Gunita Zarina

• Ph D
• Senior Researcher at University of Latvia

The collection of papers contains abstracts and short articles from the international scientific conference "Experimental Archaeology in Latvia and Around the World" held in Riga on 7 October 2023. It is dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Baltic Experimental Archaeology Summer School. It includes both papers on the interpretation of material...

Reconstructing premortem DNA methylation levels in ancient DNA has led to breakthrough studies such as the prediction of anatomical features of the Denisovan. These studies rely on computationally inferring methylation levels from damage signals in naturally deaminated cytosines, which requires expensive high-coverage genomes. Here, we test two met...

The transition from foraging to farming was a key turning point in ancient socio-economies. Yet, the complexities and regional variations of this transformation are still poorly understood. This multi-proxy study provides a new understanding of the introduction and spread of early farming, challenging the notions of hierarchical economies. The most...

This paper deals with the identification and comparison of dietary practices and their changes from the Late Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age in two different ecosystems – the lower reaches of the Daugava river and Lake Lubāns wetland. Zooarchaeological, palaeobotanical, and stable isotope evidence of chemical elements were used. The obtained resul...

The Late Neolithic Abora settlement site occupies a prominent place in Lake Lubāns micro-region archaeology. The Lake Lubāns wetland, including the Abora site, has been systematically researched by the archaeologist Ilze Biruta Loze in 1962–1990 and episodically in 1999–2012. Besides the settlement culture layers, the Abora site includes human buri...

Evidence for a reduction in stature between Mesolithic foragers and Neolithic farmers has been interpreted as reflective of declines in health, however, our current understanding of this trend fails to account for the complexity of cultural and dietary transitions or the possible causes of phenotypic change. The agricultural transition was extended...

While early Neolithic populations in Europe were largely descended from early Aegean farmers, there is also evidence of episodic gene flow from local Mesolithic hunter-gatherers into early Neolithic communities. Exactly how and where this occurred is still unknown. Here we report direct evidence for admixture between the two groups at the Danube Go...

The timing of infant weaning in the past is important for its implications for birth-spacing and infant survival, and hence for population maintenance or growth under different socio-economic regimes. Prior to the adoption of agriculture, breastfeeding is believed to have been more prolonged amongst hunter-gatherers due, at least partly, to the lac...

Cranial sutures join the many bones of the skull. They are therefore points of weakness and consequently subjected to the many mechanical stresses affecting the cranium. However, the way in which this impacts their morphological complexity remains unclear. We examine the intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms of human sagittal sutures by quantifying th...

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...

The Bronze Age barrow cemetery in Reznes was located on the right bank of the River Daugava on a paleoisland. In total, eight barrows have been recorded in the cemetery. Archaeological excavations took place in the 1930s, led by E. Å turms, and in the 1950s and 1960s, led by J. Graudonis. Altogether, seven barrows have been excavated. Several barro...

Until recently, there was a lack of radiocarbon ( ¹⁴ C) dates from the Bronze and Earliest Iron Age (1800–500–1 BC) burial sites in Latvia. The chronology of the sites was assessed on the basis of archaeological analogies with neighboring regions and typological studies of the rather meagre grave inventory. In order to establish a firm foundation f...

Conclusions: One of the main tasks of archaeologists is pattern recognition. In this paper we have focused on one particular case study, the prehistoric hunter-gatherer cemetery of Zvejnieki in northeastern Europe (Henderson et al. in prep.). A very striking and persistent pattern was highlighted, linking the presence or absence of animal tooth pe...

This article presents a review on population genetics of Latvians, which alongside Lithuanians are the two extant Baltic speaking populations. The article provides a description of genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data and contains a comparative analysis of the results of studies performed on classical autosomal genetic markers, mit...

The original version of this Article omitted references to previous work, which are detailed in the associated Author Correction. These omissions have been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.

Zvejnieki, on Lake Burtnieks in northeastern Latvia, is the largest known prehistoric cemetery in the eastern Baltic; N300 inhumations, most dating to c.7000–3000 cal BC, have been excavated. Archaeozoological and artefactual evidence fromgraves and nearby settlement layers showthat throughout this period, the community depended on wild resources f...

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...

While the series of events that shaped the transition between foraging societies and food producers are well described for Central and Southern Europe, genetic evidence from Northern Europe surrounding the Baltic Sea is still sparse. Here, we report genome-wide DNA data from 38 ancient North Europeans ranging from ~9500 to 2200 years before present...

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...

Recent ancient DNA studies have revealed that the genetic history of modern Europeans was shaped by a series of migration and admixture events between deeply diverged groups. While these events are well described in Central and Southern Europe, genetic evidence from Northern Europe surrounding the Baltic Sea is still sparse. Here we report genome-w...

Document S1. Supplemental Experimental Procedures, Figures S1–S4, and Tables S1 and S2

The Neolithic transition was a dynamic time in European prehistory of cultural, social, and technological change. Although this period has been well explored in central Europe using ancient nuclear DNA [1, 2], its genetic impact on northern and eastern parts of this continent has not been as extensively studied. To broaden our understanding of the...

Cribra orbitalia (CO), or porotic hyperostosis (PH) of the orbital roof, is one of the most common pathological conditions found in archaeological subadult skeletal remains. Reaching frequencies higher than 50% in many prehistoric samples, CO has been generally attributed to a variety of factors including malnutrition (e.g. megaloblastic anemia) an...

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.10.024 Aquatic food resources (fish and molluscs) were exploited intensively at Riņņukalns, a Neolithic freshwater shell midden at the outlet of Lake Burtnieks, north-eastern Latvia. Stable isotope data (δ15N and δ13C) from a rich fishbone assemblage and a wide range of terrestrial species complement publish...

This book represents the first attempt to summarize archaeological, bioarchaeological, and historiographic evidences of Ikšķile population through the Middle Ages. It became possible due to extensive anthropological material from archaeological excavations of archaeologist Jānis Graudonis in Ikšķile churtch cemetery and recently experienced progres...

Stable isotope analysis is a chemical analysis method that can be used on a variety of samples for addressing a number of questions. In bioarchaeology stable isotope analysis method was introduced in the 1970s. Since then the method has been proven to be useful for solving different questions, especially concerning those on palaeodiet and migration...

Aquatic food resources (fish and molluscs) were exploited intensively at Rinnukalns, a Neolithic shell midden at the outlet of Lake Burtnieks, north-eastern Latvia (Berzins et al. in press). Stable isotope data from a rich fish-bone assemblage (Schmölcke et al. submitted) and isotope data from a wide range of terrestrial species complement results...

The Bronze Age site of Kivutkalns with its massive amount of archaeological artifacts and human remains is considered the largest bronze-working center in Latvia. The site is a unique combination of cemetery and hillfort believed to be built on top of each other. This work presents new radiocarbon dates on human and animal bone collagen that somewh...

Bone is one of the few materials that are consistently recovered from archaeological and paleontological sites; its chemical composition has the potential to provide valuable information about ancient human and faunal diet and health status. Diet is one aspect of the development of human culture; changes in dietary regimes occurred together with ch...

In late autumn 2006 archaeological excavations were undertaken in St. Gertrude’s churchyard in Riga. 719 burials including two mass graves were uncovered. The most extensive use of the cemetery was during the 16th to 17th centuries. Anthropological analysis determined that inhumations in the mass graves might contain inhabitants of Riga or refugees...

In late autumn 2006 archaeological excavations were undertaken in St. Gertrude’s churchyard in Riga. 719 burials including two mass graves were uncovered. The most extensive use of the cemetery was during the 16th to 17th centuries. Anthropological analysis determined that inhumations in the mass graves might contain inhabitants of Riga or refugees...

Investigation of Optimized Homogenization by Ball Mills for Quantitative Chemical Analysis in Sandy Soils The efficiency of homogenization was studied by examining particle size distribution and element quantification in the sandy soils using the ball mills. The following parameters were optimized - sample volume, oscillation frequency and grinding...

Studies of Archaeological Bone Structure by Different Analytical Methods Preservation of the structure of archaeological bones was studied by examining their physicochemical properties. The mechanical properties, and conductivity porosity, crystallinity and content of organic material were evaluated. These parameters were established to be suitable...

This paper is intended as a contribution to the understanding of women’s social role and living conditions in the Iron Age society in Latvia. The study is based on palaeodemographic data, obtained in the analysis of osteological material from archaeological excavations of three pre-Christian cemeteries. Masculinisation index for inhumation burials...

A total of 317 burials, mostly from the Stone Age, have been detected in the Zvejnieki archaeological complex in northern Latvia. Animal bones are often found in Zvejnieki graves. Some of them are modified into artefacts like pendants and can be associated with the human burials as grave goods. However, the behavioural interpretation of unmodified...

The study represents palaeodemographic research of osteological material of 3304 individuals from the funds of the Anthropological Laboratory of the Institute of History of the University of Latvia in Riga, dating from the 7th to the 18th century AD. Compensated life expectancy at birth is varying between 20.3 and 22.2 years during the research per...