About
About
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Rationale and aims
Rationale and aims
We are now able to retrieve high-quality ancient DNA data from uniquely well-preserved domesticate seeds from the European Alps, a region where Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age societies successfully adopted and adapted farming techniques in the face of varied environmental dynamics. Due to anaerobic waterlogged conditions of the pile dwellings, organic preservation is exceptional, and DNA is accessible with state-of-the-art methods. Importantly, these sites offer excellent temporal resolution from dendrochronology and local paleoclimate reconstructions from lake sediment cores. By evaluating how crops and agriculture responded to climatic events, we will reach a new perspective on whether major human interventions like translocation events were required to endure climate change. To push the frontiers of using the archaeological record to help prevent crop failures, we seek to answer:
How did circum-Alpine crop packages change from the Neolithic to the Iron Age?
Following the regional abandonment of sites, were crops replaced with new lineages?
Did selection for local environments vary across crops, or were the same genes involved?
Pile dwelling reconstructions and archaeological samples
Pile dwelling reconstructions and archaeological samples
Reconstructions of pile dwellings help visualise how these prehistoric structures may have been constructed and inhabited. Organic remains which have been excavated from the waterlogged sites are often exceptionally-well preserved and have the potential to contain ancient DNA.
The images below were taken at the Laténium archaeological museum in Switzerland. The museum is home to reconstructions of pile dwellings as well as examples of archaeological plant remains. Photographs are courtesy of Prof Kevin Walsh.
Methods
Methods
Archaeobotany
Archaeobotany
This project includes a focus on conventional archaeobotany, wherein the diversity of crops will be examined across sites and across time periods. Team members will compile findings from public databases and other respositories.
Ancient DNA recovery
Ancient DNA recovery
State-of-the-art ancient DNA technologies will be used to recover crop DNA from well-perserved seeds and other plant tissues. A combination of DNA screening and targeted enrichment techniques will be implemented.
Palaeoclimatic data
Palaeoclimatic data
The pile dwelling sites are linked to high-resolution palaeoenvironmental/palaeoclimatic reconstructions. For example, chironomid records from individual lakes and oxygen isotope data from ice cores provide some of the best palaeoenvironmental/palaeoclimatic data for Europe.
Modelling adaptation
Modelling adaptation
By combinging genome-wide ancient DNA data, palaeoenvironmental/palaeoclimatic data and evolutionary models, we will explore whether crops adapted using the same genes and underlying mechanisms.
Project name
Project name
The name of the project was inspired by Cole and Wolf's classic 1974 ethnography The Hidden Frontier: Ecology and Ethnicity in an Alpine Valley. The researchers describe a "hidden frontier" between two Alpine villages which shared a common environment but were culturally divided along linguistic lines.
In this project, we will take the HIDDEN FRONTIERS concept in a new direction by examining crop lineages to determine how ecology and cultural traditions differentially affect agricultural systems
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