Two shores

A group of researchers from the University of Copenhagen ( Kuffing Universitet ), who excavated in Denmark, managed to extract DNA from the skeleton of the Viking, which had been in the ground for a thousand years. This was reported " Around the World " with reference to an article published in the journal Plos One .

Galgedil pagan burial on the Danish Island of Funen dates back to 700-1100. N.E. It has 59 earthen graves and 2 cremation burials. Although the excavations of Galgevil began in 1998, the scientist has not yet managed to get a pure example of an ancient DNA. The main problem that researchers face in such cases is a mixture of ancient and modern samples of molecules, almost inevitable in the usual conduct of archaeological work. DNA, belonging to modern people, pollute ancient samples during the extraction of the skeleton from the ground, transportation, and even in the laboratory itself.

To cope with this problem, anthropologists and biologists, led by Yorgen Dissing (Jèrgen Dissing) arrived at the excavation site before the bones were freed from sand. The last layer of soil was removed by scientists in special costumes that exclude direct contact with the find. As a sample, 3 teeth from the jaw of Viking, buried a thousand years ago, were taken. The samples were transported to the laboratory in hermetic containers, where they managed to obtain authentic DNA using a polymerase chain reaction ( PCR ). The analysis of the obtained molecule showed that its composition contains a rare haplogroup X, found only in 0.9% of modern Scandinavians.

Studies of ancient DNA shed light on the nature of genetic diseases, matrimonial relations and migration of tribes, and also discover the way to study the genetic history of mankind.

The group of Tom Gilbert from the same Copenhagen University studied the hair of the hair of an ancient resident of the island of Greenland and came to the conclusion that the first inhabitants of the North American Arctic were immigrants from North Asia. About this writesLenta.ru with reference to the popular science magazine New Scientist . The scientific article itself was published in the journal Science .

The origin of the ancient residents of the North American Arctic, who received the name Sakkak ( Saqqaq , by the name of the village where numerous archaeological finds were made) remained a mystery for a long time. They settled in the current territory of Greenland more than 4 millennia ago, and about 800 BC have disappeared. Archaeologists managed to find traces of settlements, skillfully made bone guns and extremely few human remains. As Gilbert noted, the question of where the bones of the representatives of the Sakkak culture went, is still unanswered.

The riddle of the origin of the ancient Greenlanders was tried to unravel the colleague of Gilbert Eska Willerslev, who was looking for traces of human DNA on the gnawed bones of animals. He failed to achieve success. The situation has changed when it became known that one of the Danish archaeologists in the 1980s discovered in Greenland several scraps of ancient hair, which have been stored in Copenhagen in the basement to this day. Their study with modern methods has just made it possible to determine the origin of the people of the CAKAK culture. It turned out that the owner of the hair was genetically connected with the ancient inhabitants of Siberia. In addition, his relationship was established with modern residents of the Russian Commander Islands , located east of Kamchatka.

"We have studied mitochondrial DNA, isolated from human hair, the age of which is 3.4-4.5 thousand years. They were found frozen during excavations of the early Greenland settlement. The sample differs from the DNA of modern Aborigines of America and Eskimos and belongs to the Gaplogroup D2A1 - a group that was previously observed among modern Aleuts and some peoples of Siberia,". - The article says .

According to the characteristics of mitochondrial DNA, the ancient Greenlander was noticeably different from the ancestors of the American Indians, who settled the continent at least 14 thousand years ago, and Eskimos, who settled in the Arctic region of North America about a thousand years ago. Based on the opening, the Gilbert group suggested that the people of the Sakkak culture came to the North American Arctic along a special migration route, which ran through Beringia - an Isthmus, connecting Azia and America on the site of the current Bering Strait and disappeared about seven thousand years ago. Gilbert also suggested that other tribal cultures of Sakkak cultures came from Beringia to the north of America, some of these tribes were able to achieve prosperity, while others quickly faded.