Session: #328

Regular session

In the last decade, the field of bioarchaeology has immensely expanded the information that can be retrieved from ancient human remains, and has enriched our understanding of the human past. This session will focus on examples of interdisciplinary research, which lead to new insights on the population history of European hunter-gatherers from the Upper Palaeolithic onwards. For the vast majority of their history in Europe, modern humans relied on a foraging lifestyle, though little is known about the biological differences that existed between different hunter-gatherer groups across time and space. Moreover, toward the end of the Mesolithic and during the early Neolithic, foragers co-existed with early farmer populations in multiple areas of the continent. As such, hunter-gatherer groups living in temporal and geographical proximity to populations practicing a farming lifestyle, which included a continuous contact with crops and livestock, likely experienced dramatic ecological changes that were accompanied by a higher exposure to infectious diseases. In this session, we focus on hunter-gatherer interconnectivity by using a wide range of techniques including human archaeogenetics, osteoarchaeology and stable isotopes. In addition, we wish to enrich our understanding of hunter-gatherer ecology through contributions from the fields of molecular and skeletal palaeopathology. The aim of this session will be to bring together researchers from different disciplines and to create a platform of discussion where correlations between cultural and biological dynamics can be tested. In a time of big data, we envision to promote a synergistic approach, where multiple lines of evidence coupled with innovative methodologies are integrated to bring forward bioarchaeological research.

Hunter-gatherers, Bioarchaeology, Ancient DNA, Palaeopathology, Osteoarchaeology, Stable isotopes

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PaM

Cosimo Posth (Germany) ^1,2

Alexandra Buzhilova (Russia) ^3,4
Maria Spyrou (Germany) ¹