Inferring the demographic history of the southern Trans-Urals from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age by sequencing palaeogenomes along a chronological transect

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Joachim Burger
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: from 2018 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 399607197

In the southern Trans-Urals, towards the end of the second millennium BC, a technologically advanced culture has developed, which undergoes profound cultural change in the following centuries of the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age.The extent to which this transition is accompanied by a change in the genetic population structure is hardly investigated. Recently, cultural changes have been equated with migrations. While migration may play a role also in this case, it is indispensable to additionally look for intrinsic demographic factors of population development. However, demographic processes can only be inferred on the basis of deeply sequenced genomes.Unfortunately, most of the currently available ancient genomes are low coverage and do not permit unbiased estimation of genetic diversity in past populations at any given time; therefore the characterization of how genetic diversity has evolved over time during the key period associated with the fundamental cultural and economic transitions from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age is only feasibly on the basis of high quality full genomes.We are planning to produce 20 well-covered genomes (10X) from the southern Trans-Urals. This allows us to use a suite of the latest demographic inference methods, which will provide an accurate picture of the genetic population dynamics in this culturally important period and area.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants