Mitochondrial DNA Evidence for Community Building and Population Dynamics at a Multi-Phase Roman Site (Gabii, Italy, 8th Century BC– 2nd Century AD)

Archaeological work at Gabii in Italy has revealed burials in the settlement area dating to three different time periods: Iron Age, Archaic and Imperial. In this paper, we investigate the genetic characteristics of the people buried at Gabii, integrating mitochondrial DNA evidence with archaeological and historical contexts to address questions about community and population dynamics, such as whether biological lineages persisted through time and whether there were biological links among high-status and anomalous burials. We discovered that the people buried at Gabii showed biological links within but not between time periods. Although the majority of the skeletal remains of the individuals in this project were lost in a 2020 wildfire, future work using the genomic libraries prepared for this study is planned, provided that the endogenous aDNA content is sufficient for analysis.Online Supplementary MaterialsAppendix AAppendix B