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BAČA, Martin. Ancient DNA, paleogenetics, cultural history and why historians should be interested. Historický časopis, 2022, 70, 3, pp. 487– 513, Bratislava. This paper advances understanding of the ancient genomics revolution of the last decade drawing upon the recent archaeological debate concerning key epistemological and methodological issues. On many levels, ancient DNA becomes a concept of general interest. It is evident that historians are also becoming increasingly professionally involved and should therefore engage more in this discussion. As a model for demonstrating the most evident interdisciplinary obstacles which occurs when dealing with the ancient DNA, I chose a popular topic, concerning the 3rd millennium BC migration from the Pontic-Caspian steppes westward. It has currently been backed by archaeogenetics and is supposed to correlate with the spread of Indo-European languages.

Neandetherthal skeletal remains are the first described and longest-studied modern human ancestors. The history of research on Neanderthals dates back to the discovery of the first specimen in the Feldhoffer cave in 1856. Initially, the debate focused on the taxonomic position of the Neanderthals and their exact anatomical relationship with modern humans. Later research concentrated on many other issues including partial aspects of life, biological and cultural adaptation to glacial conditions in Europe, issues of diet and health, or issues such as paleobiology of Neanderthals (reproductive behavior, ontogeny, mortality). Another important direction is the question of Neanderthal extinction in the period between 30 to 25 thousand years BP. This paper provides an overview of the research directions related to Neanderthals in the context of new discoveries of skeletal remains and the development of new methods of study. The authors use the specific research conducted on the Lapa do Picareiro site in Portugal as an example of a research aimed at the reconstruction of Neanderthal environment and Neanderthal behavior.