Biology subjects

Knipper, C.

Publications and source records attributed to Knipper, C..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Unveiling the complexity of post-Roman polity formation using ancient DNA

The transformation of the Roman world (4th-9th centuries CE) culminating in the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century marked a fundamental transition in European history. "Barbarian" groups and Roman provincial societies merged into enduring political frameworks in some places but not in others. Key questions persist regarding the regionally specific nature of this transformation. Here, we present one of the most densely sampled early medieval datasets to date, enabling the reconstruction of a post-Roman polity at an unprecedented micro-regional resolution. Our integrated genetic and archaeological analysis of two Roman-period (n=68) and five post-Roman (n=246) sites from the Little Hungarian Plain, a former Roman frontier region, reveals a significant increase in Northern European genetic ancestry, likely reflecting a large-scale population movement into the region. Moreover, while all post-Roman sites, dated to the time of the Langobard Kingdom, share similar genetic profiles, burial practices, and material culture, they display distinct patterns of social organization, especially regarding the role that biological relatedness played in each community. Our results suggest that distinct social hierarchies might have existed between sites, and their intensive connectivity probably formed the basis for regional-level organisation within the post-Roman polity. Our study provides a framework for investigating how new polities take shape after the collapse of major political systems. Applied more broadly, this approach can deepen our understanding of societal transformation across early medieval Europe and beyond, offering a richer and more nuanced view of the human past than ever before.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Archaeogenomic Distinctiveness of the Isthmo-Colombian Area

The recently enriched genomic history of Indigenous groups in the Americas is still meagre concerning continental Central America. Here, we report ten pre-Hispanic (plus two early colonial) genomes and 84 genome-wide profiles from seven groups presently living in Panama. Our analyses reveal that pre-Hispanic demographic changes and isolation events contributed to create the extensive genetic structure currently seen in the area, which is also characterized by a distinctive Isthmo-Colombian Indigenous component. This component drives these populations on a specific variability axis and derives from the local admixture of different ancestries of northern North American origin(s). Two of these ancestries were differentially associated to Pleistocene Indigenous groups that also moved into South America leaving heterogenous footprints. An additional Pleistocene ancestry was brought by UPopI, a still unsampled population that remained restricted to the Isthmian area, expanded locally during the early Holocene, and left genomic traces up to the present.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2018

The genetic prehistory of the Greater Caucasus

Archaeogenetic studies have described the formation of Eurasian steppe ancestry as a mixture of Eastern and Caucasus hunter-gatherers. However, it remains unclear when and where this ancestry arose and whether it was related to a horizon of cultural innovations in the 4th millennium BCE that subsequently facilitated the advance of pastoral societies likely linked to the dispersal of Indo-European languages. To address this, we generated genome-wide SNP data from 45 prehistoric individuals along a 3000-year temporal transect in the North Caucasus. We observe a genetic separation between the groups of the Caucasus and those of the adjacent steppe. The Caucasus groups are genetically similar to contemporaneous populations south of it, suggesting that - unlike today - the Caucasus acted as a bridge rather than an insurmountable barrier to human movement. The steppe groups from Yamnaya and subsequent pastoralist cultures show evidence for previously undetected farmer-related ancestry from different contact zones, while Steppe Maykop individuals harbour additional Upper Palaeolithic Siberian and Native American related ancestry.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2017

The maternal genetic make-up of the Iberian Peninsula between the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age

Agriculture first reached the Iberian Peninsula around 5700 BCE. However, little is known about the genetic structure and changes of prehistoric populations in different geographic areas of Iberia. In our study, we focused on the maternal genetic makeup of the Neolithic ([~] 5500-3000 BCE), Chalcolithic ([~] 3000-2200 BCE) and Early Bronze Age ([~] 2200-1500 BCE). We report ancient mitochondrial DNA results of 213 individuals (151 HVS-I sequences) from the northeast, central, southeast and southwest regions and thus on the largest archaeogenetic dataset from the Peninsula to date. Similar to other parts of Europe, we observe a discontinuity between hunter-gatherers and the first farmers of the Neolithic. During the subsequent periods, we detect regional continuity of Early Neolithic lineages across Iberia, however the genetic contribution of hunter-gatherers is generally higher than in other parts of Europe and varies regionally. In contrast to ancient DNA findings from Central Europe, we do not observe a major turnover in the mtDNA record of the Iberian Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, suggesting that the population history of the Iberian Peninsula is distinct in character.

genetics↗