Authors
Matthew Peter Williams
Publication date
2021
Description
Recent advancements in the field of ancient DNA have enabled the successful extraction and sequencing of human genomes from the ancient Near East, a region previously understudied due to its adverse environmental conditions for DNA preservation. Consequently, the generation of ancient DNA datasets from Egypt, the Levant, Anatolia, the Caucasus and Zagros mountains and the Iranian plateau has revealed the genomic signatures underlying Near Eastern demographic history. Notably, the presence of regional genetic differentiation during the Epipaleolithic and Neolithic periods was ultimately eroded by human migrations during the succeeding Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages. However, there remain several geographical regions and historical periods within the Near East, such as the Bronze and Iron Ages in Greater Mesopotamia and the Transjordan, for which our knowledge of their demographic history is limited due to the absence of ancient genomic datasets. Situated at the geographical nexus of major Near Eastern civilizations, the history of Greater Mesopotamia through the Bronze and Iron Ages is characterised by trade, treaties and conflicts with regionally diverse tribal confederations, city-states, kingdoms and empires. In the Transjordan, the Bronze Age saw the rise of large urban settlements from which emerged the Iron Age heterogenous people groups such as Arameans, Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites. To discover the demographic processes underlying these historical events, I generated novel ancient DNA datasets from the Bronze and Iron Ages in Greater Mesopotamia (Thesis Chapter II) and the Transjordan (Thesis …