Center for the Human Past
Publications
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Homo sapiens-specific evolution unveiled by ancient southern African genomes, published in Nature
Read more →: Homo sapiens-specific evolution unveiled by ancient southern African genomes, published in NatureMattias Jakobsson and Carina Schlebusch are two co-authors of the study on ancient South Africans that was just published. Abstract Homo sapiens evolved hundreds of thousands of years ago in Africa, later spreading across the globe, but the early evolutionary process is debated. Here we present whole-genome sequencing data for 28 ancient southern African individuals, including…
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The Indo-European Cognate Relationships dataset is now published
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Read more →: The Indo-European Cognate Relationships dataset is now publishedAbstract The Indo-European Cognate Relationships (IE-CoR) dataset is an open-access relational dataset showing how related, inherited words (‘cognates’) pattern across 160 languages of the Indo-European family. IE-CoR is intended as a benchmark dataset for computational research into the evolution of the Indo-European languages. It is structured around 170 reference meanings in core lexicon, and contains…
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Book alert! Indo-European ecologies: Cattle and milk—snakes and water.
Read more →: Book alert! Indo-European ecologies: Cattle and milk—snakes and water.This is the second volume in the series Stockholm Studies in Indo-European Language and Culture (open access). Jenny Larsson, professor in Baltic languages, with a primary interest in the history of languages, is one of the co-editors. This volume brings together scholars from different fields, exploring how early Indo-European communities understood and mythologised their natural and social…
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A new book on Indo-European research
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Read more →: A new book on Indo-European researchOur colleague, Axel Palmér has just published a book Indo-Slavic Lexical Isoglosses and the Prehistoric Dispersal of Indo-Iranian. Axel I. Palmér, Ph.D. (2024, Leiden University), is currently a Human Past Junior Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS) in Uppsala, Sweden. His research focuses on the origin and development of the Indo-European languages…
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Fulani: new study unravels the genetic history of Africa’s largest pastoralist community
Read more →: Fulani: new study unravels the genetic history of Africa’s largest pastoralist communityA popular science feature on the recently published Fulani study (see our news item) is available in The Conversation – Africa. Carina Schlebusch and Cesar Fortes-Lima are two of three co-authors. African populations remain underrepresented in genomic studies. Only about 1.1% of genomic data being used for studies of the links between genes and diseases has come from…
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The Indo-European language puzzle can be solved
Read more →: The Indo-European language puzzle can be solvedIn response to the article The genetic origins of the Indo-Europeans, recently published in Nature, Jenny Larsson was one of the researchers interviewed by the popular science magazine Forskning & Framsteg. The text, Den Indoeuropeiska språkgåtan kan vara löst, based on the interviews, is available to the subscribers (in Swedish). Genetic researchers have cracked a…
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Carina Schlebusch is the Editor-in-Chief of the HPGG journal
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Read more →: Carina Schlebusch is the Editor-in-Chief of the HPGG journalJoshua Akey, Professor, Lewis-Sigler Institute, Princeton University, USA, and Carina Schlebusch, Professor, Human Evolution, Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University, Sweden, are the Editors-in-Chief. The Human Population Genetics and Genomics Journal (HPGG; ISSN 2770-5005) is an international peer-reviewed Open Access journal published quarterly by Pivot Science Publications. This journal aims to publish discoveries and recent breakthroughs…
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New read alert: Population history and admixture of the Fulani people from the Sahel
Read more →: New read alert: Population history and admixture of the Fulani people from the SahelThe new paper by Fortes-Lima, Diallo, Janoušek, Černý, and Schlebusch (2025) was published last week in The American Journal of Human Genetics. Researchers have uncovered the origins and genetic diversity of the Fulani, one of Africa’s largest pastoral populations. The study reveals a complex genetic ancestry with influences from North and West Africa, shaped by historical migrations that have left a…
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Reading tips by CHP
Read more →: Reading tips by CHPErik Elgh & Harald Hammarström. 2024. The dialect chain tree. A perennial conflict in historical linguistics centers around the theoretical and practical virtues of tree-like divergence and wave-like diffusion. The Dialect Chain Tree is an extension of the tree model that incorporates both tree-like descent and disintegration of dialect chains in a systematic fashion. As…
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“Indo-European Interfaces” – the book is launched
Read more →: “Indo-European Interfaces” – the book is launchedJenny Larsson, professor in Baltic languages with main interest in the history of languages is one of the co-editors of the first book in series “Stockholm Studies in Indo-European Language and Culture”, fresh out of the press. The book addresses the recent advancements in multiple research disciplines that intersect with historical linguistics. Notably, breakthroughs in…