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  • Talks of the Past Open Seminar: Talking about food in prehistory: Linguistic evidence for dietary practices in Indo-European, speaker Julia Sturm

    Blåsenhus, UU, lärosal 13:028 (plan 1)

    Abstract What did prehistoric peoples eat? This question can be approached through various scholarly disciplines, including historical linguistics. More specifically, historical linguistics methodologies are tools for addressing the question of what ancient peoples discussed when they spoke about food, including sourcing, preparing, consuming, and sacrificing it. This talk will examine linguistic evidence for the shared […]

  • Image of an interdisciplinary jigsaw puzzle

    Human Past Interdisciplinary Retreat

    Sigtunastiftelsen Hotell & Conference Sigtuna, Sweden

    The main goal of the retreat is to strengthen collaboration between different disciplines and to learn about each other’s research through presentations and discussions. We hope this retreat will lay a solid foundation for future joint interdisciplinary projects and scientific publications. The day plan includes short(-ish) talks, primarily by junior researchers and PhD students, as […]

  • Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study SCAS - logo

    SCAS seminar with David Goldstein – A New Approach to the Diversification of Ancient Greek

    Thunberg Hall, Linneanum Thunbergsvägen 2, Uppsala, Sweden

    ABSTRACT The diversification of the ancient Greek dialects has long posed a major challenge for Greek linguistics. Core questions—how the dialects are related, when they diverged, and how they were distributed in the second millennium BCE—remain the subject of sustained debate, in part because of the limits of traditional methods of historical inference. Over the […]

  • Human Past Journal Club

    Villa Lugnet von Kraemers allé 8, Uppsala, Sweden, Sweden

    Discussion paper: Gretzinger, J., Biermann, F., Mager, H. et al. Ancient DNA connects large-scale migration with the spread of Slavs. Nature 646, 384–393 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09437-6 Abstract The second half of the first millennium CE in Central and Eastern Europe was accompanied by fundamental cultural and political transformations. This period of change is commonly associated with […]

  • Mini-Seminar: Using the dog to date Torricelli languages with linguistic paleontology, with Erik Elgh

    Villa Lugnet von Kraemers allé 8, Uppsala, Sweden, Sweden

    Abstract The earliest archaeological dog remains in Melanesia found to date are from Babase Island, New Ireland, and are associated with the Early Lapita layers on the site, thus dating from ca. 3300-3000 BP (Summerhayes et al. 2019, see Manne et al. 2020 for an overview of dog remains in the area). The formation of […]

  • Talks of the Past Open Seminar: Genetic relatedness in Stone Age Scandinavia, speaker Helena Malmström

    Blåsenhus, seminar room 12:010 (ground floor) von Kraemers allé 1, Uppsala, Sweden

    Abstract Did genetic relatedness matter in Scandinavian Stone Age societies? And if so, how? The increase in the number of individuals with available ancient DNA data, coupled with new tools for assessing relatedness from such data, now allows us to infer kinship patterns beyond broad-scale population structures. This talk will summarise some of the ongoing […]

  • Mini-Seminar: Models, data, and their limits: What can we know about the deep history of language families? with Philipp Rönchen

    Villa Lugnet von Kraemers allé 8, Uppsala, Sweden, Sweden

    Abstract Computational methods are increasingly used to reconstruct the deep history of language families, yet different models often produce strikingly different answers. This reflects a general challenge in the historical sciences: we must draw conclusions from fragmentary data shaped by complex processes that cannot be directly observed or experimentally repeated. In this talk, I summarise […]

  • Higher Seminar in Baltic Studies, Stockholm University, with Anthony Jakob

    Zoom , Sweden

    The Higher Seminar in Baltic Languages with Signe Rirdance (SU) and Anthony Jakob (SCAS). The seminar is split into two sessions (with a coffee break in between): 14:00-15:30 – Signe Rirdance (SU): “Deciphering Getzel’s hand in early Latvian: AI and I” 16:00-17:30 – Anthony Jakob (SCAS): “Linguistic ghosts and zombies in modern Standard Lithuanian” Language: […]

  • Human Past Journal Club

    Villa Lugnet von Kraemers allé 8, Uppsala, Sweden, Sweden

    Discussion paper: Yakov Pichkar and Nicole Creanza (2026). The Evolution of Language. Editor(s): Jason B. Wolf, Claudia Augusta De Moraes Russo, Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Biology (Second Edition), Academic Press, Pages 409-420, ISBN 9780443157516, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-15750-9.00030-6 Abstract The evolution of modern humans has led to the proliferation of traits that are learned from other individuals, instead of […]

  • Talks of the Past open seminar: From Phonology to Phylogeny: Inferring Language Trees from Cognate Word Forms

    Blåsenhus, seminar room 12:010 (ground floor) von Kraemers allé 1, Uppsala, Sweden

    Abstract Linguistic phylogenies are commonly inferred from abstract cognate classifications that encode relationships among lexemes. Although widespread, this practice has well-recognised limitations: it discards phylogenetic signal contained in segmental word forms, restricts the range of evolutionary questions that can be addressed, and treats cognacy judgments, which are hypotheses in their own right, as observed data. […]