The Application of aDNA in Kinship Analysis in Histria (20 min)

Presenters

Amber Kearns, University of Texas, Austin

Abstract

Ancient DNA has been used in anthropological and archaeological studies to address large scale population genetics, health, migration and mobility, and kinship analysis in the ancient world. Scholars have seen kinship as a base organizational framework in stateless societies, or even an organizing principle that supersedes governmental structures; thus, studying kinship bonds and their function in society is essential for understanding social roles and social control. Current archaeological studies on kinship tend toward using kinship to explore questions of migration and mobility, exogamy versus endogamy, the locality of family structures, whether a group was monogamous or polygamous, and if burials and burial placements can tell us anything about hierarchical or inheritance structures in a society, with aDNA emerging as a powerful tool to examine the biological elements of these discussions. Using Histria as a case-study, this paper discusses the application and potential shortcomings of aDNA as a tool for studying biological kinship and how the study of biological kinship can illuminate further discussions of individual migration and mobility and familial structures. Through the combination of archaeological, genetic, and isotopic evidence, this paper explores the relatedness of individuals interred together and near to one another in a series of burials excavated in 2021–2022 at the site of Histria in Romania.

  AIA-6E