The Library · History
History, read from the genome
Migrations, conquests, and vanished peoples reconstructed directly from ancient DNA: the studies where genetics answered historical questions that texts and archaeology alone could not settle.
Curated starter reading
Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe
Haak et al. · 2015 · Nature
The paper that rewrote European prehistory: a massive Bronze Age migration from the Pontic steppe, with implications for the spread of Indo-European languages.
doi:10.1038/nature14317
The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe
Olalde et al. · 2018 · Nature
Resolves a century-old debate: the Beaker culture spread by both ideas and people, replacing about 90 percent of Britain's gene pool.
doi:10.1038/nature25738
137 ancient human genomes from across the Eurasian steppes
Damgaard et al. · 2018 · Nature
Traces four millennia of steppe history, from Yamnaya herders to Scythians and Huns, and how each wave reshaped Eurasia.
doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0094-2
A genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean
Fernandes et al. · 2020 · Nature
A model of what ancient DNA can recover where written records are absent: two major settlement waves and surprisingly small, connected island populations.
doi:10.1038/s41586-020-03053-2
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