Resequencing the Middle Ages through Archaeogenetics
Offering a clear and accessible introduction to the fast-growing field of archaeogenetics, this book pays particular attention to the methods and approaches that are reshaping how archaeologists and historians think about the past. Written for readers with no prior background in genetics, it explains in straightforward terms how genomic research can shed light on mobility, population change, social organization and cultural practices. At the same time, it begins with a critical reflection on the troubling history of attempts to fuse biology and history, showing how earlier racialized approaches distorted the past and warning against their resurgence today. By foregrounding both the current approaches and challenges of archaeogenetics, this book helps readers approach the field with a critical and informed perspective. The book’s central case study is the Carpathian Basin between 400 and 900 CE, which was a region at the crossroads of the transformation of the Roman world. Drawing on the most up-to-date research, this book demonstrates how integrating genomic, archaeological and historical data can illuminate the complex social and cultural changes of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. The result is a concise yet compelling narrative of how cutting-edge science is reshaping medieval studies. Resequencing the Middle Ages is an introduction intended for archaeologists, historians, and a wider audience to how genomic data can be integrated into medieval archaeological and historical research. It begins with a cautionary account of the dark history of earlier attempts to integrate biological data into history that led to racial essentializing and warns of the danger of misuse of genetic analysis today. It then presents the integrated methodologies that are being used to avoid such tendencies while providing new, vital evidence of social processes in the past. It is written in a style that requires no previous knowledge of genetics and explains in a clear and non-technical manner the kinds of genomic methods currently being employed. By way of illustration, it surveys some of the most recent applications of ancientDNA analysis to early medieval Europe and then focuses on what such an integrated, interdisciplinary approach can contribute, drawing upon primarily upon research produced by the author and his colleagues who have conducted a major study of the Carpathian Basin between 400 and 900 CE. This project has produced numerous case studies that have appeared in scientific journals including Nature, Cell, PNAS, and Current Biology. The author weaves together these studies into a narrative illustrative of the transformation of the Roman world in this region. It concludes that the proper integration of genomics into historical research requires equal collaboration among humanists as well as natural scientists, with geneticists, historians, and archaeologists working as equals to analyse the past.