Some emails on Mesopotamian DNA

[Alyan]

So months ago I sent this email to one Pontus Skoglund at the Francis Crick Institute's ancient DNA lab:



Long enough later, I got a response:



So for those wondering, there is interest in researching Neolithic to Bronze Age Mesopotamian DNA.

 

[bicicleur 2]

interest yes, but are there opportunities ?

 

[Alyan]

I don't see how there wouldn't according to the breakdown I posted there should be plenty of material.

 

[bicicleur 2]

skulls and skeletons in musea are often contaminated

ideal is to have new, freshly excavated material

 

[Alyan]

Yeah well that's not always an option considering politics. Middle-Eastern polictics at that. And we already have autosomal DNA from museum samples (see the Abusir mummies).

 

[suyindik]

I am very interested in the Y-DNA of the Mesopotamian cultures like Gobekli Tepe, Halaf, Jarmo, Hassuna, Ubaid, Uruk and Sumerians. Especially the Gobekli Tepe and Halaf cultures are very important, i hope that very soon new papers will be published about these.

When i was reading the article of "Ancient DNA from Chalcolithic Israel reveals the role of population mixture in cultural transformation", i had the impression that new Y-DNA studies of Northern Mesopotamia would be following after it. Maybe they already know some things, i hope some academic teams will publish soon serious data.

 

[halfalp]

I am very interested in the Y-DNA of the Mesopotamian cultures like Gobekli Tepe, Halaf, Jarmo, Hassuna, Ubaid, Uruk and Sumerians. Especially the Gobekli Tepe and Halaf cultures are very important, i hope that very soon new papers will be published about these.

When i was reading the article of "Ancient DNA from Chalcolithic Israel reveals the role of population mixture in cultural transformation", i had the impression that new Y-DNA studies of Northern Mesopotamia would be following after it. Maybe they already know some things, i hope some academic teams will publish soon serious data.

I dont think Gobekli Tepe have recorded burials no? It was mostly a religious sanctuary.

 

[suyindik]

I dont think Gobekli Tepe have recorded burials no? It was mostly a religious sanctuary.

Yes there are burials at Gobekli Tepe. See below article for a study on some Gobekli Tepe skulls, they made use of a kind of trepanation(skull modification).
And only 10-20% of the Gobekli Tepe site is excavated, the majority is still under the ground. This is i think very sad and painful, i hope very soon serious studies will be done on the site.
But like others mentioned, there are sites like Nevalı ?ori, which are of the same type of culture as Gobekli Tepe. So, human remains of Nevalı ?ori could also be tested i suppose.

 

[bicicleur 2]

do you consider Gobekli Tepe as part of Mesopotamia?

 

[suyindik]

do you know where Şanlıurfa is located?

 

[suyindik]

Does anyone have any news regarding an ongoing study of the ancient dna of Mesopotamia?

 

[Alyan]

You should ask the contacts in the emails here and in the Egypt thread.