Poseidon – A framework for archaeogenetic human genotype data management

Abstract

The study of ancient human genomes, archaeo- or palaeogenetics, has accelerated in the last ten years, with now thousands of new ancient genomes being released each year. Operating at the interface of genetics, anthropology and archaeology, the data includes features from all three fields, including rich meta- and context-data, for example regarding spatiotemporal provenience. While archives and standards for genetic sequencing data already exist, no such infrastructure exists for combined genetic and meta-data that could ensure FAIR principles across the field. Here, we present Poseidon, a framework for open and FAIR data handling in archaeogenetics, including a specified package format, software tools, and public, community-maintained online archives. Poseidon emphasises human- and machine-readable data storage, the development of convenient and interoperable command line software, and a high degree of source granularity to elevate the original data publication to the main unit of long-term curation.