Archaeogenetics

What are archaeogenetics?
Archaeogenetics is the study of ancient DNA (aDNA). The british archaeologist, Colin Renfrew was the first one to concieve and use the term for this subfield or archaeology and zooarchaeology.

In Archaeogenetics we use the genetic material of the faunal remains to document genetic changes to the species. The genetic material that is extracted from the remains, are compared to the that of modern species. This is based on the assumption that modern, domesticated animals retain features from the early domestic animals from the same geographic area.

Why are Archaeogenetics important as a part of Zooarchaeology? The zooarchaeological research relies heavily on the fragmented skeletal remains to detect the changes in animals. Because of the fragmented state of the material, ancient DNA, lipids and stable isotopes, in addition to the morphology, are important pieces of the puzzle in understanding and interpreting the data collected.

As Zeder (2012) discuss in her paper, we can see what is called the pleiotropic effect when studying Archaeogenetics. This effect may be the result of mutations in certain genes. Changes in the morphology is thought to be the result of the selection of preferred traits when breeding in the domestication process. The changes from the undomesticated animals and plants, to the domesticated versions of them in present day, is examples on the changes in the morphology that can be traced throuch the aDNA. These changes can be used to trace the path the species have spread, and together with dating of the material, they can give details on the timeframe for when the changes occured. 

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Further reading

Reitz, E.J. & Wing, E.S. (2008) Zooarchaeology. Second Edition. New York, Cambridge University Press. 

Zeder, M.A. (2012) The Domestication of Animals. Journal of Anthropological Research. Volume 68 (2), pages 161-190.