Ancient DNA and the archaeologist

Brown, Terence A.; Brown, Keri A.

doi:10.1017/s0003598x0008100x

Cited by 54 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Non-collagenous proteins, including osteocalcin (Ulrich et al, 1987), albumin (Tuross, 1989) and haemoglobins (Ascenzi et al, 1985;Smith & Wilson, 1990) have also been detected in archaeological and palaeontological bone by application of immunological techniques such as immunoblotting and the enzyme-linked inhibition assay (ELISA) (for a recent review, see Childs & Pollard, 1992). The recovery of DNA from bones by use of the polymerase chain reaction raises many exciting possibilities for anthropological and palaeontological investigation (Hagelberg et al, 1989;Hedges & Sykes, 1992;Brown & Brown, 1993).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary Results for the Analysis of Lipids in Ancient Bone

Evershed

Turner‐Walker

Hedges

et al. 1995

Journal of Archaeological Science

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary Results for the Analysis of Lipids in Ancient Bone

Evershed

Turner‐Walker

Hedges

et al. 1995

Journal of Archaeological Science

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“…The difficulties involved in genetic analysis of ancient human skeletons are well known, especially the need to exclude modern contamination and to assess the authenticity of any ancient sequences that are obtained (Brown and Brown, 1992;Cooper and Poinar, 2000;Gilbert et al, 2005). Assessing the authenticity of DNA detections is particularly difficult with skeletal assemblages that were excavated in the past by individuals who are no longer available to donate DNA samples that can be tested as possible sources of contamination.…”

Section: Authenticity Of the Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient DNA study of the remains of putative infanticide victims from the Yewden Roman villa site at Hambleden, England

Hassan

Brown

Eyers

et al. 2014

Journal of Archaeological Science

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Previous analysis of the perinatal infant burials from Romano-British Hambleden indicated the practice of infanticide at that site. We attempted to determine whether this practice was specifically targetted at one sex or other by determining the sex of the infants using analysis of fragments of the amelogenin gene. We also analysed mtDNA in order to shed light on aspects of kinship. Thirty-three infants were analysed, and sex was successfully identified in 12. Seven were female, five male. No two infants shared identical mtDNA polymorphisms, indicating that all came from different mothers. Taken together with previous DNA results from perinatal remains from Roman-British sites where infanticide has been identified, they provide no evidence that manipulation of the sex ratio was a motivation for infanticide in Roman Britain. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 2 ABSTRACT Previous analysis of the perinatal infant burials from Romano-British Hambleden indicated the practice of infanticide at that site. We attempted to determine whether this practice was specifically targetted at one sex or other by determining the sex of the infants using analysis of fragments of the amelogenin gene. We also analysed mtDNA in order to shed light on aspects of kinship. Thirty-three infants were analysed, and sex was successfully identified in 12. Seven were female, five male. No two infants shared identical mtDNA polymorphisms, indicating that all came from different mothers. Taken together with previous DNA results from perinatal remains from Roman-British sites where infanticide has been identified, they provide no evidence that manipulation of the sex ratio was a motivation for infanticide in Roman Britain.

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“…In a broader sense it can be applied to any nucleic acid recovered after death when the autolysis process was started (Herrmann & Hummel 1994). aDNA was amplified from human bones and mummified tissues (Horay et al 1989, Hagelberg et al 1989, Hänni et al 1990, Pääbo 1993) and perspectives and limits were discussed with the new technology (Brown & Brown 1992). The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was then incorporated in paleoparasitological analysis and adapted to detect parasite DNA fragments .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%