OCCUPOMICS

Archaeological site occupation time spans using genomic admixture

Daniel Fernandes' 2025/2026 MSCA/ERA fellowship

Project description and rationale

Archaeological site occupation time span estimates can take the form of quantitative and qualitative intervals. The former can use methods such as radiocarbon dating to obtain temporal calendar intervals that, in some cases, can be fairly precise. For the latter, in turn, broader temporal qualitative intervals can be inferred from the characterization of collected materials and artefacts, the identification of specific physical structures, or the type of burial practices. With the increasing incorporation of genomic analysis in archaeological studies where human remains are present, specifically to study population origins, admixture, and social organisation, radiocarbon dates are frequently obtained from the osteological materials being analysed. This allows for a better integration of the genomic, archaeological, and anthropological data, but also leads to an increased usage of finite and unique osteological material. To overcome this, it is theoretically possible to estimate site occupation interval spans using an intertwined matrix of genomic admixture intervals, and only a handful radiocarbon dates for calibration, if calendar dates are required.

This project aims to use genomic admixture date estimation software, such as DATES, to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed methodology by using not only published data from hundreds of samples, but also by producing a new genomic and radiocarbon dataset from a site in Portugal. The latter will allow subsampling and simulation analysis, which will be essential for the statistical testing of a new open source bioinformatic analytical tool, named OCCUPOMICS, which will allow the user to quickly calculate site occupation intervals and calendar dates by inputting a genomic dataset and any related direct radiocarbon dates. This project, therefore, might lead to a decreased need of radiocarbon dates when site-wise genomic data is available, and therefore save both unique osteological material and limited financial funds.

Hosting organization

This project is hosted by the University of Coimbra (UC), Portugal, and is running within the Centre for Anthropology and Health, CIAS.

UC (https://www.uc.pt/) is a Portuguese public higher education institution founded in 1290. It is a comprehensive university offering education and research in all study levels and in nearly all study fields. Classified as UNESCO World Heritage, UC has affirmed its position over the years with a unique mix of tradition, modernity and innovation. It offers 35 undergraduate degrees, 123 master degrees and 69 PhD degrees and participates in joint programmes with some of the best universities in the world.

CIAS (https://cias.uc.pt/) is an international research center in the field of anthropology and the human sciences, with four major research clusters: Genes, Populations and Diseases; Human Biology, Health and Society; Past Cultures and Populations; Technoscience, Society and Environment. OCCUPOMICS is based within the Past Cultures and Populations (PCP) group, which is the branch of CIAS that connects the past to the present. The cutting-edge research led by the PCP team members is highly oriented to the advancement of the theoretical and methodological corpus in the fields of Biological Anthropology, Bioarchaeology, and Forensic Anthropology.