EAA2021: Session #468

Over the last years, methodological advancements in ancient DNA allowed more specific studies, either at individual levels with high-covered genomes, or at group levels with extensive sampling. The evolution of the field makes now possible finer analysis at local scales, exploring in particular kinship and site organization. This increasing power of resolution offers new elements of analysis for the investigation of social structures, such as marital rules, female/male mobility, population size, consanguinity, networks at local or regional scales… As one can always object that biological kinship or affinities do not necessary demonstrate that the individuals either recognized this connection or bonded based on it, these elements open the discussion about the relationship between biological and social kinship. Developments of new analysis tools to explore these biological structures are actively in progress and will contribute to deeply improve our knowledge in this regard.
In parallel, the discussion now must include insights from social anthropology as well as archaeology to critically assess these new results in the light of human behavior. It also highlights our biases as modern societies and which we must question when coming to interpret social systems in ancient societies.
Many different perspectives can be brought together in this session to discuss this growing and exciting panel of ancient DNA data, with the aim to help building a critical and integrative research.

We welcome all researchers involved in genetics, archaeology, anthropology and social anthropology who want to contribute to an interdisciplinary discussion about biosocial archaeology. Contributions can address the following questions and research topics, for any time period:
- Case studies including analyses of social structures, kinship and site studies;
- New tools to explore genetic, archaeological or anthropological data in a social perspective;
- Theoretical discussions related to biosocial archaeology about interpretative choices, vocabulary, historical records and ethnoarchaeology.

ancient DNA, social structures, kinship, site organisation, interdisciplinarity

 Session #468 (PDF)

Maïté Rivollat^1,2

Anna Szécsényi-Nagy³
Daniela Hofmann⁴
Lara Cassidy⁵
István Koncz⁶

Making Kin: the archaeology and genetics of human relationships

Investigating Neolithic social structures on the basis of unprecedentedly large family trees from the site Gurgy “les Noisats” in France

Ancestry change and kinship organisation in Chalcolithic-Early Bronze Age Britain: a critical assessment of male-dominated models

Salvaging aDNA Kinship Research: A Necessary Wake Up Call and Reorientation

Early Bronze Age families in the northwestern Carpathian Basin

Home is where the hearth is: exploring sex bias in genetically-attested migrations in prehistoric Europe

Social Belonging between Genes and Practices

Genetic insights into kinship and social structure of an Iron Age community from Tuva, Southern Siberia

Genetic methods in archaeological research ( Funded by government grant No. 075-15-2019-1879)

Kin and Power in Early Celtic Communities of Southwestern Germany

Ancient genomes reveal social and geographic structuring of the population in Carpathian Basin at the time of the Avar empire

Maternal lineages from 10-11th century commoner cemeteries of the Carpathian Basin

The late-antique funerary complex of Ittenheim (Alsace, Bas-Rhin). Re-reading of archaeo-anthropological data at the dawn of genomics

Investigating kinship practices through dense spatial and temporal sampling of 5-6th century cemeteries in Pannonia

Investigating kindreds and waves of migration in 6-8th century northern Italy through archaeological and paleogenomic analyses

Using aDNA as part of a multi-proxy approach to understand biological and social kinship of unusual burials from Portmahomack (Scotland)

Survival of aDNA in tooth and bone samples from Iron Age (7th – 12th centuries AD) burials in Latvia