American Association for the Advancement of Science
A comprehensive, hemisphere-spanning study of ancient DNA suggests a
highly complex peopling of the American continents - one that cannot be
explained by simple models or patterns of dispersal. The study involved
an analysis of ancient American genomes unearthed in locations spanning
from Alaska to Patagonia.
While there has been much focus on the timing
and number of initial migrations into North and South America, less
attention has been paid to the subsequent expansion throughout the
American continents. Previous genomic studies have suggested that the
first American populations diverged from their Siberian and East Asian
ancestors nearly 25,000 years ago, and subsequently split into distinct
North American and South American populations about 10,000 years later.
However, the expansion of the first Americans remains a contentious
topic and has been difficult to understand from analysis of present-day
populations.
Víctor Moreno-Mayar and colleagues sequenced the genomes of
15 ancient Americans from locations spanning the Americas, and six of
which were more than 10,000 years old. The results reveal a complex
picture of population expansion and diversification. According to
Moreno-Mayar et al., people spread out rapidly, yet unevenly, throughout
the Americas, and diversified into multiple populations, some of which
were unknown before this analysis -visible only in the genetic record.
Interestingly, the authors identified the presence of a Late Pleistocene
(about 11,700 BP) population with Australasian ancestry evident only in
South America, which left no apparent genetic traces in North America.
In addition, the authors find evidence of a smaller Mesoamerican-related
population expansion evident through a geographically widespread
admixture of genetic material. While the study's results fill some gaps
in our understanding of early Americans and reveal a complex population
history, the authors note that the peopling of the Americas is likely
more complicated still, as evidenced by the identification of unknown
groups here.
In a separate study published in Science Advances,
which focuses on the genetic prehistory of the South American Andes,
John Lindo and colleagues find that the genetic and cultural adaptation
to the harsh extremes of high-altitude Andean environments, in the
region's first settlers and those who endured to meet Europeans, was a
complex, yet relatively fast process.
Archaeological evidence suggests
that the first permanent human occupation of the Andean highlands began
upwards of 12,000 years before present (BP). Due to the stresses of
living at high altitudes, such as cold temperatures, low oxygen and
strong UV radiation, the selective pressures on human genes and social
processes likely led to unique biological and social adaptations,
research has suggested.
Even so, the genetics of highland Andean
populations is not well-understood. To further explore the population
history of Andean highlanders, John Lindo and colleagues compiled a time
series of ancient genomes, derived from archaeological remains spanning
three distinct cultural periods dating from 6,800 to 1,400 years BP.
These sequences were then compared to others from both lowland and
highland prehistoric and modern South American populations, as well as
to sequences from ancient Native Americans from farther afield.
Lindo et
al.'s analysis suggests that permanent highland populations were
established in the Andes between 9,200 and 8,200 years BP, a date
younger than what has been reported by studies using modern genomes
alone. Surprisingly, say the authors, genetic traits modified due to
environmental stressors did not include genes related to adaptation to
hypoxia (oxygen deficiency). Rather, genes associated with the blood and
heart were likely modified, a finding confirming previous hypotheses
that native Andeans may have adapted to high altitudes via
cardiovascular modifications.
The strongest signature of environmental
modification on genes was associated with starch digestion, an adaptive
response to a reliance on agriculture and the starchy potato diet that
characterized the region for millennia, the authors suggest.
Furthermore, Lindo et al. demonstrate how European contact may have
affected Andean genetics within the last 500 years by identifying
positive selection for genes directly associated with resistance to
diseases likely brought by the first Europeans.
IMAGE: The exterior of the rock shelter site of Lapa do Santo in Brazil.
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Credit: André Strauss
An international team of researchers has revealed unexpected details
about the peopling of Central and South America by studying the first
high-quality ancient DNA data from those regions.
The findings include two previously unknown genetic exchanges
between North and South America, one of which represents a
continent-wide population turnover.
The results suggest that the people who spread the Clovis culture,
the first widespread archaeological culture of North America, had a
major demographic impact further south than previously appreciated.
The authors analyzed genome-wide data from 49 individuals from
Central and South America, some as old as 11,000 years. Previously, the
only genomes that had been reported from this region and that provided
sufficient quality data to analyze were less than 1,000 years old.
By comparing ancient and modern genomes from the Americas and other
parts of the globe, the researchers were able to obtain qualitatively
new insights into the early history of Central and South America.
Published in the journal Cell, the study was led by
researchers at Harvard Medical School; the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute; the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History;
the University of California, Santa Cruz; Pennsylvania State University;
the University of New Mexico; the University of São Paulo and other
institutions in Argentina, Australia, Belize, Brazil, Chile, the
European Union, Peru and the United States.
The researchers obtained official permits to excavate and conduct
analysis on ancient human remains and consulted with local governmental
agencies and indigenous communities. Clovis link in the oldest Central and South Americans
A distinctive DNA type associated with the Clovis culture was found in Chile, Brazil and Belize 11,000 to 9,000 years ago.
"A key discovery was that a Clovis culture-associated individual
from North America dating to around 12,800 years ago shares distinctive
ancestry with the oldest Chilean, Brazilian and Belizean individuals,"
said co-lead author Cosimo Posth of the Max Planck Institute for the
Science of Human History. "This supports the hypothesis that the
expansion of people who spread the Clovis culture in North America also
reached Central and South America."
However, the Clovis culture-associated lineage is missing in
present-day South Americans and in ancient samples that are less than
9,000 years old.
"This is our second key discovery," said co-senior author David
Reich, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and a Howard
Hughes Medical Institute investigator. "We have shown that there was a
continent-wide population replacement that began at least 9,000 years
ago."
After the population replacement, there was striking genetic
continuity between ancient individuals dating to up to 9,000 years ago
and modern people from multiple South American regions. This contrasts
with West Eurasia and Africa, where there are few places with such
long-standing continuity. California Channel Island-associated ancestry in the Andes
The second previously unknown spread of people revealed itself in an
analysis showing that ancient Californians from the Channel Islands
have a distinctive shared ancestry with groups that became widespread in
the southern Peruvian Andes by at least 4,200 years ago.
The researchers say this is unlikely to reflect population spread
specifically from the Channel Islands into South America. Instead, they
hypothesize that the connection between these regions is the result of
expansions of people that occurred thousands of years earlier, and that
such ancestry became more widespread in the Andes after subsequent
events within South America.
"It could be that this ancestry arrived in South America thousands
of years before and we simply don't have earlier individuals showing
it," said Nathan Nakatsuka, a research assistant in the Reich lab at
Harvard Medical School and co-lead author of the study. "There is
archaeological evidence that the population in the Central Andes area
greatly expanded after around 5,000 years ago. Spreads of particular
subgroups during these events may be why we detect this ancestry
afterward." The promise of ancient DNA research in the Americas
The researchers emphasize that their study gives only a glimpse of the discoveries that may come through future work.
To learn about the initial movements of people into Central and
South America, they say, it would be necessary to obtain ancient DNA
from individuals dating to before 11,000 years ago.
Even for the period between 11,000 and 3,000 years ago that this study focused on, the picture is far from complete.
"We lacked ancient data from Amazonia, northern South America and
the Caribbean, and thus cannot determine how individuals in these
regions relate to the ones we analyzed," said Reich. "Filling in these
gaps should be a priority for future work."
"We are excited about the potential of research in this area," said
co-senior author Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for the
Science of Human History. "With future regionally-focused studies with
large sample sizes, we could realize the potential of ancient DNA to
reveal how the human diversity of this region came to be the way it is
today."
A legal battle over a 10,600 year old
ancient skeleton -- called the 'Spirit Cave Mummy' -- has ended after
advanced DNA sequencing found it was related to a Native American tribe
St John's College, University of Cambridge
IMAGE: These are skulls and other human remains
from P.W. Lund's Collection from Lagoa Santa, Brazil kept in the Natural
History Museum of Denmark.
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Credit: Natural History Museum of Denmark
A legal battle over a 10,600 year old ancient skeleton - called the
'Spirit Cave Mummy' - has ended after advanced DNA sequencing found it
was related to a Native American tribe.
The revelation has been published in Science today
(Thursday, November 8 at 14:00 US Eastern Time) as part of a wide
ranging international study that genetically analysed the DNA of a
series of famous and controversial ancient remains across North and
South America including Spirit Cave, the Lovelock skeletons, the Lagoa
Santa remains, an Inca mummy, and the oldest remains in Chilean
Patagonia. The study also looked at the second oldest human remains from
Trail Creek Cave in Alaska - a 9,000 year old milk tooth from a young
girl.
Scientists sequenced 15 ancient genomes spanning from Alaska to
Patagonia and were able to track the movements of the first humans as
they spread across the Americas at "astonishing" speed during the Ice
Age, and also how they interacted with each other in the following
millennia.
The team of academics not only discovered that the Spirit Cave
remains - the world's oldest natural mummy - was a Native American but
they were able to dismiss a longstanding theory that a group called
Paleoamericans existed in North America before Native Americans.
The ground-breaking research also discovered clues of a puzzling
Australasian genetic signal in the 10,400 year old Lagoa Santa remains
from Brazil revealing a previously unknown group of early South
Americans - but the Australasian link left no genetic trace in North
America. It was described by one of the scientists as 'extraordinary
evidence of an extraordinary chapter in human history'.
Professor Eske Willeslev, who holds positions both at St John's
College, University of Cambridge, and the University of Copenhagen, and
led the study, said: "Spirit Cave and Lagoa Santa were very
controversial because they were identified as so-called 'Paleoamericans'
based on craniometry - it was determined that the shape of their skulls
was different to current day Native Americans. Our study proves that
Spirit Cave and Lagoa Santa were actually genetically closer to
contemporary Native Americans than to any other ancient or contemporary
group sequenced to date."
The Lagoa Santa remains were retrieved by Danish explorer Peter W.
Lund in the 19th century and his work led to this 'Paleoamerican
hypothesis' based on cranial morphology that theorised the famous group
of skeletons could not be Native Americans. But this new study disproves
that theory and the findings were launched under embargo by Professor
Willeslev with representatives from the Brazilian National Museum in Rio
on Tuesday, November 6 2018.
He added: "Looking at the bumps and shapes of a head does not help
you understand the true genetic ancestry of a population - we have
proved that you can have people who look very different but are closely
related."
The scientific and cultural significance of the Spirit Cave remains,
which were found in 1940 in a small rocky alcove in the Great Basin
Desert, was not properly understood for 50 years. The preserved remains
of the man in his forties were initially believed to be between 1,500
and 2000 years old, but during the 1990s new textile and hair testing
dated the skeleton at 10,600 years old.
The Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, a group of Native Americans based
in Nevada near Spirit Cave, claimed cultural affiliation with the
skeleton and requested immediate repatriation of the remains under the
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
The request was refused because the ancestry was disputed, the tribe
sued the federal government and the lawsuit pitted tribal leaders
against anthropologists, who argued the remains provided invaluable
insights into North America's earliest inhabitants and should continue
to be displayed in a museum.
The deadlock continued for 20 years until the tribe agreed that
Professor Willeslev could carry out genome sequencing on DNA extracted
from the Spirit Cave for the first time.
Professor Willeslev said: "I assured the tribe that my group would
not do the DNA testing unless they gave permission and it was agreed
that if Spirit Cave was genetically a Native American the mummy would be
repatriated to the tribe."
The team painstakingly extracted DNA from the petrus bone from the
inside of the skull proving that the skeleton was an ancestor of present
day Native Americans. Spirit Cave was returned to the tribe in 2016 and
there was a private reburial ceremony earlier this year that Professor
Willeslev attended and details have just been released.
The geneticist explained: "What became very clear to me was that
this was a deeply emotional and deeply cultural event. The tribe have
real feelings for Spirit Cave, which as a European it can be hard to
understand but for us it would very much be like burying our mother,
father, sister or brother.
"We can all imagine what it would be like if our father or mother
was put in an exhibition and they had that same feeling for Spirit
Cave. It has been a privilege to work with them."
The tribe were kept informed throughout the two year project and two
members visited the lab in Copenhagen to meet the scientists and they
were present when all of the DNA sampling was taken.
A statement from the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, said: "The
Tribe has had a lot of experience with members of the scientific
community, mostly negative. However, there are a handful of scientists
that seemed to understand the Tribe's perspective and Eske Willerslev
was one of them.
"He took the time to acquaint himself with the Tribe, kept us
well-informed of the process, and was available to answer our questions.
His new study confirms what we have always known from our oral
tradition and other evidence - that the man taken from his final resting
place in Spirit Cave is our Native American ancestor."
The genome of the Spirit Cave skeleton has wider significance
because it not only settled the legal and cultural dispute between the
tribe and the Government, it also helped reveal how ancient humans moved
and settled across the Americas. The scientists were able to track the
movement of populations from Alaska to as far south as Patagonia. They
often separated from each other and took their chances travelling in
small pockets of isolated groups.
Dr David Meltzer, from the Department of Anthropology, Southern
Methodist University, Dallas, said: "A striking thing about the analysis
of Spirit Cave and Lagoa Santa is their close genetic similarity which
implies their ancestral population travelled through the continent at
astonishing speed. That's something we've suspected due to the
archaeological findings, but it's fascinating to have it confirmed by
the genetics. These findings imply that the first peoples were highly
skilled at moving rapidly across an utterly unfamiliar and empty
landscape. They had a whole continent to themselves and they were
travelling great distances at breath-taking speed."
The study also revealed surprising traces of Australasian ancestry
in ancient South American Native Americans but no Australasian genetic
link was found in North American Native Americans.
Dr Victor Moreno-Mayar, from the Centre for GeoGenetics, University
of Copenhagen and first author of the study, said: "We discovered the
Australasian signal was absent in Native Americans prior to the Spirit
Cave and Lagoa Santa population split which means groups carrying this
genetic signal were either already present in South America when Native
Americans reached the region, or Australasian groups arrived later. That
this signal has not been previously documented in North America implies
that an earlier group possessing it had disappeared or a later arriving
group passed through North America without leaving any genetic trace."
Dr Peter de Barros Damgaard, from the Centre for GeoGenetics,
University of Copenhagen, explained why scientists remain puzzled but
optimistic about the Australasian ancestry signal in South America. He
explained: "If we assume that the migratory route that brought this
Australasian ancestry to South America went through North America,
either the carriers of the genetic signal came in as a structured
population and went straight to South America where they later mixed
with new incoming groups, or they entered later. At the moment we cannot
resolve which of these might be correct, leaving us facing
extraordinary evidence of an extraordinary chapter in human history! But
we will solve this puzzle."
The population history during the millennia that followed initial
settlement was far more complex than previously thought. The peopling of
the Americas had been simplified as a series of north to south
population splits with little to no interaction between groups after
their establishment.
The new genomic analysis presented in the study has shown that
around 8,000 years ago, Native Americans were on the move again, but
this time from Mesoamerica into both North and South America.
Researchers found traces of this movement in the genomes of all
present-day indigenous populations in South America for which genomic
data is available to date.
Dr Moreno-Mayar added: "The older genomes in our study not only
taught us about the first inhabitants in South America, but also served
as a baseline for identifying a second stream of genetic ancestry, which
arrived from Mesoamerica in recent millennia and that is not evident
from the archaeological record. These Mesoamerican peoples mixed with
the descendants of the earliest South Americans and gave rise to most
contemporary groups in the region."
Potatoes, native to South America, became an agricultural crop
thousands of years ago in the Andean highlands of Peru. And just as the
ancient Andean people turned wild tubers into the domesticated potato,
the potato may have altered the genomes of the Andeans who made it a
staple of their diet. Science Advances published the findings. DNA analyses show
that ancient populations of the Peruvian highlands adapted to the
introduction of agriculture and an extreme, high-altitude environment in
ways distinct from other global populations.
"We see a different configuration of a gene associated with starch
digestion in the small intestine -- MGAM -- in the agricultural ancient
Andean genome samples, but not in hunter-gatherers down the coast," says
Emory University geneticist John Lindo, first author of the paper. "It
suggests a sort of co-evolution between an agricultural crop and human
beings."
In contrast, European populations that began consuming more grains
with the rise of agriculture show different genomic changes. Research
has shown that their genomes have an increased number of copies of the
gene coding for amylase -- an enzyme in saliva that breaks down starch.
Lindo, an assistant professor of anthropology at Emory, integrates
the approaches of ancient whole genomes, statistical modeling and
functional methods into ancient DNA research. The international team of
17 researchers also included Anna Di Rienzo of the University of Chicago
(who specializes in physiology and genetics) and high-altitude
archeologists Mark Aldenderfer, from the University of California,
Merced, and Randall Haas, from the University of California, Davis.
The study looked at seven ancient whole genomes from the Lake
Titicaca region of the Andean highlands of Peru, dating back from 1,800
to 7,000 years. The researchers also compared the ancient whole genomes
with 64 modern-day genomes from both highland Andean populations and
lowland populations in Chile, to identify genetic adaptions that took
place before the arrival of Europeans in the 1500s.
The Andean highlands make an ideal natural laboratory for ancient
DNA studies, due to the strong selective pressure needed for ancient
populations to adapt to altitudes greater than 2,500 meters. "Frigid
temperatures, low oxygen levels and intense ultraviolet radiation make
the highlands one of the most extreme environments that human beings
have occupied," Lindo says. "It provides a glimpse of our potential for
adaptability."
Both the ancient and modern high-altitude populations showed strong
positive selection on variants in the MGAM gene, which is evident by at
least 1,800 years ago. That fits with archeological evidence indicating
that the domesticated potato -- a crop resistant to cold that grows
mainly underground -- became a staple of the Peruvian highlands as far
back as 3,400 years ago.
The researchers also discovered that the Andean highland
population's genomes do not share the same genetic changes previously
seen in Tibetan genomes in response to hypoxia, or low levels of oxygen.
That suggests that the Andean genomes adapted to high altitude in
different ways.
One possibility uncovered in the study is differentiation in the DST
gene, which has been linked to proper cardiac muscle in mice. DST
histone modifications in the Andean genomes associated with blood and
the right ventricle of the heart may correlate to the tendency of Andean
highlanders to have enlarged right ventricles. That finding fits with a
previous study suggesting that Andeans may have adapted to high
altitude hypoxia via cardiovascular modifications.
A gene flow analysis found that the low- and high-elevation populations split between 8,200 to 9,200 years ago.
The arrival of the Spanish in South America -- who brought new
diseases, along with social disruption and war -- coincided with an
estimated reduction of 90 percent of the total Andean population. The
current analysis, however, showed that the effective breeding population
in the highlands went down by only 27 percent.
"We found a very strong selection in the highlands population on an
immune gene that has been correlated with smallpox, which may have had a
protective effect," Lindo says. The harsh environment of the highlands,
he adds, may have also buffered them from the devastation seen in the
lowlands.
"Understanding the diet, environment and historical events of
various ancestries, and how those ancestries adapted to these factors,
may be one way to understand some health disparities among different
populations," Lindo says.
The remains of a medieval skeleton has shown the first physical
evidence that a fern plant could have been used for medicinal purposes
in cases such as alopecia, dandruff and kidney stones.
The skeleton of a male aged between 21 and 30 years found buried in
the medieval necropolis of Can Reiners on the Spanish Balearic Islands,
had traces of starch grains consistent with cereal plants, such as wheat
and rye, and significantly, a collection of cells in which spores are
formed from the underside of a fern leaf.
There is no evidence to suggest that the fern leaf was part of human
diets at any point in recorded history, but there are written
descriptions dating as far back as the first century AD that suggest the
fern leaf was used to alleviate the symptoms of particular
non-life-threatening conditions.
Folk medicine stories collected in various books suggest that the
fern was used across Europe, but this is the first time any evidence has
been found in actual human remains and the first time the particular
species of fern has been identified.
Dr Elena Fiorin, from the University of York's Department of
Archaeology, said: "Through analysis of the dental calculus of the
skeleton, which we believe dates back to the ninth or 10th century, we
were able to determine that the cells were from fern plant, asplenium
trichomanes, a common species that grows in rocky areas worldwide.
"These ferns have been used by herbalists, surgeons, doctors, and
other healers for centuries across Europe, but until now we have only
had written documents that describe their use.
"The finding from the dental remains of this skeleton show just how
much information we can get from dental calculus analysis. It
demonstrates that in this region of Spain, communities were aware of the
medicinal properties of some plants and how to administer them to get
the desired result."
Records show that a liquid infusion was made by pouring water into
fresh or dried fern leaves, and sometimes the concoction was flavoured
with orange flowers or sweetened sugar or honey.
Herbal texts show that the plants were exclusively used to cure
particular diseases, most commonly what we would now recognise as
dandruff, a common cold, kidney stones, and alopecia. There is also
reference to the plant being used to stimulate menstrual flow in women.
Although there is no way of telling from the skeletal remains of the
young male what he was treated for, it is likely he drank a fern leaf
infusion to potentially cure a condition of the skin, urinary tract, or
as a decongestant.
Dr Fiorin said: "The research demonstrates the use of ferns as
healing plants in the Mediterranean during the Middle Ages. We now have
the potential to look at other dental remains for similar properties
that might tell us more about the use of medicinal herbs in the past.
"These ferns were employed, and are still used in Europe today, to
cure a variety of diseases and through the archaeological record we can
start to see how human beings have used the natural environment to
assist in healthcare throughout our evolution."
Dairying of cattle, sheep, and goats
was established in northern Mongolia by 1300 BC -- despite limited
genetic interactions with Western Steppe herders
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
IMAGE: Many dairy livestock species, including cattle and yaks, were brought to Mongolia in prehistory.
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Credit: Christina Warinner
Although dairy pastoralism once made Mongolian steppe herders
successful enough to conquer most of Asia and Europe, the origins of
this way of life on the East Asian steppe are still unclear. Now an
international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for
the Science of Human History has uncovered evidence that dairying
arrived in Mongolia as early as 1300 BC through a process of cultural
transmission rather than population replacement or migration.
Two thousand years before the armies of Ghengis Khan, populations in
Mongolia were already living a pastoralist, dairying lifestyle -
similar to that which would enable future populations to conquer most of
Asia and Europe. Although pastoralism has long been the primary means
of subsistence on the East Asian steppe, the origins of this tradition
have been unclear. Now, an international team of researchers has
uncovered the earliest direct evidence to date of dairying in Mongolia -
around 1300 BC - by tracking milk proteins preserved in tooth tartar.
The livestock that were milked - cattle, sheep and goats - are not
native to the region and were likely introduced by Western Steppe
herders.
However, ancient DNA evidence from Bronze Age Mongolians
indicates minimal genetic contributions from Western Steppe herders,
suggesting that the livestock and dairying technologies were transferred
by cultural processes rather than a major population migration, in
contrast to the pattern seen in Europe. The findings are published in PNAS.
Cultural and technological transfer without population replacement
Researchers analyzed human remains from six sites in northern
Mongolia associated with the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Complex (DSKC). "The
DSKC is well-known for their monumental architecture, including upright
stones with deer and other motifs, and large stone mounds, often
associated with one or more human burials," explains co-first author
Shevan Wilkin of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human
History. "In some locations, these structures are highly conspicuous and
visible from great distances." The DSKC is the earliest culture
associated archaeologically with pastoralism in Mongolia, with sites
containing bones of sheep, goat, cattle and horse as early as the 13th
century BC. However, to date no direct observations of dairy consumption
had been made in this area.
The researchers conducted genome-wide analyses on 22 Bronze Age
individuals, whose remains were radiocarbon dated to the late Bronze
Age, ca. 1300-900 BC. Whole genome sequencing was further performed on
two of these individuals. The results of these analyses showed that
these Bronze Age Mongolians were genetically distinct from Western
steppe herders of the same time period, indicating that the appearance
of dairying in Mongolia was not the result of population migration and
replacement.
"These findings suggest that neighboring Western steppe herders
directly or indirectly introduced dairy pastoralism to local indigenous
populations primarily through a process of cultural exchange," explains
Choongwon Jeong, co-first and co-senior author, of the Max Planck
Institute for the Science of Human History. "We don't see evidence for
the kind of large-scale population replacement by Western Steppe herders
that has been observed in Bronze Age Europe or in the nearby
Altai-Sayan region." Analysis of dental calculus shows clear evidence of dairy consumption
The researchers also analyzed the dental calculus of nine
individuals using proteomics. Milk proteins were found in the calculus
of seven individuals, confirming that dairy products were consumed as
early as 1300 BC. Both whey and curd proteins were recovered, and could
be identified as coming from sheep, goats and cattle. Interestingly,
none of the individuals was lactase persistent - genetically capable of
digesting the milk sugar lactose. Most Mongolians today are also not
lactase persistent, despite consuming a large proportion of their diet
as dairy products.
"The 3,000-year legacy of dairy pastoralism in Mongolia poses
challenging questions to grand narratives of human adaptation and
natural selection," explains Christina Warinner, senior author, of the
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. "As a non-lactase
persistent dairying society with a rich prehistory, Mongolia can serve
as a model for understanding how other adaptations, such as cultural
practices or microbiome alterations, may be involved in enabling and
maintaining dairy-based cuisines around the world."
Largest ever exhibition on the history,
literature and culture of Anglo-Saxon England, spanning all six
centuries from the eclipse of Roman Britain to the Norman Conquest,
opens tomorrow
Once-in-a-generation opportunity to encounter original
evidence from the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms including outstanding
archaeological objects, unique literary texts and intricately
illuminated manuscripts, some of which are returning to England for the
first time
Exhibition will highlight the key role manuscripts
played in the transmission of ideas, literature and art across political
and geographical boundaries, as well as the sophistication and
craftsmanship of the works produced in these six centuries
19 October 2018 – 19 February 2019
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War,
the largest ever exhibition on the history, literature and culture of
Anglo-Saxon England spanning all six centuries from the eclipse of Roman
Britain in the 5th century to the Norman Conquest of 1066, opens at the
British Library tomorrow.
The exhibition presents a
once-in-a-generation opportunity to encounter original evidence from the
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, a time when the English language was used and
written for the first time and the foundations of the kingdom of England
were laid down.
Bringing together the British Library’s outstanding collections alongside exceptional loans, exhibition highlights include:
Codex Amiatinus, the earliest surviving
complete Bible in Latin made at the monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow in the
north-east of England in the early 8th century and taken to Italy in
716 as a gift for the Pope. It will be returning to England for the
first time in more than 1300 years, on loan from the Biblioteca Medicea
Laurenziana in Florence
Outstanding illuminated and decorated manuscripts, including the St Augustine Gospels on loan from Corpus Christi College Cambridge, the Book of Durrow on loan from Trinity College Dublin and the Echternach Gospels on loan from the Bibliothèque nationale de France, on display with the British Library’s Lindisfarne Gospels, and the Utrecht, Harley and Eadwine Psalters from Utrecht University Library, the British Library and Trinity College Cambridge respectively
The four principal manuscripts of Old English poetry on display together for the first time, with the British Library’s unique manuscript of Beowulf displayed alongside: the Vercelli Book returning to England for the first time from the Biblioteca Capitolare in Vercelli; the Exeter Book on loan from Exeter Cathedral Library; and the Junius Manuscript on loan from the Bodleian Library
Domesday Book, the most famous book in English
history and the earliest surviving public record, on loan from The
National Archives; it provides unrivalled evidence for the landscape and
administration of late Anglo-Saxon England
A number of recently discovered archaeological objects including the Binham Hoard,the largest collection of gold from 6th century Britain, on loan from the Norfolk Museums Service; the Lichfield Angel, which has never been displayed outside of Lichfield since it was excavated in 2003, on loan from LichfieldCathedral; and key objects from the Staffordshire Hoard, discovered in 2009, the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found, on
loan from Birmingham Museums Trust and the Potteries Museum and Art
Gallery; together with other exceptional objects such as the Sutton Hoo gold buckle and the Fuller Brooch on loan from the British Museum, and the Alfred Jewel, on loan from the Ashmolean Museum
The River Erne horn, a wooden trumpet from the
8th century discovered in the river in the 1950s on loan from National
Museums Ireland, will be displayed for the first time alongside the Vespasian Psalter, which includes the oldest translation of part of the Bible into English and depicts two musicians playing similar instruments
The earliest surviving English charter, issued in 679 and granting land to the Abbot of Reculver; the oldest original letter written in England, from the Bishop of London to the Archbishop of Canterbury, dating from early 8th century; and the earliest surviving letter in English, the Fonthill letter, from the early 10th century on loan from Canterbury Cathedral
St Cuthbert Gospel, the oldest intact
European book with its original binding, made at the monastery of
Wearmouth-Jarrow in the north-east of England in the early 8th century;
it was acquired by the British Library in 2012 following the Library’s
most ambitious and successful fundraising campaign for an acquisition.
Through archaeological objects, unique
charters and manuscripts, some of which are returning to England for the
first time, the exhibition will feature famous figures such as King
Alfred the Great and King Cnut, and it will reveal a highly developed
culture, deeply connected with its European neighbours, from Ireland in
the west to the eastern Mediterranean.
From stunning illuminated manuscripts to the earliest surviving will of an English woman, Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War
will highlight the key role manuscripts played in the transmission of
ideas, religion, literature and artistic influences throughout England
and across political and geographical boundaries, as well as the
sophisticated skill and craftsmanship of the artwork produced at this
time.
Dr Claire Breay, Lead Curator of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War at the British Library, said:
‘This is a once-in-a-generation
opportunity to see an outstanding array of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts and
objects produced over six centuries, which demonstrate the
sophistication and interconnected European world of Anglo-Saxon art,
literature and history.’
Outside of London, the British Library is collaborating with Poet in the City
and has commissioned Sheffield poets Joe Kriss and Rachel Bower to
uncover the hidden history of the area, its significance as a gateway
between kingdoms and to explore how we relate to borders, identity,
nations and power. Working in close partnership with Sheffield
Libraries and communities to embed local stories into the process, the
poets’ work will be presented in a creative and ambitious events
including library lates, poetry busking and public installations for
Sheffield audiences in 2019.
The British Library has made its outstanding collection of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts and charters available online in full, allowing people around the world to explore them in detail, and to support future research in the field. 5885 × 8651, 9.1 MB
