Ancient Egyptian scribes and specific skeletal occupational risk markers (Abusir, Old Kingdom)
“Our research reveals that remaining in a cross-legged sitting or kneeling position for extended periods, and the repetitive tasks related to writing and the adjusting of the rush pens during scribal activity, caused the extreme overloading of the jaw, neck and shoulder regions.”
Brukner Havelková, P., Dulíková, V., Bejdová, Š. et al. Ancient Egyptian scribes and specific skeletal occupational risk markers (Abusir, Old Kingdom). Sci Rep 14, 13317 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-63549-z
Ancient DNA sheds light on the genetic origins of early Iron Age Philistines
“Our analysis suggests that this genetic distinction is due to a European-related gene flow introduced in Ashkelon during either the end of the Bronze Age or the beginning of the Iron Age. This timing is in accord with estimates of the Philistines arrival to the coast of the Levant, based on archeological and textual records (2–4).”
Michal Feldman et al., Ancient DNA sheds light on the genetic origins of early Iron Age Philistines. Sci. Adv.5, eaax0061 (2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax0061
Indigenous Arabs are descendants of the earliest split from ancient Eurasian populations
“The Arabian Peninsula was the initial site of the out-of-Africa migrations that occurred between 125,000 and 60,000 yr ago, leading to the hypothesis that the first Eurasian populations were established on the Peninsula and that contemporary indigenous Arabs are direct descendants of these ancient peoples.”
Rodriguez-Flores, J.L. et al. (2016) ‘Indigenous Arabs are descendants of the earliest split from ancient Eurasian populations,’ Genome Research, 26(2), pp. 151–162. https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.191478.115.
Indigenous Arabs are descendants of the earliest split from ancient Eurasian populations
“The Arabian Peninsula was the initial site of the out-of-Africa migrations that occurred between 125,000 and 60,000 yr ago, leading to the hypothesis that the first Eurasian populations were established on the Peninsula and that contemporary indigenous Arabs are direct descendants of these ancient peoples.”
Rodriguez-Flores, J.L. et al. (2016) ‘Indigenous Arabs are descendants of the earliest split from ancient Eurasian populations,’ Genome Research, 26(2), pp. 151–162. https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.191478.115.
Indigenous Arabs are descendants of the earliest split from ancient Eurasian populations
“_ The Arabian Peninsula was the initial site of the out-of-Africa migrations that occurred between 125,000 and 60,000 yr ago, leading to the hypothesis that the first Eurasian populations were established on the Peninsula and that contemporary indigenous Arabs are direct descendants of these ancient peoples._”
Rodriguez-Flores, J.L. et al. (2016) ‘Indigenous Arabs are descendants of the earliest split from ancient Eurasian populations,’ Genome Research, 26(2), pp. 151–162. https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.191478.115.
Discovery of ancient Greek shepherd’s graffiti rewrites Athens history
“Now, researchers have found graffiti drawn by a shepherd named“Mikon” who lived in the 6th century BC, which depicts a temple on the Acropolis predating the Parthenon.
By signing his drawing using particular alphabets, Mikon has allowed the graffiti to be dated.”
Interesting image from the #Catacomb of Marcus and Marcellianus of Moses or Peter striking the rock between two kanephoroi. Kanephoroi were unmarried women who led processions in ancient Greece carrying baskets containing grain offerings and the knife for slaughtering the sacrificial bull.
The potential of lacustrine sedimentary ancient DNA for revealing human postglacial recolonization patterns in northern Sweden – a review
“The questions of who the first postglacial peoples, or pioneers, were and where they came from therefore remain unanswered. Previous palaeogenomic analyses from remains from adjacent regions have suggested that two main routes into Sweden could have been taken by the pioneers, one from the SW through modern-day Denmark and Norway, and one from the east via Finland. However, no direct genetic evidence from the pioneers of northern Sweden exists.”
Johnson, E., Regnéll, C., Heintzman, P.D. and Linderholm, A. (2024), The potential of lacustrine sedimentary ancient DNA for revealing human postglacial recolonization patterns in northern Sweden – a review. Boreas. https://doi.org/10.1111/bor.12660
The Genomic History of the Bronze Age Southern Levant
“We find that Levant-related modern populations typically have substantial ancestry coming from populations related to the Chalcolithic Zagros and the Bronze Age Southern Levant. These groups also harbor ancestry from sources we cannot fully model with the available data, highlighting the critical role of post-Bronze-Age migrations into the region over the past 3,000 years.”
Fossil viruses hidden in our DNA thousands of years ago could be the cause of depression, study finds
“Ancient DNA present in humans may be linked to major psychiatric disorders like depression, researchers have said.
DNA sequences originating from ancient infections are found in the brain, with some contributing to susceptibility for conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression, a study found”
Fossil viruses hidden in our DNA thousands of years ago could be the cause of depression, study finds
“_Ancient DNA present in humans may be linked to major psychiatric disorders like depression, researchers have said.
DNA sequences originating from ancient infections are found in the brain, with some contributing to susceptibility for conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression, a study found_”
Ancient genomes revealed the complex human interactions of the ancient western Tibetans
“Outside the Tibetan Plateau, the western Tibetan Plateau populations interacted with both South and Central Asian populations at least 2,000 years ago, and the South Asian-related genetic influence, despite being very limited, was from the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) migrants in Central Asia instead of the IVC populations from the Indus Valley.”
“The implication is that Anglo-Saxon elites had access to significant quantities of Byzantine silver, something that dramatically alters our view of how economically and politically connected they were.”
“_ The implication is that Anglo-Saxon elites had access to significant quantities of Byzantine silver, something that dramatically alters our view of how economically and politically connected they were._”
5 Ancient Roman Medical Practices Still in Use Today
“The Romans developed Roman Medicine by leaning on the knowledge of the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Etruscans, and others. Many of their medical practices are still in use today.”
“…thanks to Alexander the Great, Hellenistic and Buddhist cultures came into contact in the 4th century BCE, creating a cultural synthesis known as Greco-Buddhism.”
"As we can discern from Plutarch and Appian, beyond the socio-economic impacts, the ancient historians equated the displacement of the family-run smallholdings with the slave-dependent Latifundia with a concurrent moral decline that degraded the Roman Republic."
"Around year 2000 BCE, the Sumerian language, in which the poems are written, died out as a native language, becoming instead a language of scholarship and religious rituals, much like Latin in Europe and Sanskrit in India. And so, it had to be taught in schools, and the copying of Sumerian poems—including those attributed to Enheduana—was a key part of the school curriculum in ancient Babylonian cities like Nippur and Ur."