Ancient DNA comes of age, but still has some teenage problems

Slow science for fast archaeology

“…In this respect, it should be noticed that critique targeted against the straight-forward utilization of genetics in reconstructing past population movements does not only come from concerned humanists, but those archaeologists well versed in genetics and other natural scientific methods (Lidén & Eriksson 2013;Heyd 2017;Johannsen et al 2017). At times, this has resulted in research that cuts some ethical corners in the race for the acquisition of bone samples (Morris 2017), but nevertheless enjoys a high degree of scientific impact. This, however, is not to say that archaeologists and geneticists should not be held equally responsible in having created the situation.…”

Boots on the ground in Africa's ancient DNA ‘revolution’: archaeological perspectives on ethics and best practices

“…The true revolution is in our practice: archaeogenetics thrusts together specialists who not only have different training, but also distinct work cultures (Pluciennik 2006). Morris's (2017: 2) commentary on the “teenage problems” of African archaeogenetics cites competition among laboratories “chasing the next Nature paper”—an issue tied to funding and promotions. While this situation is certainly not alien to archaeologists, the levels of funding, pace of publication and target journals and audiences are often distinct.…”

“…While the Nagoya Protocol (CBD 2011) provides guidelines for fair access to samples and data, this was written with modern genetic resources in mind; additional consideration must be given to archaeogenetic samples. Morris (2017) identifies pertinent issues in Africa and beyond, including competition without question-driven research; ‘parachute’ research, where samples are taken out of the country without engaging in long-term collaborations and capacity-building; geneticists’ ignorance (or dismissal) of bioarchaeological evidence; and lack of data comparability due to differing sample-processing methods among laboratories. Here, we highlight additional concerns that intertwine with Africa's colonial history, and which are relevant to destructive analyses beyond aDNA.…”

Ancient human DNA: How sequencing the genome of a boy from Ballito Bay changed human history

“…For instance, Morris recently noted 'at least two different methodologies that produce different success rates and differing levels of data volume', and highlighted the risks with multiple replicate sampling of ancient human remains. 9 Yet, every individual carries a specific genome, and the only way to access all its information is to sequence the entire genome, which can be accomplished with a single, small sample. Other types of investigations -such as Y-chromosome, mitochondrial DNA or SNP-capture (single nucleotide polymorphism) approachesharness only a subset of the genetic information in the genome, with various degrees of bias.…”