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This article presents a holistic and reflexive process for archaeological fieldwork from inception to publication. The opportunities afforded by maturing digital techniques allowed fundamental rethinking of field and laboratory practice paradigms. A number of normally unquestioned aspects of archaeological praxis were examined with the goal of reorganizing information dynamics. Instead of a series of disparate processes in the field and field laboratory and during study and publication phases, a heterarchically-organized common information framework bonded all aspects of work traditionally only brought together in post-excavation processing, replacing disparate datasets and encompassing ongoing processes such as excavation recording, finds processing, and final analyses. Recording uses a common interface based on the iDig iPad app, and analyses use 3D GIS, based on comprehensive photogrammetry and an underlying all-encompassing data engine. The development and application of the process are described with reference to the excavations, study, and publication of EBA sites on Keros, Cyclades, Greece. © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Aboriginal Australians represent one of the oldest continuous cultures outside Africa, with evidence indicating that their ancestors arrived in the ancient landmass of Sahul (present-day New Guinea and Australia) ~55 thousand years ago. Genetic studies, though limited, have demonstrated both the uniqueness and antiquity of Aboriginal Australian genomes. We have further resolved known Aboriginal Australian mitochondrial haplogroups and discovered novel indigenous lineages by sequencing the mitogenomes of 127 contemporary Aboriginal Australians. In particular, the more common haplogroups observed in our dataset included M42a, M42c, S, P5 and P12, followed by rarer haplogroups M15, M16, N13, O, P3, P6 and P8. We propose some major phylogenetic rearrangements, such as in haplogroup P where we delinked P4a and P4b and redefined them as P4 (New Guinean) and P11 (Australian), respectively. Haplogroup P2b was identified as a novel clade potentially restricted to Torres Strait Islanders. Nearly all Aboriginal Australian mitochondrial haplogroups detected appear to be ancient, with no evidence of later introgression during the Holocene. Our findings greatly increase knowledge about the geographic distribution and phylogenetic structure of mitochondrial lineages that have survived in contemporary descendants of Australia’s first settlers.

The search for a method that utilizes biological information to predict humans’ place of origin has occupied scientists for millennia. Over the past four decades, scientists have employed genetic data in an effort to achieve this goal but with limited success. While biogeographical algorithms using next-generation sequencing data have achieved an accuracy of 700 km in Europe, they were inaccurate elsewhere. Here we describe the Geographic Population Structure (GPS) algorithm and demonstrate its accuracy with three data sets using 40,000–130,000 SNPs. GPS placed 83% of worldwide individuals in their country of origin. Applied to over 200 Sardinians villagers, GPS placed a quarter of them in their villages and most of the rest within 50 km of their villages. GPS’s accuracy and power to infer the biogeography of worldwide individuals down to their country or, in some cases, village, of origin, underscores the promise of admixture-based methods for biogeography and has ramifications for genetic ancestry testing., Current methods to identify the geographical origin of humans based on DNA data present limited accuracy. Here, the authors develop a new algorithm, the Genographic Population Structure (GPS), and demonstrate its ability to place worldwide individuals within their country or, in some cases, village of origin.

The Genographic Project is an international effort using genetic data to chart human migratory history. The project is non-profit and non-medical, and through its Legacy Fund supports locally led efforts to preserve indigenous and traditional cultures. In its second phase, the project is focusing on markers from across the entire genome to obtain a more complete understanding of human genetic variation. Although many commercial arrays exist for genome-wide SNP genotyping, they were designed for medical genetic studies and contain medically related markers that are not appropriate for global population genetic studies. GenoChip, the Genographic Project's new genotyping array, was designed to resolve these issues and enable higher-resolution research into outstanding questions in genetic anthropology. We developed novel methods to identify AIMs and genomic regions that may be enriched with alleles shared with ancestral hominins. Overall, we collected and ascertained AIMs from over 450 populations. Containing an unprecedented number of Y-chromosomal and mtDNA SNPs and over 130,000 SNPs from the autosomes and X-chromosome, the chip was carefully vetted to avoid inclusion of medically relevant markers. The GenoChip results were successfully validated. To demonstrate its capabilities, we compared the FST distributions of GenoChip SNPs to those of two commercial arrays for three continental populations. While all arrays yielded similarly shaped (inverse J) FST distributions, the GenoChip autosomal and X-chromosomal distributions had the highest mean FST, attesting to its ability to discern subpopulations. The GenoChip is a dedicated genotyping platform for genetic anthropology and promises to be the most powerful tool available for assessing population structure and migration history., Comment: 11 pages, 5 Figures, 2 supplementary notes

Investigating aspects of interpretation of figurative representation from the Upper Palaeolithic of western Europe is a task that can be approached with both relish and a certain amount of trepidation. On the one hand it is a rich and dynamic body of evidence, spanning up to 30,000 years (c. 40,000–10,000 years bp), with regular new and highly significant discoveries (e.g. Cosquer and Chauvet caves in France and Creswell Crags caves in Britain) which can dramatically affect our interpretations and chronologies. On the other hand it is a field with a heritage of 150 years of investigation, a diverse body of experts and at least as many competing interpretations and controversies.