriptive characteristics studied in the work showed a low percentage of correct decisions in determining sex. Authors’ contribution: D. Khodyreva – experimental research, data analysis, writing original draft; N. Goncharova – methodology of statistical analysis, formal analysis, review and editing; A. Buzhilova – methodology of the research algorithm, review and editing, critical revision in order to improve the content; N. Berezina – the concept of the research algorithm, methodology, writing, review and editing.
▶ Viruses belonging to the family Anelloviridae are highly present in human populations. ▶ We hypothesized that they could be detected in 200-year-old dental pulp samples. ▶ Successful viral DNA ...amplification (∼120bp) was obtained for 1/21 samples. ▶ The sequence showed 23% genetic divergence with the closest group of modern isolates. ▶ Anelloviruses may represent tracer viruses for future microbiological investigations.
Ancient human remains are potential sources of biological information including traces of past infections, since previous studies have demonstrated the effective detection of several bacterial agents or host-integrated viruses in old biological remnants like tissues or teeth. Studies of skeletal dental pulp samples are of particular interest since this location is potentially exposed to bloodborne agents during life through its vascularization, and could be considered as well preserved from environment after death of the host. DNA viruses belonging to the family Anelloviridae are highly present in human populations where they harbor an extreme genetic diversity but a yet undefined implication in hosts’ health. We hypothesized that anelloviruses would be detected in ancient remains and that they may also serve as tracer viruses for the study of other viral agents. We analyzed 200-year-old dental pulp samples from remains of soldiers of Napoleon's Great Army during the Russian Retreat. Successful detection of Anelloviridae DNA by PCR was obtained for 1/21 ancient samples tested. The sequence identified showed 23% nucleotide divergence with the closest group of modern isolates (genus Gammatorquevirus), and was confirmed as phylogenetically distinct from those identified in saliva samples from the two investigators in charge of the study (genera Alphatorquevirus and Betatorquevirus). PCR directed toward the human beta globin gene was also performed. Negative controls were negative. Our results demonstrate that an ubiquitary, non-integrated, DNA virus is detectable from ancient biological material, with potential developments in terms of evolution studies or subsequent molecular investigations involving further viral agents.
PDF
