Ancient Remains
Figure 1. Number of ancient individuals. Leyenda: Increase in the number of ancient human individuals with genome-wide data since the invention of NGS technologies.
We study the population and evolutionary history of human populations using ancient genomes. Although the history of ancient DNA (aDNA) research goes back to the 1980s, it is not until the development and application of the Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) techniques in the first half of the 2010s that several serious limitations could be overcome, and the aDNA revolution was ready to take off.
​
We establish close collaborations with archaeologists, anthropologists and historians to study human remains excavated at archaeological sites, with special focus on Europe and the Iberian Peninsula over the past 10,000 years. Using NGS techniques, we generate genomic-wide data from these remains and analyze these data using Bioinformatics. We have an ongoing close collaboration with the laboratory of Dr. David Reich at Harvard University, pioneer in the application of NSG techniques to the study of human history.
​
Our aim is to understand:
-
How human groups moved around and admixed with other groups they encountered. Since DNA is passed from generation to generation, if a population living in one region at a given point in time descends directly from the population living in the same place 500 years before, it must have inherited all the DNA from that population. Instead, if it descends from an admixture event between the local population and an incoming group, it should have DNA from both groups. Thus, sequencing the genomes of individuals living at different points in time can give us a high-resolution view of human mobility, migration and admixture, and at the same time help us understand how present-day populations were formed.
Figure 2. Schematic representation of Iberian population history over the past 10,000 years, as documented using aDNA data in Olalde et al. Science 2019.
​
-
How social structure has changed over time. Genome-wide data from ancient individuals can be used to infer biological relatedness among individuals buried at a given archaeological site, revealing biological kinship which is a key aspect for understanding social organization of past societies.
​​
Figure 3. Reconstruction of a Neolithic family from Hazleton North using aDNA data (Fowler and Olalde et al. Nature 2021)
​
​
-
How genetic variants with functional importance have evolved over time. Ancient genomes can provide unprecedented insights into the temporal allelic trajectory of important mutations, allowing us to understand their origin and the evolutionary forces behind their selective advantage.
​
Figure 4. Derived allele frequencies at four SNPs of functional importance in ancient populations from the Iberian Peninsula (Olalde et al. Science 2019).
​
Publications (last 10 years):
​
1. Fowler, C., Olalde, I., Cummings, V., Armit, I., Büster, L., Cuthbert, S., Rohland, N., Cheronet, O., Pinhasi, R., Reich, D. (2021). A high-resolution picture of kinship practices in an Early Neolithic tomb. Nature, advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04241-4
2. Novak, M., Olalde, I., Ringbauer, H., Rohland, N., Ahern, J., Balen, J., Janković, I., Potrebica, H., Pinhasi, R., Reich, D. (2021). Genome-wide analysis of nearly all the victims of a 6200 year old massacre. PloS One, 16(3), e0247332. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247332
​
3. Sedig, JW., Olade, I., Patterson, N., Harney, É., Reich, D. (2021). Combining ancient DNA and radiocarbon dating data to increase chronological accuracy. Journal of Archaeological Science, 133, 105452. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2021.105452
​
4. Olalde, I., Posth, C. (2020). Latest trends in archaeogenetic research of west Eurasians. Current Opinion in Genetics and Development, 62, 36–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gde.2020.05.021
5. Sjögren, KG., Olalde, I., Carver, S., Allentoft, ME., Knowles, T., Kroonen, G., Pike, A., Schröter, P., Brown, KA., Brown, KR., Harrison, RJ., Bertemes, F., Reich, D., Kristiansen, K., Heyd, V. (2020). Kinship and social organization in Copper Age Europe. A cross-disciplinary analysis of archaeology, DNA, isotopes, and anthropology from two Bell Beaker cemeteries. Plos One, 15(11), e0241278. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241278
​
6. Olalde, I., et al. (2019). The genomic history of the Iberian Peninsula over the past 8000 years. Science, 363(6432), 1230–1234. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aav4040
​
7. Olalde, I., et al. (2018). The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe. Nature, 555, 190–196. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature25738
​
8. Olalde, I., Schroeder, H., Sandoval-Velasco, M., Vinner, L., Lobón, I., Ramirez, O., Civit, S., García Borja, P., Salazar-García, DC., Talamo, S., María Fullola, J., Xavier Oms, F., Pedro, M., Martínez, P., Sanz, M., Daura, J., Zilhão, J., Marquès-Bonet, T., Gilbert, MT., Lalueza-Fox, C. (2015). A common genetic origin for early farmers from Mediterranean cardial and Central European LBK cultures. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 32(12), 3132–3142. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msv181
​
9. Olalde, I., Allentoft, M. E., Sánchez-Quinto, F., Santpere, G., Chiang, C. W., DeGiorgio, M., Prado-Martinez, J., Rodríguez, J. A., Rasmussen, S., Quilez, J., Ramírez, O., Marigorta, U. M., Fernández-Callejo, M., Prada, M. E., Encinas, J. M., Nielsen, R., Netea, M. G., Novembre, J., Sturm, R. A., Sabeti, P., Marquès-Bonet, T., Navarro, A., Willerslev, E., Lalueza-Fox, C. (2014). Derived immune and ancestral pigmentation alleles in a 7,000-year-old Mesolithic European. Nature, 507(7491), 225–228. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12960
​