Ancient Roman DNA Project

[Humanist]

Ancient Roman DNA Project (http://www.rockethub.com/projects/3709-ancient-roman-dna-project#)

If you have the interest, and the means, please consider donating. She is already funded (thanks to plugs by Dienekes, Razib Khan, a piece on CNN, and others) for what was her original goal (20 skeletons). Any additional funds will go toward testing additional remains. The more aDNA the better.


I'm asking for $6,000 for this project, which will cover the cost of testing DNA from the 20 immigrants to Rome I found in my previous project. Of course, I would love to test additional individuals but recognize that testing the 100+ skeletons I have sampled is out of the realm of possibility. Still, any additional funding over the $6,000 goal will be put to good use: analyzing DNA from more Romans! Be a part of the #SciFund Challenge and help me bring science to ancient Rome!

She is testing only mtDNA, as far as I know. Y-DNA testing is too expensive, unfortunately.

A note to the Assyrians: If you play the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NdUPdVbS9Xw), notice they mention the year 117. This was during the end of Trajan's reign (the beginning of Hadrian's reign). And, one of the very few years the Assyria Provincia existed.

[yahooland]

Ancient Roman DNA Project (http://www.rockethub.com/projects/3709-ancient-roman-dna-project#)

If you have the interest, and the means, please consider donating. She is already funded (thanks to plugs by Dienekes, Razib Khan, a piece on CNN, and others) for what was her original goal (20 skeletons). Any additional funds will go toward testing additional remains. The more aDNA the better.



She is testing only mtDNA, as far as I know. Y-DNA testing is too expensive, unfortunately.

A note to the Assyrians: If you play the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NdUPdVbS9Xw), notice they mention the year 117. This was during the end of Trajan's reign (the beginning of Hadrian's reign). And, one of the very few years the Assyria Provincia existed.

feminist :rolleyes:

[Tsukonin]

poor :rolleyes:

fixed

[Humanist]

Update:


With our crowdfunding campaign at an end, we have exceeded our
financial goal for the Roman DNA Project... and we couldn't have done
it without you! We are astounded at the support you've given to this
project and excited to get to work analyzing the DNA of Imperial
Romans in 2012.

Once again, let me thank you for your generous support of science,
history, and the ancient Romans!

Best wishes for the new year,
Kristina

---
Kristina Killgrove, PhD
Principal Investigator
Roman DNA Project
http://www.RomanDNAProject.org

[Particula]

is there a way to know If someone descend from Romans?
I would really like to know and I would really like to have Roman ancestry since Romans are part of Morocco's history(Mauritania Tingitana)

[Humanist]

The lead researcher: Dr. Kristina Killgrove (on evolution) (http://youtu.be/Flwslu4DXOM).

From: http://romandnaproject.org/2011/11/16/research-goals/


Research Goals

By putting the Roman DNA Project out to the public, I made the choice to focus on the big picture, on what the results will tell me in general about the people of Imperial Rome. In a grant proposal to an agency like the NSF, NEH, or Wenner-Gren, though, I would have spelled out my hypotheses more fully and in more technical terms. This post provides a bit more information on the specific goals of the Roman DNA Project, without getting too jargony-grant-speak-y.

Goal 1 – Use mtDNA analysis to more fully understand the demographics of the population of Imperial Rome. For this pilot phase of the project, we’ll be looking at mitochondrial DNA to learn more about the maternal genetic lines of the Romans - both the locals and the people that previous isotope study suggested were immigrants. Very broadly, mtDNA (which is passed on, unchanged, from mother to daughter) will give us additional information about the geographic backgrounds of the people buried in the two cemetery populations, contributing further to discussions about demography in Rome. We expect to find mostly central European haplogroups, but there may be some African, Iberian, and Near Eastern genes. In combination with the previous Sr/O/Pb (and to some extent C) isotopes, though, we may be able to say with more confidence that a particular person originated in North Africa, Spain, Asia Minor, etc. Depending on the data produced, we’ll learn more about the origins of the population of Imperial Rome (tracing it back multiple generations) and the origins of specific people at Rome (immigrants or possibly one generation removed).

Goal 2 – Use mtDNA analysis to investigate the genetic diversity of the Republican population of Rome. In addition to learning more about the genetic background of the Imperial population, we plan to look at a sample of people from the earlier Republican period. A new theory has been proposed recently about the Roman Republic, with the suggestion that the population was highly mobile rather than sedentary peasants – perhaps even as mobile as people were in the Empire. Looking at mtDNA from the Republican samples (combined with previous Sr/O isotopes) will tell us a lot about the geographic origins of the population, namely whether there was significant gene influx prior to the Empire. Granted, the Republican sample is a small one, but the data that result should be of great interest to classical historians and demographers and will pave the way for future studies of Republican-era skeletons.

Goal 3 – Use mtDNA analysis to learn more about female mobility in the Empire. We’re also choosing mtDNA for this pilot phase specifically because it’s inherited from one’s mother. The mobility of females is a popular question in classics – many people think that women weren’t often taken as slaves and that they didn’t have the freedom to move like men did. My recent EAA paper compared Sr/O data from M1s and M3s of female immigrants to Rome; I found that women did move, and that some moved multiple times during their lives. Another interesting question that this DNA project will start to answer is about genetic diversity among males and females. The Roman family was often neolocal in residence (the nuclear family lived separately) but patrilocal in burial (people were buried with their father’s/father-in-law’s family). In a Roman burial context, we might expect more genetic diversity in females who were marrying into a family. But more men moved around the Empire because of the military and slavery, so a cemetery population may have more diversity in males, especially if the cemetery was specifically for slaves. Eventually, it would be great to do some Y-DNA testing, to look into the genetic diversity of males as well. But the mtDNA will give us a good head-start on answering questions of sex-specific mobility.

Future Goal – Use DNA, isotope, and palaeopathological analysis to answer questions about disease ecology. Malaria has long been a topic of interest to classicists; some DNA work has been done in the past (see, for example, Sallares’ 2002 book Malaria and Rome) and shows that it’s possible to identify P. falciparum, the organism that causes malaria, within a skeleton. DNA analysis, though, could also let me look for genetic anemias like thalassemia, sickle-cell, and G6PD, which confer some protection from malaria and were likely common in the Mediterranean. Interestingly, I recently charted the oxgyen isotope ratios for people with and without porotic hyperostosis, a bone pathology resulting from anemia, and there is a statistical correlation between high oxygen ratios and presence of porotic hyperostosis. Higher oxygen ratios mean warmer climates, and may also mean geographical areas with higher (or different) parasite loads. There’s definitely promise in looking at the disease ecology of Rome/Italy at a molecular level, so I’m hoping that we successfully extract DNA in this pilot phase.

[Humanist]

Received a thank you note today, from the project's lead researcher, Kristina Killgrove, for contributing what I could, to the project.

The card I received is attached below. I like her style. :)

And, I cannot help but think again about what Dienekes wrote, a couple of months back, about "doing science right. (http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2011/11/doing-science-right.html)"

Kristina expects to start the DNA analysis in late spring. And, thankfully, unlike Tutankhamen and Ötzi, we stand a much better chance of learning the complete results this time.

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/g326/dok101/roman_dna_project.png

[Ardi]

Awesome stuff! All for science, science for all! :)

[geomattica]

It would be more worth it, IMO, if early Palatine Hill Roman aDNA, in addition to Samnite, Etruscan, and N. Italian Celtic aDNA were collected and YES if the y-chromosome DNA was mapped out. Otherwise this sounds like just another aDNA study that is going to give us a rather fragmented picture.

[Jonny]

It would be more worth it, IMO, if early Palatine Hill Roman aDNA, in addition to Samnite, Etruscan, and N. Italian Celtic aDNA were collected and YES if the y-chromosome DNA was mapped out. Otherwise this sounds like just another aDNA study that is going to give us a rather fragmented picture.

Well you can always start you own project if you think you know better than this lady. :p

[geomattica]

Well you can always start you own project if you think you know better than this lady. :p

Actually, I wish someone w/ some money would start a project like this! So :p

If they did aDNA of the Italian penninsula from Neolithic to early Medieval that would be awesome. The Keyser et al. study was able to pull something like this off and gave us a great picture of what went on during the prehistoric to early Iron age so :p yet again.

I could care less as to whether or not malaria immunity was present among Roman era people of the Italian penninsula. Show me something that has to do with a more complete understanding of demographics over the long duree!

[JAX]

It would be amazing if they could get testable Y-DNA from ancient Roman remains! I just hope at some future date they will be able to do this. In the meanwhile others have already speculated about the Y-DNA haplogroups of the Romans. It is very likely that the Romans carried a large variety of Y-DNA haplogroups. I would bet that haplogroups R1b, J2a, E1b, and G2 would make up the majority of early Roman male lineages.

http://www.eupedia.com/forum/showthread.php?26100-Roman-Y-DNA

[geomattica]

Yes it would be. Unfortunately this study has thrown in a methodology bias from the start. I must say I find it odd that it didn't get funded by a research grant. I've seen things get funded that turn out frivolous poducts for up to the amount of 1 million USD. Quite honestly she hit the nail on the head for what types of anthro projects get funded these days:

The ones that deal w/ social disparities, diasporas, slavery etc.

Yet oddly enough she has to ask for funding via donation? Would it really have been that difficult to ask for the measly $6000 from whatever science foundation to grant her the money? Especially since she is a Phd and has likely demonstrated good standing already? Quite honestly though I don't know how useful the info obtained will be.

In her own words, she is having analyzed remains that deal w/ the "others" or 98%: slaves, lower class citizens etc.

If she has pulled from skeletal remains that are archived as "slave remains" as determined by the archaeologists who originally uncovered the remains and it comes back as a non-typical Italian peninsula mtDNA haplogroup then did it really reveal much we didn't know already? Yeah their geographical origins may not be known precisely but mtDNA analysis alone doesn't always clear that up unequivocally. Also it doesn't sound like she is looking for matches that could be found among modern Italian penninsula people from the aDNA. I would be curious to see how much of the Roman "slave" population comprises the present day population. However that doesn't seem to be the case.

On a final note, she says "Let's bring science to ancient Rome!". Man that's a slap in the face of every archaeometric study that's come out before regarding anceint Rome!

I think I'll save my cash for a study better concpetualized, lacking methodology bias, and is not overly boastful about "how it for the first time ever will bring science to Rome!".

I think someone else who posted on this thread got it right the first time by using this emoticon to sum up how they felt about this project:


:rolleyes:

[Arch Hades]

pft, you can't really make any definitive statements on the ancient Romans just by 20 skeletons and their Mtdna affinities.

You'd need their over all genetic structure, genome wide studies. And obviously it be best to get elite skeletons and not peasant skeletons.

[alfieb]

No point in my participating due to my mtDNA HG being clearly belonging to a post-Roman Germanic settler.

[geomattica]

pft, you can't really make any definitive statements on the ancient Romans just by 20 skeletons and their Mtdna affinities.

You'd need their over all genetic structure, genome wide studies. And obviously it be best to get elite skeletons and not peasant skeletons.

Yeah this study is pretty pointless in my mind. It just seems like another one of those "PC" studies that's all the rage now since it deals w/ social inequality, slavery, and related blah, blah, blah crap....

Apparently there are other skeletal remains that were studied??? Like a hundred or so? Still don't like the way this study is framed bottom line.

And god forbid there should be an attempt to extract y-chromosome aDNA, its tooooooo hard!

Never ceases to amaze me how many Phd's out there are given out frivoulously to people who can't frame a research project remotely well yet get all this attention from CNN and other media outlets.

[Humanist]

Received a thank you note today, from the project's lead researcher, Kristina Killgrove, for contributing what I could, to the project.

The card I received is attached below. I like her style. :)

And, I cannot help but think again about what Dienekes wrote, a couple of months back, about "doing science right. (http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2011/11/doing-science-right.html)"

Kristina expects to start the DNA analysis in late spring. And, thankfully, unlike Tutankhamen and Ötzi, we stand a much better chance of learning the complete results this time.

http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/g326/dok101/roman_dna_project.png


Restoring the dead link. Hoping for some results in 2013! :)


http://i1096.photobucket.com/albums/g326/dok101/roman_dna_project_.png