Societies don’t change in a vacuum; an influx of new people and ideas inspire locals to start new practices. To figure out when major societal changes happened, archeologists dig up and analyze the items ancient people left behind.
Archeologists previously established an approximate timeline for when society’s practices shifted in the northwestern Siberian Arctic, including when ancient people started to handle metal tools (about 2,000 years ago) and use reindeer for transportation and as livestock (about 800 years ago). But researchers wondered who influenced the ancient Siberians to take up these new ways of life.
Genome sequencing brought archeologists and geneticists together, and the combination of physical and molecular evidence helps them paint a more thorough picture of ancient life. However, researchers performing genetic analyses of ancient Siberians hit a wall; there was little evidence of this community interacting—and mating—with outsiders during the time periods of societal change.1,2 To solve ...
