Genetic analysis is traditionally carried out on individuals from known excavations. Thus the age of the individual is known and also the cultural context. This essay describes an experiment where this process was reversed. The genetic analysis was instead performed on samples from three anonymous individuals in order to see whether the cultural context could be derived from the genetics alone. Two samples from femurs were of inferior quality but the third sample from a premolar could be shown to come from an individual from the Corded Ware Culture. Thus it could not be older than ~2.800 B.C. At the end of the project the true facts were revealed and the individual was, in fact, dated to ~1.600 B.C. and came from a Late Neolithic cist. The result from the experiment is that it is possible to draw some conclusions about date and context provided a sample can be associated with a known population group. However, the results may not be very detailed since people move and genetic traits remain for a long time.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-204653 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Däcker, Bjarne |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för geologiska vetenskaper |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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