Prof. Marzena Szmyt from the Faculty of Archaeology is a co-author of the publication 'Population Genomics of post-glacial Western Eurasia', featured in the prestigious journal Nature.
"Population genomics of post-glacial western Eurasia" is a further study exploring the formation of the genetic structure of Eurasia. A multi-author and multi-national research team analysed several hundred new samples taken from human remains from a vast area stretching from Siberia to the Atlantic coast and Scandinavia to the Middle East, mostly dated 9,000 and 3,000 years ago. The research used previously published data as well. Thus, it proved possible to confirm the existence of a long-lasting genetic division of Holocene Eurasian societies into two blocks within Eurasia by establishing a boundary separating them, running roughly from the Baltic to the Black Sea. This boundary disintegrated from about 5,000 years ago, during the 3rd millennium BC. - a critical period for the formation of the genetic structure of Europe.
- " For my research, it is most significant to determine the major role played in the processes of genetic unification by the communities of the so-called amphorae culture, coming across, in the 1st half of the 3rd millennium BC in the territory of present-day western Ukraine and Moldavia, shepherding populations of the so-called cavity culture, originating from the eastern European steppes. This issue is being tackled in the NCN grant I am currently finalising," says Prof. Marzena Szmyt.
Within the framework of the OPUS 14 competition, Professor Szmyt is implementing a grant entitled. "Podolia as a contact space in the 3rd thousand BC: barrows on the Murafa and Riv Rivers".
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Source: Życie Uniwersyteckie
photo credit: personal archive