arXiv subjects

Mehmet Somel

Publications and source records attributed to Mehmet Somel.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Ancient DNA in motion: Studying past human mobility and interactions by integrating archaeogenetics and archaeology

Here, we present an overview of how archaeogenomic data can be used to investigate past mobilities and how it can be integrated with archaeological research to reconstruct models of human mobility at different scales. We first seek to explain the importance of a clear terminological and theoretical approach to mobility, discussing terms such as migration, admixture, ancestry, and replacement. We then describe the theoretical principles and state-of-the-art tools for inferring past mobility from ancient DNA data, including exploratory approaches and formal modeling, and the relevance of using diverse lines of evidence including allele-frequency patterns, haplotype-sharing, genetic relatedness, and uniparental markers. We further discuss the power and limitations of these methods for inferring different modes of mobility, such as large-scale and long-distance mobility, which we refer to as migration, and also small-scale and short-distance movements, which we argue constituted the bulk of past human mobility and may have had the major share in shaping cultural landscapes. We also describe inference of sex-biased mobility events. Finally, we present examples of joint analyses of genomic data with archaeological, bioarchaeological and historical evidence, demonstrating the potential of interdisciplinary analyses in building comprehensive models of past mobilities. We finish by calling for further integration across fields.

q-bio.PE↗

arXiv2024

"A network of mutualities of being": socio-material archaeological networks and biological ties at Çatalhöyük

Recent advances in archaeogenomics have granted access to previously unavailable biological information with the potential to further our understanding of past social dynamics at a range of scales. However, to properly integrate these data within archaeological narratives, new methodological and theoretical tools are required. Effort must be put into finding new methods for weaving together different datasets where material culture and archaeogenomic data are both constitutive elements. This is true on a small scale, when we study relationships at the individual level, and at a larger scale when we deal with social and population dynamics. Specifically, in the study of kinship systems it is essential to contextualize and make sense of biological relatedness through social relations, which, in archaeology, is achieved by using material culture as a proxy. In this paper we propose a Network Science framework to integrate archaeogenomic data and material culture at an intrasite scale to study biological relatedness and social organization at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük. Methodologically, we propose the use of network variance to investigate the concentration of biological relatedness and material culture within networks of houses. This approach allowed us to observe how material culture similarity between buildings gives valuable information on potential biological relationships between individuals and how biogenetic ties concentrate at specific localities on site.

physics.soc-ph↗