Center for the Human Past

CHP Event (by invitation only)
2024-12-11 00:00 (Europe/Stockholm)

Talks of the Past (ToP) Open Seminar, Dec 4th, 2024: The Language Families of the World: Current State and Future Perspectives, speaker Harald Hammarström
2024-12-04 14:15 - 16:30 | Blåsenhus, UU, lärosal 21:136, von Kraemers allé 1, Uppsala, 752 37, Sweden
Abstract
The approximately 7,000 languages of the world is currently divided into no less than 422 lineages (= families + isolates) by the orthodox evidential criteria of Glottolog (glottolog.org).
Should we believe this number? To what extent is it subjective, consistent in meta-properties and dependent on the amount of research and documentation? The time-depth of the families so far established do not reach more than 10,000 years back in time whereas human language arguably goes back at least 300,000 years (probably further).
The inherent rate of linguistic change puts a limit on how deep linguistic data alone can probe, but are there combinations using evidence from other disciplines and general geospatial considerations that may take us further?

Mini-Seminar (by invitation only): Baltic kinship terms in Finno-Ugric, Indo-European kinship terms and their family structure
2024-11-27 00:00

Carina Schlebusch inaugural lecture: “Mapping Human History through African Genetics”
2024-11-13 11:00 - 12:00 | Lecture Hall IX, Uppsala University Main Building, Biskopsgatan 3, Uppsala, 753 10, Sweden
“In my research I use genetics as a tool to investigate human history. My special interest and expertise in the population history of Africa allow me the opportunity to investigate both recent population movements, associated with farming, as well as deep human history, which is rooted in Africa. My research group is positioned in the Human Evolution Program, at the Department of Organismal Biology, UU.”
Carina Schlebusch profile page
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Talks of the Past (ToP) Open Seminar, Nov 6th, 2024: New linguistic and archaeogenomic perspectives on the origin and spread of the Germanic languages, speaker Guus Kroonen
2024-11-06 14:15 - 15:30 | Blåsenhus, UU, lärosal 21:136, von Kraemers allé 1, Uppsala, 752 37, Sweden
Synopsis
The Germanic languages, including English, German and the Nordic languages, are widely assumed to have dispersed from Southern Scandinavia after the Pre-Roman Iron Age. However, the demographic processes behind their diversification are not yet fully understood. In addition, it is currently not known when and from where the Germanic language group arrived in Scandinavia.
To understand the prehistoric and historical distributions of the Germanic languages, I contributed to a paleogenomic study analyzing 710 ancient genomes and 3,940 published genomes from western Eurasia. Results indicate a Late Neolithic cross-Baltic maritime migration and significant genetic shifts during the Migration Period, impacting populations across northern Europe.
In this talk, I will discuss the challenges of interpreting archaeogenomic evidence at clarifying language origins and dispersals.

Article Discussion (by invitation only): Steppe Ancestry in Western Eurasia and the Spread of the Germanic Languages
2024-10-23 00:00

Mini-Seminar (by invitation only): Blinded by the light - Bifacial points and human mobility in Västerbotten, Sweden
2024-10-16 00:00

SCAS symposium with Human Past Senior Fellow Yoko Yamazaki: Working and Eating Together – Uralic=Indo-European Contacts in the Bronze Age Working Communities
2024-10-08 10:15 - 12:00
ABSTRACT
The recent advancements in archaeology and archaeogenomics are elucidating dynamic demographic movements, or migrations, since the 3rd Mill. BCE, involving Indo-European and Uralic speakers in West Eurasia. In particular, Northern and Eastern Europe saw the expansion of the Indo-European associated culture, Corded Ware Culture (ca. 2800 – 2200 BCE). Subsequently, the metallurgy and trading network called Seima-Turbino Transcultural Complex emerged (ca. 2200/1900 BCE), and rapidly spread in the wide range including Eastern Europe and Fennoscandia. This is associated to the Uralic speakers’ expansion.
Thus, Indo-European and West Uralic speaking peoples probably came into contact as the Seima-Turbino Transcultural Complex grew, engaging in trading and metallurgy labors. This is indicated by Indo-European loanwords in the Uralic languages at various chronological stages. Even the
genetic evidence can be integrated in this context, too. It is reported that the admixture of Indo-European ancestries and Siberian ancestry component is found in several individuals from two of the Seima-Turbino burial sites. The Siberian ancestry is strongly associated to the Uralic speakers.
There is a Balto-Slavic word *talkā ‘a community of workers that was treated with a feast after work’, which was loaned in West Uralic. The implication of this loanword may tell us some aspects of their life in contacts, i.e., “eating and working together”. This talk will explore how this loanword can contribute to piece together the picture of the life of those speakers in contact.

Talks of the Past (ToP) Open Seminar: Oct 2nd, 2024: Toward Professional Ethics of Ancestral Human Remains Research: from Tissue to Biomolecules, speaker Rita Peyroteo Stjerna
2024-10-02 14:15 - 15:30 | Blåsenhus, UU, lärosal 21:136, von Kraemers allé 1, Uppsala, 752 37, Sweden
Original photograph by T. Ketola, 2004. Used with permission.
Synopsis
Ancient human remains are highly prized research subjects because of the wealth of information they can provide about past lives, which otherwise would be difficult to uncover. In recent years, the astonishing development of biomolecular techniques such as residue and stable isotope analyses, proteomics, and the breakthrough of the next generation sequencing of ancient DNA, propelled Biomolecular Archaeology to a leading field of research, crossing major disciplinary boundaries between the Humanities and the Natural Sciences.
While the study of human remains is just one portion of the vast tool kit of biomolecular research, its rapid development aggravated a number of already existing challenges and underlined the ethical entanglements of research using human remains in a highly unregulated field.
In this seminar, I will focus on the biomolecular dimensions of human remains in research, how researchers approach this legacy, and how it differs from handling hard or soft tissue. By focusing on this aspect, I aim to highlight that biomolecular archaeologists not only have unique professional responsibilities, but also are exceptionally positioned to lead the debate forward.
This study is part of a larger research project – Ethical Entanglements: The Care for Human Remains in Museums and Research, which seeks to strengthen the competence and awareness, among museum professionals and researchers of the complex ethical dimensions of research and curation of human remains.

Mini-Seminar (by invitation only): Archaeolinguistic perspectives on the Proto-Indo-Iranian homeland
2024-09-25 00:00

Talks of the Past (ToP) Open Seminar, Sept 4th, 2024: The genetic legacy of the expansion of Bantu-speaking peoples in Africa, speaker Carina Schlebusch
2024-09-04 14:15 - 15:30 | Blåsenhus, UU, lärosal 21:136, von Kraemers allé 1, Uppsala, 752 37, Sweden
Canoe floating in the Loange River near the port of Kabombo (photo by Peter Coutros, Ghent University)
Synopsis
The Bantu expansion, a defining event of Holocene Africa, profoundly transformed the continent’s linguistic, cultural, and biological landscape. This talk integrates genomic data with evidence from other disciplines to explore the migration of Bantu-speaking peoples, which began around 6,000 years ago in western Africa. By analyzing DNA from modern and ancient populations across Africa, we reveal how genetic diversity diminishes with distance from the origin, pinpointing key regions like Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo as interaction hubs. Our findings underscore the complex interactions between migrating Bantu communities and indigenous groups, offering fresh perspectives that bridge the natural sciences and humanities, with implications for understanding African history and human variation.
A short film on the Ghent University BantuFirst project’s fieldwork can be viewed here (YouTube)
