Ancient DNA reveals reproductive barrier despite shared Avar-period culture.

After a long-distance migration, Avars with Eastern Asian ancestry arrived in Eastern Central Europe in 567 to 568 CE and encountered groups with very different European ancestry. We used ancient genome-wide data of 722 individuals and fine-grained interdisciplinary analysis of large seventh- to eighth-century CE neighbouring cemeteries south of Vienna (Austria) to address the centuries-long impact of this encounter. We found that even 200 years after immigration, the ancestry at one site (Leobersdorf) remained dominantly East Asian-like, whereas the other site (Mödling) shows local, European-like ancestry.

The diet at the onset of the Andean Civilization: New stable isotope data from Caral and Áspero, North-Central Coast of Peru.

Objectives: The subsistence system of the first urban centers with monumental architecture from the North-Central Coast of Peru, the core area for the social complexity process of Central Andes, has been debated since the late 1960s. To shed light on this aspect, we report paleodietary data from the two most important sites of the Supe Valley: Caral (3000-200 BC), the major settlement of the middle valley, and Áspero (3000-1800 BC), a notable coastal settlement. Our main objective was to test the Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization hypothesis.

Challenging definitions and diagnostic approaches for ancient rare diseases: The case of poliomyelitis.

Objective: This paper aims to contribute to the definition of ancient rare diseases in skeletons displaying pathologies associated with paralysis. It uses a new suite of methods, which can be applied to challenging cases of possible paralysis in archaeologically-derived human skeletal material, specifically applied to the identification of poliomyelitis.

Materials: An adult male skeleton from Roman Halbturn, Austria.

Child development, physiological stress and survival expectancy in prehistoric fisher-hunter-gatherers from the Jabuticabeira II shell mound, South Coast of Brazil.

In this study, we shed light on the interdependency of child growth, morbidity and life expectancy in the fisher-hunter-gatherers of the Jabuticabeira II shell mound (1214-830 cal B.C.E.

Middle Holocene plant cultivation on the Atlantic Forest coast of Brazil?

This work provides robust oral pathology and stable isotope evidence on Bayesian mixing model for an unexpectedly high consumption of carbohydrates by a Middle Holocene coastal population of the Atlantic Forest of South America, an area traditionally viewed as peripheral to early centres of food production on the continent. A diversified economy with substantial consumption of plant resources was in place at the shellmound (or ) of Morro do Ouro, in Babitonga Bay, and supported a dense population at 4500 cal BP. This dietary composition is unique when compared with that of other contemporary and later groups in the region, including peoples who used ceramics and domesticated crops.

'One tooth one child': evaluating the effects of diet and fertility on the oral health of women from archaeological sites in South America.

Women from ancient societies have shown a higher prevalence of dental caries in comparison with men. Recent research has shown that the relationship between increased oestrogen production during pregnancy and decreased salivary flow is a possible cause for the higher levels of caries in women, which is in contrast to the traditional view of sexual division of labour resulting in unequal access to cariogenic food. In order to test these two hypotheses, individuals exhumed from 12 South American archaeological sites were examined for markers of oral health (caries, ante mortem tooth loss, deep caries, and enamel hypoplasia) and compared in terms of fertility (Crude Birth Rate) and subsistence systems.

Reconstructing the Deep Population History of Central and South America.

We report genome-wide ancient DNA from 49 individuals forming four parallel time transects in Belize, Brazil, the Central Andes, and the Southern Cone, each dating to at least ∼9,000 years ago. The common ancestral population radiated rapidly from just one of the two early branches that contributed to Native Americans today. We document two previously unappreciated streams of gene flow between North and South America.

Oral pathology patterns in late farmers of the Central Andes: A comparative perspective between coastal and highland populations.

Aiming at future comparisons with earlier hunter-gatherers or transitional populations, this paper intends to characterize and describe the oral pathology pattern of late agriculturalists from Central Andes dating to the Late Intermediate Period (LIP) and Inca periods (1000-1532 CE), and identify differences and/or similarities between coastal and highland populations. Although the botanical inventories of the LIP suggest carbohydrate-rich diets and similar components, it has been hypothesized that coastal and highland populations had, nevertheless, substantially different oral pathology patterns. We evaluated 14 indicators of oral pathology from Los Pinos (n=200) and Armatambo (n=25) sites in the Central Coast and two chronological phases from Laguna de los Cóndores site (LC-Inca, n=23; and LC-LIP, n=55), in the Peruvian northern highlands.

Long-term resilience of late holocene coastal subsistence system in Southeastern South america.

Isotopic and molecular analysis on human, fauna and pottery remains can provide valuable new insights into the diets and subsistence practices of prehistoric populations. These are crucial to elucidate the resilience of social-ecological systems to cultural and environmental change. Bulk collagen carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis of 82 human individuals from mid to late Holocene Brazilian archaeological sites (∼6,700 to ∼1,000 cal BP) reveal an adequate protein incorporation and, on the coast, the continuation in subsistence strategies based on the exploitation of aquatic resources despite the introduction of pottery and domesticated plant foods.

Paleoamerican diet, migration and morphology in Brazil: archaeological complexity of the earliest Americans.

During the early Holocene two main paleoamerican cultures thrived in Brazil: the Tradição Nordeste in the semi-desertic Sertão and the Tradição Itaparica in the high plains of the Planalto Central. Here we report on paleodietary singals of a Paleoamerican found in a third Brazilian ecological setting--a riverine shellmound, or sambaqui, located in the Atlantic forest. Most sambaquis are found along the coast.

The usefulness of caries frequency, depth, and location in determining cariogenicity and past subsistence: a test on early and later agriculturalists from the Peruvian coast.

Dental markers have been used to unravel particularities of paleodiet, subsistence, social structure, and health. This article aims to compare oral pathology among four pre-Columbian groups with different degrees of agricultural and socio-cultural development but comparable ecological conditions who lived on the coastal desert of Peru. Three of these groups are assigned to distinct phases of the Formative Period (2500-1 BC), a time critical for our understanding of the development of agriculture and social complexity.

Syphilis at the crossroad of phylogenetics and paleopathology.

The origin of syphilis is still controversial. Different research avenues explore its fascinating history. Here we employed a new integrative approach, where paleopathology and molecular analyses are combined.

An evolutionary approach to explain the high frequency of the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Infertility and sterility are worldwide phenomena with a long history. At a first glance a condition causing sterility seems to be paradox in an evolutionary sense because it contradicts the biogenetical imperative. In the present paper an evolutionary explanation for the high prevalence rate of PCOS, the most common endocrine disorder causing female infertility, is presented.

Auditory exostoses as an aquatic activity marker: a comparison of coastal and inland skeletal remains from tropical and subtropical regions of Brazil.

Auditory exostoses are bone masses located in the external auditory canal. Currently, most researchers agree that the environment (especially water temperature, but also atmospheric temperature and wind action) plays a pivotal role in the development of this trait. This article discusses whether the presence of auditory exostoses can be used as an aquatic activity marker in bioarchaeological studies, especially in groups that inhabited tropical and subtropical regions.

A new early Holocene human skeleton from Brazil: implications for the settlement of the New World.

Increasing skeletal evidence from the U.S.A.