Archaeology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mineralized plaque, or dental calculus, is a valuable reservoir of the ancient oral microbiome. Here, the authors use quantitative metaproteomics to analyze the dental calculus of 21 individuals from a medieval cemetery, identifying human and microbial proteins that shed light on their oral health status.

    • Rosa R. Jersie-Christensen
    • , Liam T. Lanigan
    •  & Jesper V. Olsen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Longobards invaded and conquered much of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Here, the authors sequence and analyze ancient genomic DNA from 63 samples from two cemeteries associated with the Longobards and identify kinship networks and two distinct genetic and cultural groups in each.

    • Carlos Eduardo G. Amorim
    • , Stefania Vai
    •  & Krishna R. Veeramah

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Leprosy, caused by infection with Mycobacterium leprae, was common in Europe in the Middle Ages. Here, Krause-Kyora et al. analyze ancient DNA from a medieval Danish leprosarium to assemble 10 complete bacterial genomes and perform association analysis of the DRB1*15:01 allele with risk of leprosy infection.

    • Ben Krause-Kyora
    • , Marcel Nutsua
    •  & Almut Nebel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Previous studies of Pre-Columbian earthworks in the Amazon basin have left a gap in the Upper Tapajós Basin (UTB). Here, the authors detect 104 Pre-Columbian earthworks in the UTB, suggesting continuous occupation across southern Amazonia and higher population densities than previously estimated.

    • Jonas Gregorio de Souza
    • , Denise Pahl Schaan
    •  & José Iriarte

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Bronze-age Indus civilisation (4.6–3.9 ka) was thought to have been linked to the development of water resources in the Himalayas. Here, the authors show that along the former course of the Sutlej River the Indus settlements developed along the abandoned river valley rather than an active Himalayan river.

    • Ajit Singh
    • , Kristina J. Thomsen
    •  & Sanjeev Gupta

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans is thought to have been due to environmental factors, a selective advantage of modern humans, or both. Here, Kolodny and Feldman develop a neutral model of species drift showing that rapid Neanderthal replacement can be explained parsimoniously by simple migration dynamics.

    • Oren Kolodny
    •  & Marcus W. Feldman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Water is a fundamental resource, but its role in hominin evolution is not well explored. Here, the authors use a combination of groundwater, climate and agent-based models to show that groundwater availability may be critical to past patterns of taxonomic diversity in hominin development in East Africa.

    • M. O. Cuthbert
    • , T. Gleeson
    •  & G. M. Ashley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Our current understanding of the demographic history of Greenland relies on preserved fossils. Here, the authors sequence ancient DNA from four midden deposits and find a prominent role for caribou, walrus and whale species in Paleo-Inuit cultures not evident from the fossil record.

    • Frederik Valeur Seersholm
    • , Mikkel Winther Pedersen
    •  & Anders Johannes Hansen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Unlike modern humans, Neanderthals had large and projecting faces. Here, the authors show that the maxilla of modern humans is distinct from those of the Neanderthal and Middle Pleistocene hominins from Sima de los Huesos because their growth processes differ markedly during the postnatal period.

    • Rodrigo S. Lacruz
    • , Timothy G. Bromage
    •  & Eudald Carbonell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Growing evidence reveals great diversity of archaic Asian hominins. Here, Chang and colleagues describe a newly discovered archaic Homomandible from Taiwan, which suggests the survival of multiple evolutionary lineages among archaic hominins before the arrival of modern humans to eastern Asia.

    • Chun-Hsiang Chang
    • , Yousuke Kaifu
    •  & Liang-Kong Lin

  • Article |

    The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) represents the most severe climatic event since modern humans arrived in Europe and it is likely that it has changed their morphology. Here, Brewster et al. examine human cranial morphology from before and after the LGM and show significant differences across periods.

    • Ciarán Brewster
    • , Christopher Meiklejohn
    •  & Ron Pinhasi

  • Article |

    The evolution of agronomic conditions after domestication in the Fertile Crescent remains poorly understood. Here, Araus et al. show that water availability and soil fertility for crops were higher in the past and that domesticated cereals showed a progressive increase in kernel size following domestication.

    • José L. Araus
    • , Juan P. Ferrio
    •  & Ramón Buxó

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Between 8000 and 4000 BP, agriculture spread throughout Europe changing consumption patterns and increasing populations. Shennan et al. analyse radiocarbon date distributions and paleoclimate proxies to show that agriculture also triggered regional population oscillations and that climate forcing is an unlikely cause.

    • Stephen Shennan
    • , Sean S. Downey
    •  & Mark G. Thomas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The South African archaeological record contains evidence of the early flourishing of the human mind. Ziegler et al. provide new paleoclimate reconstructions, which suggest that rapid fluctuations in global climate have played a key role in the evolution of these early human cultures.

    • Martin Ziegler
    • , Margit H. Simon
    •  & Rainer Zahn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    5,000 years ago, the Minoans established the first advanced civilization of Europe, but their origin remains unclear. Here the authors show that the Minoans were a European population, genetically similar to other ancient European populations and to the present inhabitants of the island of Crete.

    • Jeffery R. Hughey
    • , Peristera Paschou
    •  & George Stamatoyannopoulos

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