0000000000115551
AUTHOR
Susanne Friederich
showing 9 related works from this author
Dental pulp calcifications in prehistoric and historical skeletal remains
2020
Abstract Background The prevalence of hard tissue formations in the dental pulp varies considerably. Beside ageing processes and irritations of the dental pulp, etiological associations with cardiovascular disease and dietary habits have been discussed, which are of particular research interest. The aim of this pilot study is to provide new insights on structural and etiological factors involved in the development of pulp calcifications by investigating skeletal remains from different (pre)historic periods. Methods The jaws of 46 skeletons excavated in central Germany, were examined for the presence of pulp stones using digital volume tomography (DVT). A total of 1122 teeth were examined wi…
Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe
2015
We generated genome-wide data from 69 Europeans who lived between 8,000-3,000 years ago by enriching ancient DNA libraries for a target set of almost four hundred thousand polymorphisms. Enrichment of these positions decreases the sequencing required for genome-wide ancient DNA analysis by a median of around 250-fold, allowing us to study an order of magnitude more individuals than previous studies and to obtain new insights about the past. We show that the populations of western and far eastern Europe followed opposite trajectories between 8,000-5,000 years ago. At the beginning of the Neolithic period in Europe, ~8,000-7,000 years ago, closely related groups of early farmers appeared in G…
Ten millennia of hepatitis B virus evolution
2021
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been infecting humans for millennia and remains a global health problem, but its past diversity and dispersal routes are largely unknown. We generated HBV genomic data from 137 Eurasians and Native Americans dated between ~10,500 and ~400 years ago. We date the most recent common ancestor of all HBV lineages to between ~20,000 and 12,000 years ago, with the virus present in European and South American hunter-gatherers during the early Holocene. After the European Neolithic transition, Mesolithic HBV strains were replaced by a lineage likely disseminated by early farmers that prevailed throughout western Eurasia for ~4000 years, declining around the end of the 2nd…
Using Y-chromosome capture enrichment to resolve haplogroup H2 shows new evidence for a two-path Neolithic expansion to Western Europe
2021
Uniparentally-inherited markers on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the non-recombining regions of the Y chromosome (NRY), have been used for the past 30 years to investigate the history of humans from a maternal and paternal perspective. Researchers have preferred mtDNA due to its abundance in the cells, and comparatively high substitution rate. Conversely, the NRY is less susceptible to back mutations and saturation, and is potentially more informative than mtDNA owing to its longer sequence length. However, due to comparatively poor NRY coverage via shotgun sequencing, and the relatively low and biased representation of Y-chromosome variants on capture assays such as the 1240 k, ancient DNA…
Rib lesions in skeletons from early neolithic sites in Central Germany: On the trail of tuberculosis at the onset of agriculture
2012
As an infectious disease, tuberculosis (TB) is one of the major causes of death worldwide. Paleopathological and paleomicrobiological studies indicate a long standing association of the causative agent Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its human host. Since the occurrence and the epidemic spread of this pathogen seem to be closely linked to social and biological factors, it is of particular interest to understand better the role of TB during periods of social and nutritional change such as the Neolithic. In this study, 118 individuals from three sites in Saxony-Anhalt (Germany) dating to the Linear Pottery Culture (5400-4800 BC) were examined macroscopically to identify TB related bone lesions…
4000 years of human dietary evolution in central Germany, from the first farmers to the first elites
2018
Investigation of human diet during the Neolithic has often been limited to a few archaeological cultures or single sites. In order to provide insight into the development of human food consumption and husbandry strategies, our study explores bone collagen carbon and nitrogen isotope data from 466 human and 105 faunal individuals from 26 sites in central Germany. It is the most extensive data set to date from an enclosed geographic microregion, covering 4,000 years of agricultural history from the Early Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age. The animal data show that a variety of pastures and dietary resources were explored, but that these changed remarkably little over time. In the human δ15N h…
The maternal genetic make-up of the Iberian Peninsula between the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age
2017
Agriculture first reached the Iberian Peninsula around 5700 BCE. However, little is known about the genetic structure and changes of prehistoric populations in different geographic areas of Iberia. In our study, we focus on the maternal genetic makeup of the Neolithic (~ 5500–3000 BCE), Chalcolithic (~ 3000–2200 BCE) and Early Bronze Age (~ 2200–1500 BCE). We report ancient mitochondrial DNA results of 213 individuals (151 HVS-I sequences) from the northeast, central, southeast and southwest regions and thus on the largest archaeogenetic dataset from the Peninsula to date. Similar to other parts of Europe, we observe a discontinuity between hunter-gatherers and the first farmers of the Neol…
Neolithic mitochondrial haplogroup H genomes and the genetic origins of Europeans
2013
Brotherton, Paul et al.-- The Genographic Consortium
Holes in teeth - Dental caries in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age populations in Central Germany.
2015
This study provides diachronic insight into the epidemiology of carious defects in teeth of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age populations in Central Germany over a period of 4000 years. The data were retrieved from skeletal remains uncovered at 21 sites throughout the Middle Elbe-Saale region (MES), comprising a total of 494 individuals with preserved teeth. The data generated were examined for age- and sex-related differences in order to gain information about the dietary habits and socio-economic structures of the period with the goal of identifying potential diachronic changes. The results indicated that dietary habits changed over the course of the Neolithic period: the prevalence of carie…