Meet & Greet by CHP
2025-09-10 15:15 - 16:30 (Europe/Stockholm) | Villa Lugnet, von Kraemers allé 8, Uppsala, Sweden, 75236, Sweden
Informal CHP event with FlashTalks to allow the participants to get to know each other better and learn about their research projects.

Human Past Journal CLub
2025-09-24 15:15 - 16:30 | Villa Lugnet, von Kraemers allé 8, Uppsala, Sweden, 75236, Sweden
Discussion paper:
Zeng, T. C., Vyazov, L. A., Kim, A., Flegontov, P., Sirak, K., Maier, R., … & Reich, D. (2025). Ancient DNA reveals the prehistory of the Uralic and Yeniseian peoples. Nature, 1-11.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09189-3

Talks of the Past (ToP) Open Seminar: Human skeletal remains of Ilin Island, Mindoro Occidental, Philippines, speaker Tanya Uldin
2025-10-01 15:15 - 16:30 | Blåsenhus, UU, lärosal 13:028 (plan 1)
Abstract
Ilin Island, located off the southern coast of Mindoro, possesses favourable geological features, such as numerous caves and rock shelters, that enhance the preservation of archaeological materials. Recent surveys and excavations have revealed a complex settlement history, highlighting the adaptive strategies of human populations in response to climatic and environmental fluctuations.
Evidence includes a flexed human burial from a southern rock shelter on the island, radiocarbon dated to approximately 5,000 cal BP, and a recently recovered modified human phalanx that may be contemporaneous.
This presentation explores these findings within their broader bio-cultural context, contributing to discussions on mortuary practices and body modification in prehistoric Island Southeast Asia.
Tanya Uldin is an associate professor at the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines. Tanya is a biological anthropologist with 20+ years of experience, trained in archaeology and forensics.

Mini-Seminar: Studying urban inequality in the past: lessons from Pompeii, with Samuli Simelius
2025-10-22 15:15 - 16:30 | Villa Lugnet, von Kraemers allé 8, Uppsala, Sweden, 75236, Sweden
Abstract
The study of Roman social stratification has often focused on social and legal status within society. Other dimensions of inequality have been largely sidelined, although interest in economic inequality has grown recently. Yet, methodologies to study wealth inequality that rely on house size still require significant improvement to better capture the complexity of Roman society. Furthermore, aspects such as health disparities in Roman cities have received little attention.
In his talk, Samuli Simelius will present new approaches to studying both economic and health inequality. He will use Pompeii as a case study, but these methods can also be applied beyond this well-known Roman city to other archaeological and historical contexts.

Samuli Simelius is a grant-funded researcher specialising in Roman urbanism and domestic space. He is also a current SCAS-Nordic Fellow.
Samuli Simelius on Google Scholar

Talks of the Past Open Seminar: Transdisciplinary approaches toward resolving the Austronesian problem, speaker Hugo Reyes Centeno
2025-11-05 15:15 - 16:30 | Blåsenhus, UU, lärosal 13:028 (plan 1)
Abstract
Despite consensus on the movement of peoples from mainland Asia to Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific over the past five thousand years, the mode of dispersal and biocultural change remains highly contested.
While some hypotheses posit Austronesian-speaking agriculturalists rapidly dispersing via Taiwan, other scenarios postulate, for example, additional dispersal routes, the gradual and uneven adoption of agricultural practices, and dynamic language borrowing.
This talk will introduce current debates on the Austronesian problem, critically synthesising models developed from linguistic, archaeological, and genetic lines of evidence. In addition, it will draw on original fieldwork harnessing archaeological data collected from the Philippines to draw attention to the uneven sampling problem still affecting transdisciplinary studies of the human past in Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Hugo Reyes Centeno is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Kentucky and the current Human Past SCAS Senior Fellow.

Open lecture: Jakten på ordens ursprung, with Jenny Larsson
2025-11-11 17:30 - 18:15 | Kulturhuset stadsteatern, Sergels Torg, Stockholm, 111 57, Sweden
Jakten på ordens ursprung

(lecture in Swedish)
Var kommer våra ord ifrån och vad kan de avslöja om människans förhistoria? Språkhistorikern Jenny Larsson tar oss med på en resa bakåt i tiden, där ord och språk fungerar som ledtrådar till hur människor levde, tänkte och rörde sig för tusentals år sedan. Genom att förena språkliga, arkeologiska och genetiska spår söker forskningen svar på hur våra språk uppstod, spreds och förändrades.
OBS! registration required.

SCAS seminar with Hugo Reyes Centeno: Genomic and Archaeological Insights on the Expansion of Austronesian Speakers into Island Southeast Asia
2025-11-18 10:15 - 12:00 | Thunberg Hall, Linneanum, Thunbergsvägen 2, Uppsala, 752 36, Sweden
Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study seminars

Mini-Seminar: REAL game – Reimagining algorithmic futures: 63 cards for thinking differently about algorithmic systems, with Julia Velkova
2025-11-19 15:30 - 16:30 | Villa Lugnet, von Kraemers allé 8, Uppsala, Sweden, 75236, Sweden
Abstract
REAL (REimagining ALgorithmic futures) is a card deck designed to inspire and provoke thinking about algorithmic systems and how they shape human lives, society and potential futures. The cards aim to stimulate thinking and conversations about the values embedded in algorithmic systems, as well as their social and technological implications. They advocate for a more inclusive dialogue concerning varied algorithmic futures.
Ideally, participants should have a specific case from their work that directly involves a digital or algorithmic system. This case might include planning or implementing digital or algorithmic systems, applying humanities methods in field research, or engaging with digital infrastructure. The case should be relevant to your professional context and serve as a basis for workshop activities.

Julia Velkova is a professor of Media and Culture, Linköping University, Pro Futura Scientia Fellow, SCAS and Research Affiliate, Global Media Technologies and Cultures Lab, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Human Past Journal Club
2025-11-26 15:15 - 16:30 | Villa Lugnet, von Kraemers allé 8, Uppsala, Sweden, 75236, Sweden
Discussion pre-print:

Delbrassine, H., Mezzavilla, M., Vallini, L. et al. Worldwide patterns in mythology echo the human expansion out of Africa, bioRxiv 2025.01.24.634692; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.01.24.634692

Abstract
Similarities between geographically distant mythological and folkloric traditions have been noted for a long time. With the elaboration of large banks of data describing the presence and absence of narrative motifs around the world, scholars have been able to statistically investigate their potential routes and mechanisms of diffusion. However, despite genetic data allowing for increasingly refined demographic movement inferences, few have integrated it into their models, and none at a global scale. In this work, we capitalise on the augmenting availability of modern and ancient genetic data and on Yuri E. Berezkin’s database of more than 2000 mythological motifs worldwide to investigate the mechanisms involved in generating their present-day distribution at a global scale. The direct combination of both kinds of evidence allows us to explore in more depth the respective influences of population movement and replacement versus cultural diffusion on motif transmission. Our results show that both processes have played important roles in shaping their present-day distribution. By leveraging available ancient DNA (aDNA) and deepening the temporal scale of the detected signals, we reveal that correlations between mythemes and genetic patterns can be traced back to population movements that pre-date the Last Glacial Maximum and go back to at least 38,000 years ago, and possibly even earlier to the human expansion out of Africa some 60,000 years ago. Our work shows the earliest evidence for the transmission of stories and storytelling in human history, and supports the joint use of cultural evolutionary theory and population genetics to illuminate the biocultural processes that shaped our species.

Moderators: Hugo Reyes Centeno & Jenny Larsson

Human Past Journal Club
2025-12-03 10:00 - 12:00 | Villa Lugnet, von Kraemers allé 8, Uppsala, Sweden, 75236, Sweden
Discussion paper:
Antonosyan, M., Maurer, G., Mkrtchyan, S., Boxleitner, K., Saribekyan, M., Hovhannisyan, A., … Amano, N., … & Yepiskoposyan, L. (2025). A biomolecular perspective on mobile pastoralism and its role in wider socioeconomic connections in the Chalcolithic South Caucasus. iScience, 28(6). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2025.112544

Abstract

Mobile pastoralism is widely evoked when discussing technological developments, resource procurement, trans-regional interactions, and exchange networks in the South Caucasus. In this study, we conduct a comprehensive multiproxy investigation of faunal and botanical remains from the Middle to Late Chalcolithic in southern Armenia, at the high altitude Yeghegis-1 site, to directly assess herd mobility and human subsistence practices.

Our findings indicate that, alongside intensified interregional connectivity, the inhabitants practiced a rather sedentary form of multi-resource pastoralism, while maintaining herds at the site year-round. These results complement and expand upon models of pastoral mobility and its perceived crucial role in sustaining inter- and intra-regional connectivity.

We argue that alternative models of increased intra-regional connectivity, focused on exchange between different specialized settled economies, need to be considered and further research is essential to unravel the complex interplay between subsistence, trade, and socio-economic dynamics. Discussion moderator: Noel Amano, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology

Talks of the Past Open Seminar: Talking about food in prehistory: Linguistic evidence for dietary practices in Indo-European, speaker Julia Sturm
2025-12-03 15:15 - 16:30 | 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 foodways of the early Indo-European-speaking peoples (living approximately in the 4th millennium BCE in the Pontic-Caspian steppe). It has long been hypothesised, based on linguistic and philological data, that the early Indo-European speakers were a pastoralist culture, raising herds and consuming, at a minimum, dairy products and meat from domesticated animals. However, what else did they consume? The extent to which these peoples exploited plant material for food is a hotly debated question. Furthermore, the forms of food preparation used by these communities are difficult to trace. It is agreed that preserving meat with salt was a widely used technique in this area at this time, but what of other techniques of preparation and preservation, such as fermentation?
In this talk, Julia Sturm will introduce several open questions regarding early Indo-European foodways and discuss the linguistic evidence for various approaches to these questions. She will also, where applicable, point out correspondences (or non-correspondences!) between the conclusions drawn by linguistics researchers examining these questions and those drawn by scholars employing other methodologies (e.g., archaeological), and discuss future directions for the investigation of this aspect of the culture of early Indo-European speakers.

Julia Sturm is a researcher in ancient and classical Indo-European languages and literatures

Human Past Interdisciplinary Retreat
2025-12-10 00:00 - 23:59 | 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 well as ample time for discussion in between.
Researchers and PhD students in genetics, archaeology, or linguistics are welcome to participate (registration is required).

Talks of the Past Open Seminar: Cultural Creolization in Ostrobothnia, Finland: An Interdisciplinary View on Burials, Exchange, and Social Identity, speaker Anna Wessman
2026-02-04 15:15 - 16:30 | Blåsenhus, seminar room 12:010 (ground floor), von Kraemers allé 1, Uppsala, 752 36, Sweden
The seminar was canceled due to unexpected events out of anyone’s control.
We apologize for inconvenience.
Abstract
This talk explores a remarkable Iron Age burial from Pukkila in western Finland, dating to around AD 700, where a cremated individual was laid to rest in a boat alongside weapons, ritual objects, and artefacts from across Scandinavia, eastern Europe, and the north. Rather than fitting neatly into a single cultural or ethnic category, the burial reflects a world shaped by long-distance trade, mobility, and cultural change.
Using the concept of cultural creolization, the talk shows how identities, beliefs, and ritual practices emerged through the blending of different traditions. The Pukkila burial challenges simple labels such as “Scandinavian”, “Finn,” or “Sámi,” and instead reveals how power, religion, gender, and cultural belonging were actively negotiated in the Baltic Sea region.
More broadly, the talk demonstrates how creolization offers a useful way to bring archaeology, linguistics, and religious studies together when interpreting the past.

Anna Wessman is a professor of archaeology at Bergen University, Norway. Her research focuses on the Late Iron Age in Scandinavia, Finland and the Baltic countries, Burial Archaeology and death rituals, Avocational Metal-detecting, Citizen Science, Ethnographic methods, Community Archaeology, Museum Studies, Digital Humanities, and Archaeological databases.
Photo: Outi Pyhäranta/HS

SCAS seminar with David Goldstein - A New Approach to the Diversification of Ancient Greek
2026-02-10 10:15 - 12:00 | Thunberg Hall, Linneanum, Thunbergsvägen 2, Uppsala, 752 36, 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 past two decades, however, Bayesian approaches have transformed the study of linguistic history, offering powerful new tools for addressing both longstanding problems and previously inaccessible questions. In this talk, I present Bayesian phylogenetic analyses based on a newly curated dataset of ancient Greek dialects. The results shed new light on the timing and pattern of dialect diversification, provide fresh evidence for dating their common ancestor, and contribute more broadly to ongoing discussions about methodological best practices in phylogenetic inference.
David Goldstein is the Human Past SCAS Senior Fellow 2025-26 (VT), A. Richard Diebold Jr. Professor of Indo-European Studies, Professor of Linguistics & Professor of Classics, University of California, Los Angeles
David Goldstein (photo: Mikael Wallerstedt)

Human Past Journal Club
2026-02-11 15:15 - 16:30 | Villa Lugnet, von Kraemers allé 8, Uppsala, Sweden, 75236, 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 the appearance of the Slavs, a development supported by textual evidence and coinciding with the emergence of similar archaeological horizons. However, so far, there has been no consensus on whether this archaeological horizon spread through migration, Slavicisation, or a combination of both. Genetic data remain sparse, especially due to the widespread practice of cremation during the early phase of Slavic settlement. Here, we present genome-wide data from 555 ancient individuals, including 359 samples from Slavic contexts dating back to as early as the seventh century CE. Our data demonstrate large-scale population movement from Eastern Europe during the sixth to eighth centuries, replacing more than 80% of the local gene pool in Eastern Germany, Poland, and Croatia. Yet, we also show substantial regional heterogeneity as well as a lack of sex-biased admixture, indicating varying degrees of cultural assimilation of the autochthonous populations. Comparing archaeological and genetic evidence, we find that the change in ancestry in Eastern Germany coincided with a change in social organisation, characterised by an intensification of inter- and intra-site genetic relatedness and patrilocality. On the European scale, it appears plausible that the changes in material culture and language between the sixth and eighth centuries were connected to these large-scale population movements.

Moderator: Nikola Vuković (PhD candidate)

Mini-Seminar: Using the dog to date Torricelli languages with linguistic paleontology, with Erik Elgh
2026-03-04 13:30 - 14:45 | Villa Lugnet, von Kraemers allé 8, Uppsala, Sweden, 75236, 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 the Lapita culture in the Bismarck Archipelago is in turn associated with the influx of Austronesians, more specifically speakers of Proto-Oceanic (Bellwood 2007:234, Pawley 2007 echoes this view). Thus, the introduction of the dog to Melanesia is likely tied to the arrival of the Austronesians to the area.
In the rest of the world, the presence of domesticated dogs is ubiquitous in the time depths we can hope to reach by linguistic reconstruction. By contrast, in Melanesia and thus New Guinea, the late date of first appearance makes the dog amenable to inclusion in analyses of linguistic paleontology. Linguistic paleontology involves correlating terms reconstructed for proto languages with definable archaeological phenomena, thus saying something about the time and place these proto languages were spoken. The foremost example is probable the so called ‘wheel line’, used to delimit the time of non-Anatolian Indo-European to after the invention of wheeled vehicles (see e.g. Anthony & Ringe 2015). Using the same method, if a word for ‘dog’ can be reconstructed for a Melanesian proto language, it shows that this proto-language must have split after ca. 3300 BP when the dog was introduced.
In this talk, I reconstruct a word for ‘dog’ for a large subgroup of Torricelli languages. Furthermore, I investigate words for ‘dog’ in nine other language families in the Sepik-Ramu basin and surrounding area in order to exclude large scale borrowing waves giving rise to the pattern seen in the relevant Torricelli languages. Disproving such waves, I show that the most recent common ancestor of a big proportion of Torricelli languages must have split after 3300 BP, rejecting earlier proposals stating that the current distribution of the family must be ‘several millenia’ or ‘six to five thousand years’ old (Foley 2018:296 and Swadling 1990, respectively).
I also discuss issues pertaining to Oceanic words for ‘dog’ in relation to those of languages in the Sepik-Ramu basin. For instance, the words in some Torricelli and many non-Torricelli languages are similar to those of the Schouten Linkage Oceanic languages, while at least one Schouten Linkage language, Arop-Sissano, seems to have borrowed from Olo, a local Torricelli language (as noted already by Hudson 1989). Additionally, I propose a historical scenario accounting for the scatter of forms that bear similarity to Proto-Austronesian *asu1 ‘dog’ (as reconstructed by Blust et al. 2023), reflexes of which are deemed to be absent in Proto-Oceanic (see e.g. Lynch 1991 and Pawley 2007).
Erik Elgh is an affiliated researcher in general linguistics at Uppsala University, and currently participates in the Postgraduate Linguistics Program, Faculty of Humanities, Udayana University, Indonesia

Talks of the Past Open Seminar: Genetic relatedness in Stone Age Scandinavia, speaker Helena Malmström
2026-03-04 15:15 - 16:30 | Blåsenhus, seminar room 12:010 (ground floor), von Kraemers allé 1, Uppsala, 752 36, 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 research on genetic kinship structures among individuals who lived in present-day Scandinavia between 3,500 and 2,300 BCE. Three cultural complexes existed during this period, and previous research has shown that they were genetically distinct from each other. While two of them had an agricultural base, one (the Funnel Beaker Culture) practised communal burials in megalithic tombs, and the other (the Battle Axe Culture) displayed more individualised burials. Distinct from these were a group of late marine hunter-gatherers (the Pitted Ware Culture).
In this talk, Helena Malmström will discuss how genetic relatedness patterns can inform on burial practices, marital patterns and social structures in these three Stone Age groups. She will also give examples of how specific archaeological contexts and isotope analyses can help in this regard. Helena looks forward to rewarding discussions on this topic.

Helena Malmström is an archaeogeneticist interested in ancient DNA, archaeology and population genomics, Human Evolution Program, Uppsala University (Google Scholar)

Mini-Seminar: Models, data, and their limits: What can we know about the deep history of language families? with Philipp Rönchen
2026-03-18 15:15 - 16:30 | Villa Lugnet, von Kraemers allé 8, Uppsala, Sweden, 75236, 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 the main ideas of my PhD thesis, which examines how computational methods can be evaluated rather than simply applied. I argue that good statistical fit to the available data is not, on its own, evidence of reliable historical inference, because results depend strongly on modelling assumptions and on how we represent processes of change. I will discuss why more elaborate models do not necessarily yield more trustworthy conclusions, and how simulation can be used to probe the robustness of our inferences and clarify what computational methods can, and cannot, tell us about the past.

Philipp Rönchen is a PhD candidate in general linguistics at the Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University

Higher Seminar in Baltic Studies, Stockholm University, with Anthony Jakob
2026-03-24 16:00 - 17:30 | 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: English
Note: Please register your participation via the event registration link.
For more information, contact Frederik Bissinger (frederik.bissinger@balt.su.se)

Human Past Journal Club
2026-04-01 15:15 - 16:30 | Villa Lugnet, von Kraemers allé 8, Uppsala, Sweden, 75236, 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 being inherited through genetics. The transmission of ideas and behaviors is facilitated by a uniquely human trait: language, structured communication systems consisting of words and grammar. The neural and anatomical changes that allow for language have a basis in genetics, but the specific features of language are transmitted through social learning between individuals. The words and the grammatical structures of languages can evolve over time, both through change within a population and through contact between populations. In concert with the study of human genetics, the study of language features and their evolution deepens our understanding of human demographic history and the nature of interactions between groups of people.
Moderator: Carina Schlebusch

Talks of the Past open seminar with David Goldstein, Human Past SCAS Senior Fellow (Title—TBA)
2026-04-15 15:15 - 16:30 | Blåsenhus, seminar room 12:010 (ground floor), von Kraemers allé 1, Uppsala, 752 36, Sweden
Abstract – TBA

David Goldstein received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. His research lies at the intersection of language evolution, classical philology, linguistic theory, and computational modelling. He specialises in the structure and historical development of Indo-European languages, with particular focus on Greek and Latin.

Talks of the Past Open Seminar: Understanding Yamnaya, in Archaeology, Genetics, and Linguistics, speaker Volker Heyd
2026-05-06 15:15 - 16:30 | Blåsenhus, seminar room 12:010 (ground floor), von Kraemers allé 1, Uppsala, 752 36, Sweden
Abstract – TBA

Seminar speaker: Volker Heyd, Department of Cultures, University of Helsinki;
Volker Heyd’s publications on Google Scholar
