Medieval History
Using only a tooth, researchers at Idaho State University can help solve ancient archeological mysteries ? for example, determining what someone ate hundreds of years ago on Easter Island or tracing the genetics of 2,000-year-old Roman slaves ? by utilizing new technologies and methods.
?One single tooth from a skeleton can tell you a whole lot of things,? said John Dudgeon, Idaho State University anthropology assistant professor, who, among other duties, is the director of the ISU Anthropology-Biology Ancient DNA Extraction Laboratory.
Dudgeon, whose specialty is ?bioarchaeology,? and his students can extract residues from teeth and other skeletal fragments, such as old or ?ancient? DNA, stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen and microfossils of plants eaten by prehistoric people and animals, by using the DNA Extraction Laboratory, scanning electron microscopy and other advanced instrumentation in the ISU Center for Archaeology, Materials and Applied Spectroscopy.
Click here to read this article from History of the Ancient World
- Greenland?s Viking Settlers Gorged On Seals
Greenland?s Viking settlers, the Norse, disappeared suddenly and mysteriously from Greenland about 500 years ago. Natural disasters, climate change and the inability to adapt have all been proposed as theories to explain their disappearance. But now a...
- Scientists Discover Existence Of Brucellosis Disease In The Middle Ages
Two teams of Michigan State University researchers ? one working at a medieval burial site in Albania, the other at a DNA lab in East Lansing ? have shown how modern science can unlock the mysteries of the past. The scientists are the first to confirm...
- Ancient Cooking Pots Reveal Gradual Transition To Agriculture
Humans may have undergone a gradual rather than an abrupt transition from fishing, hunting and gathering to farming, according to a new study of ancient pottery. Researchers at the University of York and the University of Bradford analysed cooking residues...
- St John The Baptist's Bones 'found In Bulgarian Monastery'
The remains of St John the Baptist have been found in an ancient reliquary in a 5th century monastery on Sveti Ivan Island in Bulgaria, archaeologists have claimed. The remains ? small fragments of a skull, bones from a jaw and an arm, and a tooth ?...
- Teeth Of Columbus?s Crew Flesh Out Tale Of New World Discovery
The adage that dead men tell no tales has long been disproved by archaeology. Now, however, science is taking interrogation of the dead to new heights. In a study that promises fresh and perhaps personal insight into the earliest European visitors to...
Medieval History
Researchers to use DNA to learn origins of Roman slaves
Using only a tooth, researchers at Idaho State University can help solve ancient archeological mysteries ? for example, determining what someone ate hundreds of years ago on Easter Island or tracing the genetics of 2,000-year-old Roman slaves ? by utilizing new technologies and methods.
?One single tooth from a skeleton can tell you a whole lot of things,? said John Dudgeon, Idaho State University anthropology assistant professor, who, among other duties, is the director of the ISU Anthropology-Biology Ancient DNA Extraction Laboratory.
Dudgeon, whose specialty is ?bioarchaeology,? and his students can extract residues from teeth and other skeletal fragments, such as old or ?ancient? DNA, stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen and microfossils of plants eaten by prehistoric people and animals, by using the DNA Extraction Laboratory, scanning electron microscopy and other advanced instrumentation in the ISU Center for Archaeology, Materials and Applied Spectroscopy.
Click here to read this article from History of the Ancient World
- Greenland?s Viking Settlers Gorged On Seals
Greenland?s Viking settlers, the Norse, disappeared suddenly and mysteriously from Greenland about 500 years ago. Natural disasters, climate change and the inability to adapt have all been proposed as theories to explain their disappearance. But now a...
- Scientists Discover Existence Of Brucellosis Disease In The Middle Ages
Two teams of Michigan State University researchers ? one working at a medieval burial site in Albania, the other at a DNA lab in East Lansing ? have shown how modern science can unlock the mysteries of the past. The scientists are the first to confirm...
- Ancient Cooking Pots Reveal Gradual Transition To Agriculture
Humans may have undergone a gradual rather than an abrupt transition from fishing, hunting and gathering to farming, according to a new study of ancient pottery. Researchers at the University of York and the University of Bradford analysed cooking residues...
- St John The Baptist's Bones 'found In Bulgarian Monastery'
The remains of St John the Baptist have been found in an ancient reliquary in a 5th century monastery on Sveti Ivan Island in Bulgaria, archaeologists have claimed. The remains ? small fragments of a skull, bones from a jaw and an arm, and a tooth ?...
- Teeth Of Columbus?s Crew Flesh Out Tale Of New World Discovery
The adage that dead men tell no tales has long been disproved by archaeology. Now, however, science is taking interrogation of the dead to new heights. In a study that promises fresh and perhaps personal insight into the earliest European visitors to...