Archaeology and Ancient DNA meeting (Cold Spring Harbour)

Tom Higham, along with David Reich (Harvard) and Svante Pääbo (Leipzig), organised a 2 day meeting in Cold Spring Harbour, New York, on the topic of archaeology and ancient DNA.

The field of archaeogenetics is moving very rapidly indeed and it seems that we are entering a new era in terms of the relationship between archaeologists and geneticists and what the latter might expect from the former in terms of establishing a more routine, almost commercial-like servce.

An invited group, including geneticists Johannes Krause, Wolfgang Haak, Qiaomei Fu, Dan Bradley, Greger Larson, Beth Shapiro and others, as well as archaeologists including Kristian Kristiansen, Nicole Boivin, Ester Banffy, David Meltzer and others, met for 2 days of discussion and presentations. Several themes and questions were broached including:

- What are the big questions that we can address with archaeogenetics?

- How can geneticists provide useful information to archaeolgists?

- Is there a way to collaborate better at the outset?

- What would a useful genetics report look like for archaeologists?

- How can we improve recovery rates in challenging areas?

- What issues arise with sampling of important materials? How can reduce the destruction of precious artefacts and maximise recovery of DNA at the same time?

We also discussed opportunities for future meetings and collaboration.

Cold Spring Harbour is a private, not-for-profit research and education institute for molecular biology and genetics. The Banbury centre is a small conference location at the Laboratory which is a wonderful place to meet and discuss science. It usually runs meetings for small invited groups of scientists.

(Above left): David Reich leads a discussion. (Above right): Nice transfers to the airport for us!