TAG2019-UCL

The incorporation of ancient DNA into the archaeological toolkit has been widely hailed as a “scientific revolution” in the understanding of the human past. It is also widely recognised that applying genomics to prehistory involves complexities at every level of interpretation, and has on many occasions become the basis for questionable (and often widely publicised) claims about past cultural identities. This panel creates a space where issues of method and theory can be openly debated by archaeologists, geneticists, and others interested in questions of population history and ancestry, including how scientific findings are presented and narrated to the wider public. A particular focus will be on the relationship between population histories inferred from genetic data and groupings based on material culture, especially the prehistoric entities once referred to as ‘culture areas,’ ‘archaeological horizons’ or ‘interaction spheres’. Should the archaeological discourse of biological relatedness, through genomics, present its findings in relation to these much older cultural classifications (also potentially breathing new life into their established narratives of population groupings and dispersals)? Or does the intersection between archaeology and human genomics require entirely new ways of conceptualising the relationship between demographic and cultural histories?

Organisers: David Wengrow; UCL • Brenna Hassett; UCL • Pontus Skoglund; Francis Crick Institute • Selina Brace; Natural History Museum

13:30 | Martin Furholt, University of Oslo; Alexandra Ion, Institute of Anthropology 'Francisc I.Rainer' of the Romanian Academy; Natasha Reynolds, University of Bordeaux; Rachel Pope, British Women Archaeologists (BWA) and University of Liverpool; Kenny Brophy, University of Glasgow; Pontus Skoglund, Francis Crick Institute; Tom Booth, Francis Crick Institute; Mark Thomas, UCL; Ian Barnes, Natural History Museum; Selina Brace, Natural History Museum; Susanne Hakenbeck, Dept. of Archaeology, University of Cambridge | Panel

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15:30 | Martin Furholt, University of Oslo; Alexandra Ion, Institute of Anthropology 'Francisc I.Rainer' of the Romanian Academy; Natasha Reynolds, University of Bordeaux; Rachel Pope, British Women Archaeologists (BWA) and University of Liverpool; Kenny Brophy, University of Glasgow; Pontus Skoglund, Francis Crick Institute; Tom Booth, Francis Crick Institute; Mark Thomas, UCL; Ian Barnes, Natural History Museum; Selina Brace, Natural History Museum; Susanne Hakenbeck, Dept. of Archaeology, University of Cambridge | ...Continued

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