Ancient DNA reveals the world’s oldest family tree.

 

Matthew Presant

Chemistry

Mr. Ippolito

1-6-2021

Newcastle University. "Ancient DNA reveals the world’s oldest family tree." ScienceDaily. 

ScienceDaily, 22 December 2021. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/12/211222153113.htm>. Accessed 6 Jan. 2022.

For my current event review, I read the article “Ancient DNA reveals the world’s oldest family tree” by Newcastle University. The main idea of this article is that researchers discovered a family thousands of years old by analyzing DNA from people at the “Hazleton North long cairn in the Cotswolds-Severn region” (Newcastle University). This location is a Neolithic tomb located in Britain. Using the bones and teeth of 35 people buried in this area, a group of researchers found 27 biologically related individuals. They were also able to determine that this group had lived around 5700 years ago. The researchers involved in this study “included archaeologists from Newcastle University, UK, and geneticists from the University of the Basque Country, University of Vienna and Harvard University” (Newcastle University). This is significant because the study involved people from all over the world which allowed for people with different expertise to share their skill set and ideas. The researchers were also able to infer that the majority of those buried in the tomb were related to 4 women who all had children with the same man. At this site in Britain, there are two L-shaped burial chambers. North and South of a more central “spine” between the tombs. In one tomb, men were buried (along with their brothers and father). Based on who was buried, it largely seems that genealogy was patrilineal. There were 2 related daughters buried there too, however, no adult daughters. Overall, being able to be in the tomb likely lied in patrilineal ties. Being in either the north or south tomb depended on the first-generation women that the individual was related to. This suggests that these women were socially important to this ancient community in some way. There is also evidence of stepsons being buried in the tombs. For example, the researchers found men whose mother was buried with them but not their biological father. Furthermore, there was evidence that 8 individuals buried weren’t related to those in the family tree. Finally, based on the relationships of all who were buried in each of the tombs, the people involved in the study were able to learn about kinship (blood relationships) in a Neolithic community.

This ancient family tree will have an immense impact on society because this study gave us an important understanding of kinship in Neolithic communities. It can tell us much about the relationships that ancient humans had with each other. According to Dr. Chris Fowler of Newcastle University, “This study gives us an unprecedented insight into kinship in a Neolithic community” (Newcastle University). Dr. Fowler also states, “The tomb at Hazleton North has two separate chambered areas, one accessed via a northern entrance and the other from a southern entrance, and just one extraordinary finding is that initially each of the two halves of the tomb were used to place the remains of the dead from one of two branches of the same family” (Newcastle University). This is important because it shows that the architecture could even tell us a little about who was related to who. Moreover, this knowledge about who is buried and with whom, allows researchers and scientists to learn much more about ancient civilizations such as who was valued socially in that community. 

As a whole this was a pretty well written article. It provided a lot of information on the topic including many of the researchers from the different universities. It also included quotes from experts like Dr. Chris Fowler of Newcastle University and David Reich of Harvard University for example. Including quotes from specialists really adds a lot of value to a scientific article. However, this article could have provided more information about the archeological site itself. When was the site discovered? Is there anything besides the tombs on the site grounds? Overall, a fairly well structured and well written scientific article.