Beatriz Gamarra

Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social | IPHES

The dental and oral pathologies of the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age herders from El Mirador cave indicate good general oral health in both populations as deduced from the low prevalence of pathologies such as dental caries, dental calculus, linear enamel hypoplasia, periodontal disease and abscesses. In both groups, older individuals exhibit t...

The Great Hungarian Plain (GHP) served as a geographic funnel for population mobility throughout prehistory. Genomic and isotopic research demonstrates non-linear genetic turnover and technological shifts between the Copper and Iron Ages of the GHP, which influenced the dietary strategies of numerous cultures that intermixed and overlapped through...

In many cases, it is essential to apply cleaning treatments to remove sedimentary crusts or matrices to be able to carry out further studies. These treatments must be adapted to the characteristics of the material and be as innocuous, reversible and neutral as possible. In general, cleaning processes applied on archaeological material and, specific...

We present the first ancient DNA data from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of Mesopotamia (Southeastern Turkey and Northern Iraq), Cyprus, and the Northwestern Zagros, along with the first data from Neolithic Armenia. We show that these and neighboring populations were formed through admixture of pre-Neolithic sources related to Anatolian, Caucasus, and...

Literary and archaeological sources have preserved a rich history of Southern Europe and West Asia since the Bronze Age that can be complemented by genetics. Mycenaean period elites in Greece did not differ from the general population and included both people with some steppe ancestry and others, like the Griffin Warrior, without it. Similarly, peo...

By sequencing 727 ancient individuals from the Southern Arc (Anatolia and its neighbors in Southeastern Europe and West Asia) over 10,000 years, we contextualize its Chalcolithic period and Bronze Age (about 5000 to 1000 BCE), when extensive gene flow entangled it with the Eurasian steppe. Two streams of migration transmitted Caucasus and Anatolian...

Significance Subsistence shifts from hunting and gathering to agriculture over the last 12,000 y have impacted human culture, biology, and health. Although past human health cannot be assessed directly, adult stature variation and skeletal indicators of nonspecific stress can serve as proxies for health during growth and development. By integrating...

ABSTRACT Neolithisation process arrived at the Iberian Peninsula (IP) around 5,500 calBC, having diverse impacts on genomic and cultural diversity. During the Late Neolithic–Chalcolithic, changes occurred at funerary and cultural material level, with also evidence of narrower exchange networks. Genomic diversity decrease at this period suggests hum...

The Great Hungarian Plain (GHP) served as a geographic funnel for population mobility throughout prehistory. Genomic and isotopic research demonstrates non-linear genetic turnover and technological shifts between the Copper and Iron Ages of the GHP, which influenced the dietary strategies of numerous cultures that intermixed and overlapped through...

Neolithisation was a relatively fast process that affected both the interior and coastal zones of the Iberian Peninsula, but it was also a heterogeneous process that had diverse impacts on genomic and cultural diversity. In the Late Neolithic–Chalcolithic, a change in funerary practices, cultural material and trade networks occurred, and genomic he...

Background The analysis and diagnosis of ancient oral pathologies have been improved with the application of new techniques such as microscopy and scanning methods over the past few decades. However, the enhancement of the diagnosis implies a prior knowledge of the availability and suitability of such equipments. Methods In this work we examined 3...

Human culture, biology, and health were shaped dramatically by the onset of agriculture ~12,000 years before present (BP). Subsistence shifts from hunting and gathering to agriculture are hypothesized to have resulted in increased individual fitness and population growth as evidenced by archaeological and population genomic data alongside a simulta...

Dietary reconstruction is used to make inferences about the subsistence strategies of ancient human populations, but it may also serve as a proxy to characterise their diverse cultural and technological manifestations. Dental microwear and stable isotope analyses have been shown to be successful techniques for paleodietary reconstruction of ancient...

Farming was one of the most significant events in human history, driving major biological and cultural change globally. The peasant way of life arrived in the Iberian Peninsula (IP) about 7500 years ago, during the Early Neolithic. It was a relatively fast process that affected both the interior and coastal zones, but it was also a heterogeneous pr...

The transition to farming was among the most significant events in human history that drove major biological and cultural change globally. For its situation in central Europe the Great Hungarian Plain (GHP) was the meeting point of Eastern and Western European cultures. Moreover, this was an area of high population influx and admixture during Europ...

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We report genome-wide DNA data for 73 individuals from five archaeological sites across the Bronze and Iron Ages Southern Levant. These individuals, who share the “Canaanite” material culture, can be modeled as descending from two sources: (1) earlier local Neolithic populations and (2) populations related to the Chalcolithic Zagros or the Bronze A...

Steppe-pastoralist-related ancestry reached Central Europe by at least 2500 bc, whereas Iranian farmer-related ancestry was present in Aegean Europe by at least 1900 bc. However, the spread of these ancestries into the western Mediterranean, where they have contributed to many populations that live today, remains poorly understood. Here, we generat...

Ancient human movements through Asia Ancient DNA has allowed us to begin tracing the history of human movements across the globe. Narasimhan et al. identify a complex pattern of human migrations and admixture events in South and Central Asia by performing genetic analysis of more than 500 people who lived over the past 8000 years (see the Perspecti...

A series of studies have documented how Steppe pastoralist-related ancestry reached central Europe by at least 2500 BCE, while Iranian farmer-related ancestry was present in Aegean Europe by at least 1900 BCE. However, the spread of these ancestries into the western Mediterranean where they have contributed to many populations living today remains...

Dietary reconstruction of ancient human populations allows us to infer subsistence strategies including their cultural and technological aspects. The two most widely used techniques to analyze dietary patterns and subsistence strategies of ancient people are dental microwear and stable isotope analyses. Dental microwear has shown to be successful...

Southeast Asia is home to rich human genetic and linguistic diversity, but the details of past population movements in the region are not well known. Here, we report genome-wide ancient DNA data from eighteen Southeast Asian individuals spanning from the Neolithic period through the Iron Age (4100–1700 years ago). Early farmers from Man Bac in Viet...

The development of farming was a catalyst for the evolution of the human diet from the varied subsistence practices of hunter-gatherers to the more globalised food economy we depend upon today. Although there has been considerable research into the dietary changes associated with the initial spread of farming, less attention has been given to how d...

The genetic formation of Central and South Asian populations has been unclear because of an absence of ancient DNA. To address this gap, we generated genome-wide data from 362 ancient individuals, including the first from eastern Iran, Turan (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan), Bronze Age Kazakhstan, and South Asia. Our data reveal a complex...

Southeast Asia is home to rich human genetic and linguistic diversity, but the details of past population movements in the region are not well known. Here, we report genome-wide ancient DNA data from thirteen Southeast Asian individuals spanning from the Neolithic period through the Iron Age (4100–1700 years ago). Early agriculturalists from Man Ba...

European farmers' first strides from the south The early spread of farmers across Europe has previously been thought to be part of a single migration event. David Reich and colleagues analyse genome-wide data from 225 individuals who lived in southeastern Europe and the surrounding regions between 12000 and 500 BC. They analyse this in combination...

Farming was first introduced to southeastern Europe in the mid-7th millennium BCE - brought by migrants from Anatolia who settled in the region before spreading throughout Europe. However, the dynamics of the interaction between the first farmers and the indigenous hunter-gatherers remain poorly understood because of the near absence of ancient DNA...

We report genome-wide ancient DNA from 44 ancient Near Easterners ranging in time between ~12,000 and 1,400 BCE, from Natufian hunter–gatherers to Bronze Age farmers. We show that the earliest populations of the Near East derived around half their ancestry from a ‘Basal Eurasian’ lineage that had little if any Neanderthal admixture and that separat...

We report genome-wide ancient DNA from 44 ancient Near Easterners ranging in time between ~12,000-1,400 BCE, from Natufian hunter-gatherers to Bronze Age farmers. We show that the earliest populations of the Near East derived around half their ancestry from a ‘Basal Eurasian’ lineage that had little if any Neanderthal admixture and that separated f...

Morphometric variation of biological structures has been widely used to determine taxonomic affinities among taxa, and teeth are especially informative for both deep phylogenetic relationships and specific ecological signals. We report 2-dimensional geometric morphometrics (GM) analyses of occlusal crown surfaces of lower molars (M1, n = 141; M2, n...

Tooth wear in primates is caused by aging and ecological factors. However, comparative data that would allow us to delineate the contribution of each of these factors are lacking. Here, we contrast age-dependent molar tooth wear by scoring percent of dentine exposure (PDE) in two wild African primate populations from Gabonese forest and Kenyan sava...

Los dientes constituyen la evidencia más abundante del registro fósil ya que están formados por ma-teriales resistentes y duros, con una excelente preservación a lo largo del tiempo. A diferencia de otras estructuras biológicas, no sufren cambios durante la vida del individuo una vez completada su minerali-zación, por lo que son menos susceptibles...

Los dientes constituyen la evidencia más abundante del registro fósil ya que están formados por ma-teriales resistentes y duros, con una excelente preservación a lo largo del tiempo. A diferencia de otras estructuras biológicas, no sufren cambios durante la vida del individuo una vez completada su minerali-zación, por lo que son menos susceptibles...

Fourier Los análisis de Fourier permiten caracterizar el contorno del diente y obtener una serie de paráme-tros para un posterior análisis multivariante. Sin embargo, la gran complejidad que presentan algu-nas formas obliga a determinar el error de medición intrínseco que se produce. El objetivo de este trabajo es aplicar y validar los análisis de...

Fourier analysis can allow to characterize the shape of teeth, by employing a number of landmarks defining its profi le, and extract a number of parameters for subsequent multivariate analysis. However, the great complexity of some cases requires testing how many landmarks are needed for a correct representation. The aim of this paper is to apply a...

Los dientes de los vertebrados, y especialmente de los mamíferos, muestran una gran diversidad de formas como resultado de las adaptaciones ecológicas y alimentarias de las especies en función del hábitat y las condiciones ecológicas. La anatomía dental es de gran utilidad para definir especies y caracterizar poblaciones, y se ha utilizado extensam...