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Large ancient DNA (aDNA) studies offer the chance to examine genomic changes over time, providing direct insights into human evolution. While recent studies have used time-stratified aDNA for selection scans, most focus on single-locus methods. We conducted a multi-locus genotype scan on 708 samples spanning 7000 years of European history. We show that the G12 statistic, originally designed for unphased diploid data, can effectively detect selection in aDNA processed to create 'pseudo-haplotypes'. In simulations and at known positive control loci (e.g., lactase persistence), G12 outperforms the allele frequency-based selection statistic, SweepFinder2, previously used on aDNA. Applying our approach, we identified 14 candidate regions of selection across four time periods, with half the signals detectable only in the earliest period. Our findings suggest that selective events in European prehistory, including from the onset of animal domestication, have been obscured by neutral processes like genetic drift and demographic shifts such as admixture.

The adoption of agriculture triggered a rapid shift towards starch-rich diets in human populations1. Amylase genes facilitate starch digestion, and increased amylase copy number has been observed in some modern human populations with high-starch intake2, although evidence of recent selection is lacking3,4. Here, using 94 long-read haplotype-resolved assemblies and short-read data from approximately 5,600 contemporary and ancient humans, we resolve the diversity and evolutionary history of structural variation at the amylase locus. We find that amylase genes have higher copy numbers in agricultural populations than in fishing, hunting and pastoral populations. We identify 28 distinct amylase structural architectures and demonstrate that nearly identical structures have arisen recurrently on different haplotype backgrounds throughout recent human history. AMY1 and AMY2A genes each underwent multiple duplication/deletion events with mutation rates up to more than 10,000-fold the single-nucleotide polymorphism mutation rate, whereas AMY2B gene duplications share a single origin. Using a pangenome-based approach, we infer structural haplotypes across thousands of humans identifying extensively duplicated haplotypes at higher frequency in modern agricultural populations. Leveraging 533 ancient human genomes, we find that duplication-containing haplotypes (with more gene copies than the ancestral haplotype) have rapidly increased in frequency over the past 12,000 years in West Eurasians, suggestive of positive selection. Together, our study highlights the potential effects of the agricultural revolution on human genomes and the importance of structural variation in human adaptation.

We here present CLUES2, a full-likelihood method to infer natural selection from sequence data that is an extension of the method CLUES. We make several substantial improvements to the CLUES method that greatly increases both its applicability and its speed. We add the ability to use ancestral recombination graphs on ancient data as emissions to the underlying hidden Markov model, which enables CLUES2 to use both temporal and linkage information to make estimates of selection coefficients. We also fully implement the ability to estimate distinct selection coefficients in different epochs, which allows for the analysis of changes in selective pressures through time, as well as selection with dominance. In addition, we greatly increase the computational efficiency of CLUES2 over CLUES using several approximations to the forward-backward algorithms and develop a new way to reconstruct historic allele frequencies by integrating over the uncertainty in the estimation of the selection coefficients. We illustrate the accuracy of CLUES2 through extensive simulations and validate the importance sampling framework for integrating over the uncertainty in the inference of gene trees. We also show that CLUES2 is well-calibrated by showing that under the null hypothesis, the distribution of log-likelihood ratios follows a χ2 distribution with the appropriate degrees of freedom. We run CLUES2 on a set of recently published ancient human data from Western Eurasia and test for evidence of changing selection coefficients through time. We find significant evidence of changing selective pressures in several genes correlated with the introduction of agriculture to Europe and the ensuing dietary and demographic shifts of that time. In particular, our analysis supports previous hypotheses of strong selection on lactase persistence during periods of ancient famines and attenuated selection in more modern periods.

Fossils of large animals have long influenced social practices and ideologies in human societies, including the fantastic myths of giants, heroes, and gods in ancient Greece. It has been estimated that purposeful fossil collecting in Greece began in the Late Bronze Age. However, previous archaeological finds of fossils from mainland Greece were not well documented in secure contexts that dated this far back in time. Herein, we present a newly recognized fossilized astragalus bone recently found in the legacy collections of the archaeological site of Mycenae. It was originally recovered by excavations in the 1970s and recently reanalyzed at the Mycenae Museum. Our analysis explored the available evidence of the find location, the state of fossil preservation, and the species represented. The results suggest that a fossilized rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus) astragalus was collected in the past, possibly from afar. Evidence indicates it was brought to Mycenae, where it was deposited near an interesting array of artifacts in a basement storage area of the Southwest Quarter, sometime in the thirteenth century BCE. This find represents the earliest secure evidence of large animal fossil use by people in mainland Greece, dating to the Late Bronze Age.

MOTIVATION: The alignment of sequencing reads is a critical step in the characterization of ancient genomes. However, reference bias and spurious mappings pose a significant challenge, particularly as cutting-edge wet lab methods generate datasets that push the boundaries of alignment tools. Reference bias occurs when reference alleles are favoured over alternative alleles during mapping, whereas spurious mappings stem from either contamination or when endogenous reads fail to align to their correct position. Previous work has shown that these phenomena are correlated with read length but a more thorough investigation of reference bias and spurious mappings for ancient DNA has been lacking. Here, we use a range of empirical and simulated palaeogenomic datasets to investigate the impacts of mapping tools, quality thresholds, and reference genome on mismatch rates across read lengths. RESULTS: For these analyses, we introduce AMBER, a new bioinformatics tool for assessing the quality of ancient DNA mapping directly from BAM-files and informing on reference bias, read length cut-offs and reference selection. AMBER rapidly and simultaneously computes the sequence read mapping bias in the form of the mismatch rates per read length, cytosine deamination profiles at both CpG and non-CpG sites, fragment length distributions, and genomic breadth and depth of coverage. Using AMBER, we find that mapping algorithms and quality threshold choices dictate reference bias and rates of spurious alignment at different read lengths in a predictable manner, suggesting that optimized mapping parameters for each read length will be a key step in alleviating reference bias and spurious mappings. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: AMBER is available for noncommercial use on GitHub (https://github.com/tvandervalk/AMBER.git). Scripts used to generate and analyse simulated datasets are available on Github (https://github.com/sdolenz/refbias_scripts).

Ancient environmental DNA (aeDNA) from lake sediments has yielded remarkable insights for the reconstruction of past ecosystems, including suggestions of late survival of extinct species. However, translocation and lateral inflow of DNA in sediments can potentially distort the stratigraphic signal of the DNA. Using three different approaches on two short lake sediment cores of the Yamal peninsula, West Siberia, with ages spanning only the past hundreds of years, we detect DNA and identified mitochondrial genomes of multiple mammoth and woolly rhinoceros individuals-both species that have been extinct for thousands of years on the mainland. The occurrence of clearly identifiable aeDNA of extinct Pleistocene megafauna (e.g. >400 K reads in one core) throughout these two short subsurface cores, along with specificities of sedimentology and dating, confirm that processes acting on regional scales, such as extensive permafrost thawing, can influence the aeDNA record and should be accounted for in aeDNA paleoecology.

The harsh climate of Arabia has posed challenges in generating ancient DNA from the region, hindering the direct examination of ancient genomes for understanding the demographic processes that shaped Arabian populations. In this study, we report whole-genome sequence data obtained from four Tylos-period individuals from Bahrain. Their genetic ancestry can be modeled as a mixture of sources from ancient Anatolia, Levant, and Iran/Caucasus, with variation between individuals suggesting population heterogeneity in Bahrain before the onset of Islam. We identify the G6PD Mediterranean mutation associated with malaria resistance in three out of four ancient Bahraini samples and estimate that it rose in frequency in Eastern Arabia from 5 to 6 kya onward, around the time agriculture appeared in the region. Our study characterizes the genetic composition of ancient Arabians, shedding light on the population history of Bahrain and demonstrating the feasibility of studies of ancient DNA in the region.

Genomic time series from experimental evolution studies and ancient DNA datasets offer us a chance to directly observe the interplay of various evolutionary forces. We show how the genome-wide variance in allele frequency change between two time points can be decomposed into the contributions of gene flow, genetic drift, and linked selection. In closed populations, the contribution of linked selection is identifiable because it creates covariances between time intervals, and genetic drift does not. However, repeated gene flow between populations can also produce directionality in allele frequency change, creating covariances. We show how to accurately separate the fraction of variance in allele frequency change due to admixture and linked selection in a population receiving gene flow. We use two human ancient DNA datasets, spanning around 5,000 y, as time transects to quantify the contributions to the genome-wide variance in allele frequency change. We find that a large fraction of genome-wide change is due to gene flow. In both cases, after correcting for known major gene flow events, we do not observe a signal of genome-wide linked selection. Thus despite the known role of selection in shaping long-term polymorphism levels, and an increasing number of examples of strong selection on single loci and polygenic scores from ancient DNA, it appears to be gene flow and drift, and not selection, that are the main determinants of recent genome-wide allele frequency change. Our approach should be applicable to the growing number of contemporary and ancient temporal population genomics datasets.

Historical and ethnographic sources depict use of portable braced shaft weapons, or pikes, in megafauna hunting and defense during Late Holocene millennia in North and South America, Africa, Eurasia and Southeast Asia. Given the predominance of megafauna in Late Pleistocene North America during the centuries when Clovis points appeared and spread across much of the continent (13,050-12,650 cal BP), braced weapons may have been used in hunting of megaherbivores and defense against megacarnivores. Drawing from historical examples of pike use against lions, jaguars, boars, grizzlies, carabao and warhorses we consider the possibility of a fluted lithic pike. Associated osseous rods have been problematic as Clovis foreshafts due to the bevel angle and the apparent weakness of the splint haft when great strength is needed for deep penetration in megafauna hunting. However our review of Late Holocene pike use in megafauna encounters indicates the sharp tip becomes less important after hide or armor has been pierced because compression is sustained. Thus, foreshaft collapse after hide entry may not limit but rather increase the efficacy of the braced weapon. We conduct preliminary static experiments to model a fluted pike that adjusts during compression such that haft collapse and point detachment (when point jams on impact with bone) preserve the fluted biface, beveled rod and wooden mainshaft tip. In addition to Clovis point attributes and association with osseous rods, potential archaeological correlates of Clovis pike use include the high frequency of Clovis point isolates and concentrations of complete points with unbutchered mammoth remains at sites such as Naco in Arizona.

The phenomenon of lithic miniaturization during the Late Pleistocene at times coincided with increased artifact standardization and cutting edge efficiency-likely reflecting the use of small, sharp artifacts as interchangeable inserts for composite cutting tools and hunting weapons. During Marine Isotope Stage 2, Upper Paleolithic toolmakers in northern East Asia specifically used pressure techniques to make small, highly standardized lithic artifacts called microblades. However, little is currently known about how microblades affected the cutting edge efficiency of the toolkits they were a part of. We applied three methods of analyzing cutting edge efficiency to two Upper Paleolithic assemblages recently excavated from Tolbor-17, Mongolia, that document the periods before and after the introduction of microblade technology to the Tolbor Valley. A model incorporating allometric relationships between blank cutting edge length and mass suggests no difference in efficiency between the two periods, while two more conventional approaches both indicate a significant increase. The potential for improved cutting edge efficiency is only observed when the microblade sample is artificially inflated via simulation. Our results highlight challenges related to detecting and interpreting archaeological differences in cutting edge efficiency at the assemblage level.

The life realities of the people make up the vital content of folklore. As mentioned above, human life is related to folklore from the cradle to the grave. This relationship is direct and not indirect. In other words, folklore is closely related to situations in human life and is an organic part of it. A lullaby is played at the cradle, a song is sung at the grave; those who come into the world and those who leave the world are admired and cherished. Such commonality, which unites life and death, stands out as the philosophy of unity of the people in the creativity of the people. Folklore topics are taken from life. More precisely, the theme of folklore genres was created on life events. Folkloric patterns, which closely accompany ritual actions in the old culture, are gradually separated from it, and the ceremony loses its meaning after the ceremony is separated from its origin. But still, although not with the old solemnity, he continues to live without severing the relationship with a certain situation of the rhythms of life that he was connected to at the beginning. Some folklore examples are already preserved as archival material or exhibited as museum exhibits. In the article, folklore is investigated and analyzed as an indicator of ancient culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractMythologies, in most religions, are regarded as knowledge keepers of ancient societies. They preserve knowledge in various forms and have spread worldwide since time immemorial. Hindu mythology is one such mythology that has had a broad reach across the Indian subcontinent for a long time. It has taught many ways of life to the world. Though Hindu mythology has love, peace, humanity, and righteousness as the primary pillars in its appeal, it is criticized in disability discourse as it associates Karmic philosophy with disability. However, on the other side, Hindu mythology has also normalized disability by integrating people with disability/ies into society. Thus, this paper examines the representation of disability in Hindu mythology by referring to some characters from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Babylon Center for Humanities Studies is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Although most ancient DNA studies have focused on the last 50,000 years, paleogenomic approaches can now reach into the early Pleistocene, an epoch of repeated environmental changes that shaped present-day biodiversity. Emerging deep-time genomic transects, including from DNA preserved in sediments, will enable inference of adaptive evolution, discovery of unrecognized species, and exploration of how glaciations, volcanism, and paleomagnetic reversals shaped demography and community composition. In this Review, we explore the state-of-the-art in paleogenomics and discuss key challenges, including technical limitations, evolutionary divergence and associated biases, and the need for more precise dating of remains and sediments. We conclude that with improvements in laboratory and computational methods, the emerging field of deep-time paleogenomics will expand the range of questions addressable using ancient DNA.

This study aimed to reduce subjectivity bias in scoring dental macrowear quantity and direction using the Brabant index, which previously relied solely on written descriptions. To achieve this, we present a new, optimized visual guide incorporating buccal and lingual scores. The optimization process involved conceptualizing and illustrating a visual guide using Holocene southern African hunter‐gatherer and herder teeth, featuring both buccal and lingual scores for multicuspid teeth. The guide was hand‐drawn using a stippling technique and digitized to depict surface details for each wear stage and tooth type. We conducted intra‐ and inter‐observer assessments to evaluate the optimized method using both the original and optimized Brabant indices. Statistical analysis was performed in R using Cohen's kappa for direction and Cohen's weighted kappa for quantity. Intra‐observer results for the original method yielded kappa values of 0.84 for direction and 0.94 for quantity, while the optimized version both resulted in improved values of 0.99. Inter‐observer results revealed some differences between an inexperienced and an experienced observer. The inexperienced observer achieved kappa scores of 0.20 for direction and 0.86 for quantity with the original method, and 0.17 and 0.80, respectively, with the optimized version. The experienced observer's results using the original index were 0.66 for direction and 0.89 for quantity, and 0.75 and 0.96, respectively, with the optimized version. These findings demonstrate that the optimized method enhances data reliability for experienced observers, highlighting the value of a published visual guide and multicuspid scoring adjustments. However, reduced or unappreciable changes in accuracies for the inexperienced observer illustrate the need for dental expertise when scoring for dental wear, even with a modified method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The enduring appeal and relevance of Indian mythological tales lie in their ability to transcend time and culture, captivating audiences across generations and continents. These ancient narratives offer a glimpse into rich traditions, moral values, and cultural identities that continue to resonate with audiences today. Through the colorful characters, magical realms, and timeless themes found in Indian mythology, people are drawn into a world of imagination and wonder that serves as a universal mirror reflecting the human experience. The enduring popularity of these tales can be attributed to their ability to address fundamental questions of existence, morality, and spirituality in a way that transcends geographical boundaries and resonates with people from all walks of life. As Indian mythological tales continue to be retold and reimagined in various forms of art and literature, their influence on global culture persists, highlighting the enduring power and significance of these ancient stories in shaping our shared understanding of humanity and the world around us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, the activity and concentration of natural radionuclides were determined for 40K, 232Th, and 238U in from the ancient city Nippur (Nefer), located in Al-Qadisiyah Governorate. study the activity concentrations by using a scintillation detector (3" x 3") and measure radionuclides' qualitative effectiveness for these items. The sodium iodide activated by Thallium NaI (Tl) has been used to perform the activity measurements. 15 samples had their natural radioactivity levels assessed at three different depths: 5cm, 50cm, and 1m . 40K, Th232, and 238U had average specific activities of (143.446±1.024, 13.848±0.305, and 10.779±0.418) Bq/kg in depth (5)cm, (133.498±1.016, 13.48±0.331 and 10.701±0.416) Bq/kg in depth (50) cm, and( 100) m. 40K, 232Th, and 238U had average specific activities of (53.527±1.067, 15.305±0.348, and 10.849±0.417) Bq/kg. correspondingly for each of the three depths, the average radium equivalent activity was(41.545±0.965, 40.130±0.828,44.430±0.995) Bq/kg. For each of the three depths, the corresponding internal and external risk factors were (0.106±0.000258,0.142±0.00038),(0.105±0.000227,0.136±0.000347), (0.118±0.000256, 0.129±0.00038). For each of the three depths, the representative levels index's average values were (0.323±0.000727, 0.294±0.000581, 0.329±0.00129). The average internal and exterior absorbed dose levels for each of the three depths were expressed in (nGy/h) (17.681 ±0.436, 18.882±0.384, 20.586±0.449). Values of the internal and exterior annual effective dosage equivalents for the same three depths, respectively (0.09±0.0000175, 0.0194±0.0000949) mSv/y, (0.09±0.0000175, ±0.0000476) mSv/y, (0.098±0.000258, 0.024±0.0000554) mSv/y. average value of lifetime risk of cancer from the three consecutive depths were (0.300±000818 x10-3), (0.398±0.0720 x10-3), (0.364±0.000941 x10-3). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kırıkkale University Journal of Social Sciences is the property of Kirikkale University Journal of Social Science (KUJSS) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Despite broad agreement that Homo sapiens originated in Africa, considerable uncertainty surrounds specific models of divergence and migration across the continent1. Progress is hampered by a shortage of fossil and genomic data, as well as variability in previous estimates of divergence times1. Here we seek to discriminate among such models by considering linkage disequilibrium and diversity-based statistics, optimized for rapid, complex demographic inference2. We infer detailed demographic models for populations across Africa, including eastern and western representatives, and newly sequenced whole genomes from 44 Nama (Khoe-San) individuals from southern Africa. We infer a reticulated African population history in which present-day population structure dates back to Marine Isotope Stage 5. The earliest population divergence among contemporary populations occurred 120,000 to 135,000 years ago and was preceded by links between two or more weakly differentiated ancestral Homo populations connected by gene flow over hundreds of thousands of years. Such weakly structured stem models explain patterns of polymorphism that had previously been attributed to contributions from archaic hominins in Africa2-7. In contrast to models with archaic introgression, we predict that fossil remains from coexisting ancestral populations should be genetically and morphologically similar, and that only an inferred 1-4% of genetic differentiation among contemporary human populations can be attributed to genetic drift between stem populations. We show that model misspecification explains the variation in previous estimates of divergence times, and argue that studying a range of models is key to making robust inferences about deep history.

Humans have been constantly exposed to the environment in their daily activities, which may result in some pathological changes. Paleopathology research is rare, particularly on ancient humans who lived in Bali, Indonesia. This research is intended to gain more insight into the history of diseases and the community in the past to assist future health researchers. This study was conducted to understand variation in disease among the ancient populations in Bali, Indonesia. The study examines skeletons from the Gilimanuk, Semawang, and Pacung Sembiran sites in Bali, Indonesia, collected from 1964 to 2008. A total of 336 individuals were identified, including 63 adult males, 75 adult females, and 56 adults whose sex could not be determined. In addition, 142 children were included in the analysis. The examination of the individuals revealed the presence of various dental pathological changes, such as caries and enamel hypoplasia, as well as periodontitis. Furthermore, several bone-related diseases and abnormalities were identified, such as osteophytes, fractures, porotic hyperostosis, and spina bifida occulta. Available evidence suggests a similarity in the types of pathological changes among the ancient populations of Gilimanuk, Semawang, and Pacung Sembiran. While a comprehensive explanation of the paleopathological variations observed in these populations necessitates further investigation, the present findings hold considerable value for medical experts and anthropologists seeking to better understand patterns of disease distribution among ancient Indonesian populations. This study was funded by the Directorate General of Higher Education, Research, and Technology of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of Indonesia for the fiscal year 2023.

The Babad Lombok is an ancient literary or manuscripts document that generally contains stories about the origins of the people of Lombok. This document is written on a lontar leaf, which in the past was used to write manuscripts, letters, and documents. At present, the Babad Lombok document can be seen in the form of photos or scans, so it can be viewed without having to go to a museum or cultural heritage site where the document is usually exhibited. However, because this document is an ancient artifact that has been around for hundreds of years, it has naturally experienced fading in the original document or its scanned versions. This makes the text inside less clear. This paper proposes to automatically reconstruct/repair the Babad Lombok document using a neural network. The type of neural network used is an Autoencoder or Convolutional Autoencoder (CAE). The CAE model is built sequentially and trained using original images of Babad Lombok as its training data and manually corrected images of Babad Lombok as the target or ground truth data. In the process, the two types of data are iteratively cropped to a size of 64x64 along the original size of the Babad Lombok image. This process results in input and target data for the CAE training process in this research, each consisting of 48,288 images. Testing the trained autoencoder model shows that the Babad images have been successfully repaired, making the text quality clearer before reconstruction. Ultimately, the proposed CAE has achieved training and validation accuracies of 89.09% and 94.57%, with corresponding loss values of 0.0418 and 0.0226.

Background/Aims:Schwannomas, originating from Schwann cells in peripheral nerve sheaths, exhibit diverse clinical manifestations and unpredictable behavior. Among them, ancient schwannomas, with distinctive degenerative features, present in atypical locations and pose diagnostic challenges. This study explores their unique characteristics and implications for diagnosis and management. Material and Methods: The study was designed as a retrospective analysis of 7 adult patients aged ≥18 years, diagnosed with paraspinal, presacral, sacral, or para-aortic tumors, all confirmed histologically as ancient schwannomas. Data for analysis were collected from patients treated and followed up at Ankara City Hospital between April 2017 and December 2022. Ethical approval and informed consent were obtained before inclusion in the study. Results: The most common symptoms included the presence of a local lump (71,4%) and localized or radiating pain (57,1%). Notably, 1 patient (14,2%) was incidentally diagnosed during the evaluation process. Surgical intervention played a crucial role in the management of these tumors, with 71,4% of patients undergoing complete resection, while 28,5% underwent subtotal resection. Tumor recurrence occurred in 42,8% of cases, prompting the administration of radiotherapy as part of the treatment strategy. Imaging findings, particularly on MRI, played a crucial role in the accurate identification of ancient schwannomas. These tumors displayed isointensity on T1-weighted images and heterogeneous hyperintensity on T2-weighted images, along with distinctive heterogeneous contrast enhancement. Conclusion: Ancient schwannomas exhibit unique histological features and distinctive MRI characteristics, differentiating them from other nerve sheath tumors. Early diagnosis and complete surgical resection offer favorable outcomes. Awareness of this entity is essential for managing peripheral nerve sheath tumors effectively.

The twentieth-century logical mainstream, derived from works by Łukasiewicz and Scholz, pictures the history of logic for the most part as the prehistory of Boolean–Fregean mathematical logic. Particularly, with respect to classical propositional calculus, the Stoic logic has been pictured as an early stage of it and Aristotle's or the Peripatetics' logic as a theory that assumes it. Although it was not emphasised, it follows that the ancient logics contain the principle of explosion. In the endmost quarter of the twentieth century, a competitive view began to spread to the effect that the ancient systems of logic were paraconsistent or relevantistic. In the twenty-first century, the latter view prevails and has every chance of becoming a new orthodoxy. It is claimed that although in Łukasiewicz's argument for the classicality of ancient logics, there are gaps, it may be demonstrated that the ancient logics contain the principle of explosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a case of paravertebral retroperitoneal ancient schwannoma (RPAS) with symptoms suggestive of irritable bowel syndrome that was relieved after resection. Very few cases have been reported of RPAS with gastrointestinal symptoms. Increased bowel activity associated with RPAS has not been reported. Our case report suggests that RPAS may present with increased bowel frequency that could be relieved after surgical resection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ancient Greeks were great innovators in all academic fields, including medicine. Hippocrates of Kos, the Father of Medicine, established many terms for the genitourinary (GU) system, such as nephros, urethra, urogenital, and adenocarcinoma. According to Hesiod's Theogony, Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, was born off the coast of Kythera, from the foam produced by Uranus's genitals, after his son Cronus had thrown them into to the sea. In this review, we present the etymology of the GU vocabulary, review the Ancient Greeks' understanding of the GU system and the origins of Greek myths related to the male genitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyze the legitimacy of a thesis that has been gaining traction in recent decades within Religious Studies - namely, that the term religion can only be applied accurately to Protestant Christianity, and that all previous phenomena must be described using different terminology. To this end, we will take Brent Nongbri as our main interlocutor. What Nongbri advocates is simple: the term “religion” stands for the private adherence to a given set of theses; premodern peoples did not have any concept with such or similar meaning, therefore, they did not have religion, but something different. We will postulate, on the one hand, that Nongbri's thesis is tremendously fragile, and, on the other, that we are perfectly justified in continuing to talk about religion when referring to pre-modern peoples and cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The philosophy of Bernard Williams, recognised as a prominent expression of ethical thought, presents an intense dialogue with ancient Greek tragic culture. Combining erudition and elegance, Williams evokes Greek tragedies to discuss modern ethical ideas and conceptions. Our article intends to consider Williams' thought from a cultural point of view: we propose analysing Williams' cultural methodology, which may be described as a way of thinking beyond the traditional dichotomies between the ancient and the modern, especially concerning the notion of the tragic. Accordingly, we shall examine the affinities between ancient and modern tragic cultures by identifying common narrative and poetical elements. To do so, we shall consider the interpretation of Hamlet, developed by the classicist scholar H.D.F. Kitto. In Form and Meaning in Drama: A Study of Six Greek Plays and of "Hamlet" (1956), Kitto proposes reading Hamlet in close alliance with Oedipus Tyrannus. Kitto maintains that both tragedies are poetical expressions of a shared tragic element: miasma, or "pollution", a concept thoroughly treated by Williams in the third chapter of Shame and Necessity. Our article aims to combine Williams' cultural methodology—we may call it the deconstruction of the repeated theoretical frameworks regarding the differences between the ancient and the modern—and Kitto's reading of Hamlet in line with Oedipus Tyrannus, which may be understood as an illustration of the persistence of common tragic elements beyond time and the historical separation of cultural periods. Our perspective shall be both cultural and aesthetical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans have been constantly exposed to the environment in their daily activities, which may result in some pathological changes. Paleopathology research is rare, particularly on ancient humans who lived in Bali, Indonesia. This research is intended to gain more insight into the history of diseases and the community in the past to assist future health researchers. This study was conducted to understand variation in disease among the ancient populations in Bali, Indonesia. The study examines skeletons from the Gilimanuk, Semawang, and Pacung Sembiran sites in Bali, Indonesia, collected from 1964 to 2008. A total of 336 individuals were identified, including 63 adult males, 75 adult females, and 56 adults whose sex could not be determined. In addition, 142 children were included in the analysis. The examination of the individuals revealed the presence of various dental pathological changes, such as caries and enamel hypoplasia, as well as periodontitis. Furthermore, several bone-related diseases and abnormalities were identified, such as osteophytes, fractures, porotic hyperostosis, and spina bifida occulta. Available evidence suggests a similarity in the types of pathological changes among the ancient populations of Gilimanuk, Semawang, and Pacung Sembiran. While a comprehensive explanation of the paleopathological variations observed in these populations necessitates further investigation, the present findings hold considerable value for medical experts and anthropologists seeking to better understand patterns of disease distribution among ancient Indonesian populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Schwannomas, originating from Schwann cells in peripheral nerve sheaths, exhibit diverse clinical manifestations and unpredictable behavior. Among them, ancient schwannomas, with distinctive degenerative features, present in atypical locations and pose diagnostic challenges. This study explores their unique characteristics and implications for diagnosis and management. Material and Methods: The study was designed as a retrospective analysis of 7 adult patients aged ≥18 years diagnosed with paraspinal, presacral, sacral, or para-aortic tumors, and all histologically confirmed as ancient schwannomas. Data for analysis were collected from patients treated and followed up at Ankara City Hospital between April 2017 and December 2022. Ethical approval and informed consent were obtained before inclusion in the study. Results: The most common symptoms included the presence of a local lump (71,4%) and localized or radiating pain (57,1%). Notably, one patient (14,2%) was incidentally diagnosed during the evaluation process. Surgical intervention played a crucial role in the management of these tumors, with 71,4% of patients underwent complete resection while 28,5% underwent subtotal resection. Tumor recurrence occurred in 42,8% of cases, prompting the administration of radiotherapy as part of the treatment strategy. Imaging findings, particularly on MRI, played a crucial role in the accurate identification of ancient schwannomas. These tumors displayed isointensity on T1-weighted images and heterogeneous hyperintensity on T2-weighted images, along with distinctive heterogeneous contrast enhancement. Conclusion: Ancient schwannomas exhibit unique histological features and distinctive MRI characteristics, differentiating them from other nerve sheath tumors. Early diagnosis and complete surgical resection offer favorable outcomes. Awareness of this entity is essential for managing peripheral nerve sheath tumors effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infectious diseases are among the strongest selective pressures driving human evolution1,2. This includes the single greatest mortality event in recorded history, the first outbreak of the second pandemic of plague, commonly called the Black Death, which was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis3. This pandemic devastated Afro-Eurasia, killing up to 30-50% of the population4. To identify loci that may have been under selection during the Black Death, we characterized genetic variation around immune-related genes from 206 ancient DNA extracts, stemming from two different European populations before, during and after the Black Death. Immune loci are strongly enriched for highly differentiated sites relative to a set of non-immune loci, suggesting positive selection. We identify 245 variants that are highly differentiated within the London dataset, four of which were replicated in an independent cohort from Denmark, and represent the strongest candidates for positive selection. The selected allele for one of these variants, rs2549794, is associated with the production of a full-length (versus truncated) ERAP2 transcript, variation in cytokine response to Y. pestis and increased ability to control intracellular Y. pestis in macrophages. Finally, we show that protective variants overlap with alleles that are today associated with increased susceptibility to autoimmune diseases, providing empirical evidence for the role played by past pandemics in shaping present-day susceptibility to disease.

Cacao seeds, Theobroma cacao, provide the basis for a ceremonially important Mesoamerican food. Past efforts to identify cacao in ceramics focused on highly decorative vessel forms associated with elite ceremonial contexts, creating assumptions as to how cacao was distributed and who could access it. This study examines 54 archaeological ceramic sherds from El Pilar (Belize/Guatemala) of Late Classic (600 to 900 CE) residential and civic contexts representing a cross-section of ancient Maya inhabitants. Identification of cacao in ancient sherds has depended on the general presence of theobromine; we used the discrete presence of theophylline, a unique key biomarker for cacao in the region. Analysis was done by grinding off all outside surfaces to reduce contamination, pulverizing the inner clay matrix, extracting absorbed molecules, and concentrating the extractions. In order to obtain especially high selectivity and low limits of detection, our study utilized the technique of resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization coupled with laser-desorption jet-cooling mass spectrometry. This technique isolates molecules in the cold gas phase where they can be selectively ionized through a resonant two-photon process. Of the sherds analyzed, 30 samples (56%) were found to contain significant amounts of theophylline and thus test positive for cacao. Importantly, cacao is present in all contexts, common to all Maya residents near and far from centers.

This study of the openings in ancient Egyptian residential architecture, which is limited survival monuments we have to, describes precisely what it was when compared to funerary and religious architecture, was a fleeting plant and clay architecture that was unreliable to survive. As a result of his strong belief in life after death and that it is the longest and eternal surviving life, this is reflected in his interest in the immortality of religious and funerary buildings. And yet I got his attention in study and design and it contained important symbolic values, this prompted us to look for the models that the ancient Egyptian left behind to help complete the design image. and looking for different factors behind the different design of windows and doors from place to place, Hence, the study aims to describe and analyse the openings in ancient Egyptian architecture in terms of windows, entrances and doors because of their aesthetic and functional importance, as well as their symbolic values. in addition to its expression in the ancient Egyptian language and what the words refer to and its association with the form expressed in hieroglyphic writing, As the location of the openings varies, their role and design differs in terms of the elements and foundations of the design used in each of them, and what is actually expressed in some graphic shapes by comparing them to the real models that have been found, though fewer in number. As an attempt to get a picture that comes close to perfection and truth whenever possible, the study will be based on the work that describes the façades of palaces as in the Horsi name of kings and the depiction of houses and palaces on the walls of graves or papyri and some of the few models that survived to tell us what these vents were like, With description and analysis, it is possible to determine the design data, what the designer has achieved, its relevance to the nature of the building used, the symbols used and their connotations, and the interpretation of some shapes and materials.

Ancient DNA provides a powerful window into the biology of extant and extinct species, including humans' closest relatives: Denisovans and Neanderthals. Here, we review what is known about archaic hominin phenotypes from genomic data and how those inferences have been made. We contend that understanding the influence of variants on lower-level molecular phenotypes-such as gene expression and protein function-is a promising approach to using ancient DNA to learn about archaic hominin traits. Molecular phenotypes have simpler genetic architectures than organism-level complex phenotypes, and this approach enables moving beyond association studies by proposing hypotheses about the effects of archaic variants that are testable in model systems. The major challenge to understanding archaic hominin phenotypes is broadening our ability to accurately map genotypes to phenotypes, but ongoing advances ensure that there will be much more to learn about archaic hominin phenotypes from their genomes.

The fossil record of marine invertebrates has long fuelled the debate as to whether or not there are limits to global diversity in the sea1-5. Ecological theory states that, as diversity grows and ecological niches are filled, the strengthening of biological interactions imposes limits on diversity6,7. However, the extent to which biological interactions have constrained the growth of diversity over evolutionary time remains an open question1-5,8-11. Here we present a regional diversification model that reproduces the main Phanerozoic eon trends in the global diversity of marine invertebrates after imposing mass extinctions. We find that the dynamics of global diversity are best described by a diversification model that operates widely within the exponential growth regime of a logistic function. A spatially resolved analysis of the ratio of diversity to carrying capacity reveals that less than 2% of the global flooded continental area throughout the Phanerozoic exhibits diversity levels approaching ecological saturation. We attribute the overall increase in global diversity during the Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras to the development of diversity hotspots under prolonged conditions of Earth system stability and maximum continental fragmentation. We call this the 'diversity hotspots hypothesis', which we propose as a non-mutually exclusive alternative to the hypothesis that the Mesozoic marine revolution led this macroevolutionary trend12,13.

The grey wolf (Canis lupus) was the first species to give rise to a domestic population, and they remained widespread throughout the last Ice Age when many other large mammal species went extinct. Little is known, however, about the history and possible extinction of past wolf populations or when and where the wolf progenitors of the present-day dog lineage (Canis familiaris) lived1-8. Here we analysed 72 ancient wolf genomes spanning the last 100,000 years from Europe, Siberia and North America. We found that wolf populations were highly connected throughout the Late Pleistocene, with levels of differentiation an order of magnitude lower than they are today. This population connectivity allowed us to detect natural selection across the time series, including rapid fixation of mutations in the gene IFT88 40,000-30,000 years ago. We show that dogs are overall more closely related to ancient wolves from eastern Eurasia than to those from western Eurasia, suggesting a domestication process in the east. However, we also found that dogs in the Near East and Africa derive up to half of their ancestry from a distinct population related to modern southwest Eurasian wolves, reflecting either an independent domestication process or admixture from local wolves. None of the analysed ancient wolf genomes is a direct match for either of these dog ancestries, meaning that the exact progenitor populations remain to be located.

Kahramanmaraş is an Anatolian city with a very rich historical and cultural background. This wealth has also affected the emotional and mental world of the local people and has revealed a rich vocabulary by being expressed in words. It is possible to find thousands of examples of local words in the vocabulary of the region, apart from pronunciation differences. The fact that the region has been a Turkish homeland for many years and, therefore, the Turkish language has existed in the region for many years has led to the survival of some vocabulary belonging to the historical periods of Turkish. It is seen that many vocabulary elements in the region exist in historical periods but have fallen out of use in our written language today. In some studies, it has been stated that the fact that the elements used in the historical periods of the language are still seen today cannot be seen as an archaic situation. It has been stated that in order to be archaic, this can be determined by comparing it with another dialect region or dialect. We also agree with this opinion. For this reason, while revealing the archaic elements in the Kahramanmaraş dialect, a determination was made by comparing them with today's written language. As a result of the study, 52 lexical items were identified as archaic. Some of these lexical items can be traced back to the Old Turkish period, some to the DLT, and some to the 13th century in Anatolia. It was observed that most of the archaic loanwords preserved their meaning in historical periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addressed ‘The conceptualisation of morality in ancient religions at the hand of the Gilgamesh Epic’. After pointing out that ancient languages do not have words for neither morality nor religion, I discussed the following incidents in the Epic: he who saw the Deep; the immoral conduct of a king; the slaying of Humbaba; Ishtar and a death penalty; and a visit to Utanapishtim, the Distant. I alluded briefly to the way that the Epic ends. The aim was to examine whether ancient societies had a concept of morality and what role, if any, did religion play. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The conclusion was that religion played a very minor role, and that morality in ancient societies was a human endeavour.

Paleoclimatic evidence indicating a series of droughts in the Yucatan Peninsula during the Terminal Classic period suggests that climate change may have contributed to the disruption or collapse of Classic Maya polities. Although climate change cannot fully account for the multifaceted, political turmoil of the period, it is clear that droughts of strong magnitude could have limited food availability, potentially causing famine, migration, and societal decline. Maize was undoubtedly an important staple food of the ancient Maya, but a complete analysis of other food resources that would have been available during drought remains unresolved. Here, we assess drought resistance of all 497 indigenous food plant species documented in ethnographic, ethnobotanical, and botanical studies as having been used by the lowland Maya and classify the availability of these plant species and their edible components under various drought scenarios. Our analysis indicates availability of 83% of food plant species in short-term drought, but this percentage drops to 22% of food plant species available in moderate drought up to 1 y. During extreme drought, lasting several years, our analysis indicates availability of 11% of food plant species. Our results demonstrate a greater diversity of food sources beyond maize that would have been available to the Maya during climate disruption of the Terminal Classic period than has been previously acknowledged. While drought would have necessitated shifts in dietary patterns, the range of physiological drought responses for the available food plants would have allowed a continuing food supply under all but the most dire conditions.

Many traits of industrial and basic biological interest arose long ago, and manifest now as fixed differences between a focal species and its reproductively isolated relatives. In these systems, extant individuals can hold clues to the mechanisms by which phenotypes evolved in their ancestors. We harnessed yeast thermotolerance as a test case for such molecular-genetic inferences. In viability experiments, we showed that extant Saccharomyces cerevisiae survived at temperatures where cultures of its sister species S. paradoxus died out. Then, focusing on loci that contribute to this difference, we found that the genetic mechanisms of high-temperature growth changed with temperature. We also uncovered an enrichment of low-frequency variants at thermotolerance loci in S. cerevisiae population sequences, suggestive of a history of non-neutral selective forces acting at these genes. We interpret these results in light of models of the evolutionary mechanisms by which the thermotolerance trait arose in the S. cerevisiae lineage. Together, our results and interpretation underscore the power of genetic approaches to explore how an ancient trait came to be.

Present-day Tibetans have adapted both genetically and culturally to the high altitude environment of the Tibetan Plateau, but fundamental questions about their origins remain unanswered. Recent archaeological and genetic research suggests the presence of an early population on the Plateau within the past 40 thousand years, followed by the arrival of subsequent groups within the past 10 thousand years. Here, we obtain new genome-wide data for 33 ancient individuals from high elevation sites on the southern fringe of the Tibetan Plateau in Nepal, who we show are most closely related to present-day Tibetans. They derive most of their ancestry from groups related to Late Neolithic populations at the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau but also harbor a minor genetic component from a distinct and deep Paleolithic Eurasian ancestry. In contrast to their Tibetan neighbors, present-day non-Tibetan Tibeto-Burman speakers living at mid-elevations along the southern and eastern margins of the Plateau form a genetic cline that reflects a distinct genetic history. Finally, a comparison between ancient and present-day highlanders confirms ongoing positive selection of high altitude adaptive alleles.

The archaeological site of Pompeii is one of the 54 UNESCO World Heritage sites in Italy, thanks to its uniqueness: the town was completely destroyed and buried by a Vesuvius' eruption in 79 AD. In this work, we present a multidisciplinary approach with bioarchaeological and palaeogenomic analyses of two Pompeian human remains from the Casa del Fabbro. We have been able to characterize the genetic profile of the first Pompeian' genome, which has strong affinities with the surrounding central Italian population from the Roman Imperial Age. Our findings suggest that, despite the extensive connection between Rome and other Mediterranean populations, a noticeable degree of genetic homogeneity exists in the Italian peninsula at that time. Moreover, palaeopathological analyses identified the presence of spinal tuberculosis and we further investigated the presence of ancient DNA from Mycobacterium tuberculosis. In conclusion, our study demonstrates the power of a combined approach to investigate ancient humans and confirms the possibility to retrieve ancient DNA from Pompeii human remains. Our initial findings provide a foundation to promote an intensive and extensive paleogenetic analysis in order to reconstruct the genetic history of population from Pompeii, a unique archaeological site.