Highlights
- •Even with well-preserved DNA, ancient human kinship studies show specific ambiguities.
- •Increasing numbers of genetic markers provide a solution to ancient kinship studies.
- •Modern pastoral Yakuts constitute a population comparable to their pastoral ancestors.
- •The precise study of kinship allows the identification of structural characteristics.
Abstract
For fifteen years, part of the work of our research team has been focused on the study
of parental links between individuals living hundreds or thousands of years ago, whose
remains have been found in single graves or large funerary complexes. These studies
have been undertaken using methods developed by forensic genetics to identify individuals,
mainly based on the genotyping of autosomal STR (Short Tandem Repeats). Issues arose
from this work, namely the limits of studying small numbers of subjects, originating
from groups of finite sizes where kinships cannot be inferred a priori and for which reference allelic frequencies do not exist. Although ideal human populations
are rare when undertaking such studies, the Yakuts of Eastern Siberia constitute a
very advantageous model, with large numbers of small pastoral communities and well-preserved
archaeological material. The study of kinship in the ancient Yakuts allowed us to
highlight the difficulties in analysing genetic data from small ancient human groups
and to develop a strategy to improve the accuracy of statistical computations. This
work describes this strategy and possible solutions to the study of populations outside
of the frame of reference of global meta-populations, due either to isolation, remoteness
or antiquity.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 29, 2016
Accepted:
July 27,
2016
Received in revised form:
July 5,
2016
Received:
February 29,
2016
Identification
Copyright
© 2016 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
