Archaeology – The Atlas Project of a 1000 Ancient Genomes

Archaeology is the study of all the people who have lived before us.

The traces they have left behind consist of everything from objects such as tools, weapons and dress accessories, to ancient monuments as tombs, house foundations, rune stones and even entire landscapes where they have lived.

Archaeology is different from many other sciences as new source material is constantly being added. Archaeological knowledge is created in two ways: new discoveries and new perspectives. The discoveries are usually done during field work through excavations and archaeological surveys, while new perspectives emerge in theories seeking answers to the question why? In their efforts to understand the prehistory archaeologists take the help of many experts like historians of religions and place names scholars but also scientists. The natural sciences help us to analyze skeletons, date finds, such as carbon 14–dating and describe landscapes and habitats. Methods are constantly being improved. Archaeology provides us with a unique knowledge of the variety and complexity that characterize human history from the beginning.

"Never forget that social and historical processes created the genetic pattern we now see more and more of - it's not the other way around."

Jan Storå, professor in Osteology (Forskning och Framsteg, April 2016)

In the Atlas project archaeologists, geneticists and osteologists work side by side. The choice of materials to be studied always begins with an archaeological question. The questions can be general and comprehensive but also touch upon individual human histories. Some groups in prehistory, like children, slaves and the poor, have left few traces. Through DNA and isotope analysis, previously "invisible" individuals can be highlighted and made visible. Equally, the geographical and social mobility of individuals can become visible. The Atlas project gives us a new picture of how various prehistoric societies functioned and the people who lived in them. The results of the Atlas project will re-examine old truths and open unexpected and different perspectives. This new knowledge will be used in various fields of archeology for a long time to come and maybe even inspire and change the way we look at the past.

News and publications

We published new findings on the demographic history of ancient Scandinavians from the island Gotland. The publication can be found here.

Our recent findings on the evolution of Scandinavians are nicely summarized in a video by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. It is published in English and in Swedish.

We met for an end-of-the-year ATLAS gathering in Nynäshamn. A short meeting summary can be found here.

We published new data over summer. Please find our latest papers here.

We have a new publication in Scientific Reports. We analyzed 41 complete mitochondrial genomes of ancient humans from North Asia and showed a pattern of long-term genetic continuity in the region. We further detected signatures of gene flow or population structure, altogether highlighting the complexity of human demographic history.

The group had its annual retreat. This time we went to Gimo Hergård and some impressions from the meeting can be found here.

Members of the ATLAS team were involved in a multidisciplinary study highlighting the temporal genetic changes caused by prehistoric migrations into Iberia. The analyses of ancient human remains shed light into the origin of farming life-style in the far west of Eurasia and showed surprising homogeneity in diet over time. The study is published ahead of print in PNAS.

There is an open vacancy as Head of the SciLifeLab's National ancient DNA center. Please see the following job advert for more information.

We just published new insights into Mesolithic Scandinavians in PLoS Biology. We confirmed two migration routes building the foundation of the diverse Mesolithic human population in Scandinavia and also identified loci that have been selected for in the process of adaptation to the Northern environment.

A 3 episode TV show was broadcasted in Swedish television over Christmas, focusing on the life in the Iron ages in Scandinavia. Some of us have been directly involved and others contributed to the success of the show with their research. The show can be found here (in Swedish) and Anders commented on the show in his blog.

Magdalena and others from the team published a new study in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. The multidisciplinary study sheds new light in the genetic composition, the diet and culture of the Fennel beaker culture on Gotland.

Happy new year to all of our team members, families, friends and collaborators.

We published a new study in Current Biology investigating the origin of the aboriginal inhabitants of the Canary Islands (Guanche). By leveraging genomes of 11 ancient Guanche individuals we showed a close relationship of them to extant Northwest Africans and leaving up to 30% of genomic ancestry in today’s Canary islanders.

The team has uncovered a fearsome Viking warrior to be in fact a woman, who held a high rank among Viking warriors. The original investigation appeared in American Journal of Physical Anthropology and a Science news cover can be found here. Uppsala University released a press report. The story was also picked up by international news agencies. The sequencing data (.bam) used in our study is available at the European Nucleotide Archive with the accession number: PRJEB22507

Torsten and Mattias reviewed the effect of demographic events on the genomes of ancient Europeans. The paper is upcoming in Current Opinions in Genetics and Development

Congratulations! On 5th of October the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation announced this year's awardees.

Mattias, Jan and Anders secured a prestigious grant from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. It is one of Sweden's largest private foundations and supporting the team's research on 1,000 ancient genomes for the next 5 years.

The official announcement from the foundation can be found here.

Uppsala University has released a statement that can be read (in Swedish) here.

Some members of the ATLAS team were involved in a new study describing the demographic history of first farmers in Anatolia. The study was published in Current Biology

Emma, Arielle, Torsten and Mattias were involved in a study generating the mitochondrial genome of a 35,000 year old European allowing inferences about past migrations. The study appeared in Scientific Reports