Saint-Dizier « la Tuilerie » (Haute-Marne) : trois sépultures d’élite du VIe siècle
In 2002, excavations carried out by Marie-Cécile Truc (Inrap) at Saint-Dizier led to the discovery of four graves of exceptional wealth, containing a young woman, two men and a horse, dated to c. 525-550 AD. Dressed and adorned with numerous jewels, the young female was laid in a coffin upon which were placed vessels in glass, copper alloy goblet and ceramic. Each male had been buried in an excavated funerary chamber, built within an oak frame. They were laid in their coffins along with their personal clothing, including a ceremonial sword with two rings added to the pommel. The larger weapons (throwing axes, shields, lances and angons) as well as various utensils were placed either on the …
STR analysis of artificially degraded DNA--results of a collaborative European exercise.
Degradation of human DNA extracted from forensic stains is, in most cases, the result of a natural process due to the exposure of the stain samples to the environment. Experiences with degraded DNA from casework samples show that every sample may exhibit different properties in this respect, and that it is difficult to systematically assess the performance of routinely used typing systems for the analysis of degraded DNA samples. Using a batch of artificially degraded DNA with an average fragment size of approx. 200 bp a collaborative exercise was carried out among 38 forensic laboratories from 17 European countries. The results were assessed according to correct allele detection, peak heig…
Pig domestication and human-mediated dispersal in western Eurasia revealed through ancient DNA and geometric morphometrics.
Zooarcheological evidence suggests that pigs were domesticated in Southwest Asia ∼8,500 BC. They then spread across the Middle and Near East and westward into Europe alongside early agriculturalists. European pigs were either domesticated independently or more likely appeared so as a result of admixture between introduced pigs and European wild boar. As a result, European wild boar mtDNA lineages replaced Near Eastern/Anatolian mtDNA signatures in Europe and subsequently replaced indigenous domestic pig lineages in Anatolia. The specific details of these processes, however, remain unknown. To address questions related to early pig domestication, dispersal, and turnover in the Near East, we …