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Project

Genetic history and health in Medieval Europe with the Belgian town of Sint-Truiden as a model

The cross-talk between genomics and humanities in the last decade has revitalized the interdisciplinary study of human past and enables us to address now ever wider range of questions about migration, social structure and health of our ancestors. We can ask questions about them that could not be answered before. While ancient DNA studies have substantially changed our perspectives on European Neolithic and Bronze Age, less progress has been made on population dynamics in the historic period. This project will focus on genomic variation of a medieval population of Sint-Truiden buried in the cemetery of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk that was in use for ~600 years (1100-1700 A.D.). It will generate low coverage whole genome sequence data from 40-50 individuals to assess variation in human and pathogen DNA. Overall, I want to address what impact on population continuity, kinship, mobility and health did well documented major demographic events such as wars, famines and disease epidemics have in a growing medieval town population in Western Europe. My main focus is on external comparisons with contemporary material from other archaeological excavations in Europe (UK, Norway, Estonia). Comparisons with modern genomic data will enable me to assess the extent to which diachronic kinship persists locally in populations and how this may need to be considered in medical studies.

Date:21 Aug 2020 →  Today
Keywords:ancient DNA, evolutionary population genetics, medieval archaeogenetics
Disciplines:Biogeography and phylogeography, Archaeology of the Low countries or Belgium, Anthropological genetics, Medieval archaeology, Population, ecological and evolutionary genetics
Project type:PhD project