Mini-Seminars & Journal Club
These seminars, often with invited guest researchers are fora for in-depth discussions on selected subjects within the scope of the Center for the Human Past interest areas.
Mini-Seminar:
Using the dog to date Torricelli languages with linguistic paleontology
4 Mar 2026
Speaker:
Erik Elgh, an affiliated researcher in general linguistics at Uppsala University, and current participant in the Postgraduate Linguistics Program, Faculty of Humanities, Udayana University, Indonesia
Summary
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).
Journal Club
11 Feb 2026
Moderator: Nikola Vukovic, PhD candidate
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
Journal Club
3 Dec 2025
Moderator: Noel Amano
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
Journal Club
26 Nov 2025
Moderators: Hugo Reyes Centeno & Jenny Larsson
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
Mini-Seminar:
REAL game – Reimagining algorithmic futures: 63 cards for thinking differently about algorithmic systems
19 Nov 2025
Speaker:
Julia Velkova, 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.
Summary
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.
Mini-Seminar:
Studying urban inequality in the past: lessons from Pompeii
22 Oct 2025
Speaker:
Samuli Simelius, a grant-funded researcher specialising in Roman urbanism and domestic space, current SCAS-Nordic Fellow
Summary
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.
Journal Club
24 Sept 2025
Moderator: Anthony Jakob
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.
Meet & Greet:
Flash Talks
10 Sept 2025
Informal CHP event with FlashTalks to allow the participants to get to know each other better and learn about their research projects.
Mini-Seminar:
Graves & Grammar. Interdisciplinary approaches to changes
in material culture, burial practice and language in Upper Dalarna 500-750 CE
21 May 2025
Speakers:
Yair Sapir, PhD of Scandinavian Languages, Senior Lecturer of Swedish, Kristianstad University
Joakim Wehlin, Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor, Archaeology, Uppsala University
Summary
Recent archaeological studies demonstrate changes in the material culture and burial practice in Upper Dalarna around 500-750 CE. The material culture and burial practice goes from a previously locally distinctive tradition with influences from all directions, to a tradition that culturally points towards more clear contacts with the Mälardalen region. As the recently published A Grammar of Elfdalian points out, Elfdalian and adjacent varieties, spoken to date in Upper Dalarna, have preserved some phonological and lexical features, which were inherited from the Ancient Nordic language (i.e., before c. 750 CE) and which were lost elsewhere in the Nordic language area after c. 750. Ancient Nordic was probably not native to Upper Dalarna at that time, as the local population is known to have consisted of hunter-gatherers and not farmers, as the native speakers of Germanic languages.
Results from both studies hence confirm the thesis that both material and immaterial influence have probably reached Upper Dalarna from the Mälardalen region. However, we believe that targeted interdisciplinary studies by means of an interdisciplinary research project could deepen our knowledge about this topic and further confirm. Hence, we would like to invite our audience to a discussion about the topic, suggestions for new perspectives that could be studied, as well as suggestions for concrete research collaboration for a future research project, where other disciplines are involved.
Journal Club
23 Apr 2025
Moderators: Carina Schlebusch &Luciana Simões
Cesar A. Fortes-Lima, Mame Y. Diallo, Václav Janoušek, Viktor Černý, Carina M. Schlebusch. (2025). Population history and admixture of the Fulani people from the Sahel, The American Journal of Human Genetics, Volume 112, Issue 2, 2025, Pages 261-275.
Simões, L.G., Günther, T., Martínez-Sánchez, R.M. et al. (2023). Northwest African Neolithic initiated by migrants from Iberia and Levant. Nature618, 550–556.
Journal Club
09 Apr 2025
Yediay, F.E., Kroonen, G., Sabatini, S., et al. (preprint) Ancient genomics support deep divergence between Eastern and Western Mediterranean Indo-European languages.
Journal Club
26 Feb 2025
Lazaridis, I., Patterson, N., Anthony, D. et al. The genetic origin of the Indo-Europeans. Nature 639, 132–142 (2025).
Mini-Seminar:
Baltic kinship terms in Finno-Ugric, Indo-European kinship terms and their family structure
27 Nov 2024
Speakers/moderators:
Yoko Yamazaki & Axel Palmér, Human Past SCAS Fellows (2024-25).
Summary
The Uralic expansion into Fennoscandia and Eastern Europe starting ca. 2000 BCE brought about intensive contacts with the Indo-European speakers in the area. Thus, ca. 200 Balto-Slavic / Baltic loanwords in the Finnic languages (2000–1000BCE or 1st Mill. BCE), 32 in Saamic, and 36 in Mordvinic are found. Particularly interesting type of loanwords would be the kinship loanwords between these language groups.
On one hand, they enable us to formulate several hypotheses as to how the family structure and marriage practice of the donor language are reflected in the recipient language. On the other hand, ancient demographic investigation could test those hypotheses, leading to a more concrete reconstruction of their contact situation.
In this mini seminar, we will present the summary of kinship loanwords between Baltic and Finno-Ugric languages with the Indo-European background of the family structure. We will further discuss the implication of these loanwords in this context.
Journal Club
23 Oct 2024
McColl, H., Kroonen, G., Moreno-Mayar, J. V., Valeur Seersholm, F., Scorrano, G., Pinotti, T., … & Willerslev, E. (2024). Steppe Ancestry in western Eurasia and the spread of the Germanic Languages. bioRxiv, 2024-03.
Mini-Seminar:
Blinded by the light –
Bifacial points and human mobility in Västerbotten, Sweden
16 Oct 2024
Speaker:
Mattias Sjölander, CHP postdoctoral researcher, Archaeology, Ancient History and Cultural Heritage, UU
Summary
Arguments have been made that the North Swedish groups mainly utilized the raw material sources present in the mountain region, producing preforms that are then brought to the forest settlements where they are finished. There is a lack of provenance studies based on quartz and quartzite material, however, partly owing to the ubiquitous distribution of the material in the landscape. This makes it difficult to establish a link between the potential sources and the artefacts. In a recent PhD project at Umeå University an interdisciplinary approach incorporating exploratory spectroscopic and spatial analysis was used in the study of bifacial points from Västerbotten County. Reliable characterization of the raw material is necessary in order to understand human mobility related to raw material extraction and use. There are a number of confounding factors related to the material and artefact type, however, including chronology, data availability, instrumentation and excavation context.
Towards the end of the Neolithic period significant cultural change seems to occur among the hunter-gatherer communities of northern Fennoscandia. In Sweden the hunter-gatherer communities seemingly abandon a long tradition of a more sedentary settlement system based around the semi-subterranean dwellings, and instead adopt a more mobile pattern. This occurs alongside other significant changes in the material culture, as well as in their symbolic imagery. A technology that appears to be reintroduced to northern Fennoscandia around this time is the bifacial point (arrow- and spearheads). These are largely made from locally sourced materials like quartz and quartzite (in some areas also flint).
Mini-Seminar:
Archaeolinguistic perspectives on the Proto-Indo-Iranian homeland
25 Sept 2024
Speaker:
Axel Palmér, Human Past SCAS Junior Fellow (2024-25)
Summary
While there is no evidence for pig husbandry in the Sintashta culture, Proto-Indo-Iranian inherited words for domestic pig from Proto-Indo-European, which point to a continuous familiarity with domestic pigs. To account for this, I propose that the boundaries of the Proto-Indo-Iranian homeland should be extended to include the Abashevo culture (to the west of the Ural mountains).
The Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European has been hypothesized to originate in the Ural region and to be correlated with the Sintashta culture (2100–1800 BCE). This hypothesis is based partly on matches between reconstructed Proto-Indo-Iranian terminology for chariots and archaeological evidence for chariots in the Sintashta culture. However, there are also mismatches in the material.