DNA Forums: DNA Forums -> Distant Past

I blogged about lactase persistence in January and won't repeat all the back story here. The news is that we now have a second study in print searching for European ancestors who could drinka pinta milka day.

I mentioned Helena Malmstrom et al., ...

The Peopling of Europe has had a wash and brush up. The results from new papers have been worked in, as usual, along with ideas and clarifications that have emerged from forum discussions.

Eastara mentioned the fabulous Varna necropolis...

Over the last few days, I have been reworking my page on prehistoric transport. It was a shade too heavy on evidence from Britain, with which I happened to be familiar. The new version has more from other countries, mainly Ireland and Spain. Also in the new mix: Germany, Greece, Iran, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland.

It also has a...

When and where did people start miking animals? At first herders kept animals as a meat larder on the hoof. The discovery of additional uses for animals, such as milk, wool, riding and traction, has been termed the Secondary Products Revolution. Together with metallurgy, it is the cultural signature of the age of metal. But these discoveries did...

The Basques are a puzzle. They were long considered a relic of the hunter-gatherer past, because of their non-Indo-European language, and their seeming genetic oddity. They have the highest level in the world of blood group O Rhesus-negative. So it was stunning to find that the Basques are similar to their neighbours in other genetic markers. The...