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Editorial

Journal of Archeaological Science

Keri A. Brown, University of Manchester
Email: keri.brown@manchester.ac.uk

It has been an unexpected but enjoyable task to put together my own selection of papers on ancient DNA research that have appeared in JAS over the last 22 years. The history of ancient DNA research is reflected here, from its earliest beginnings in 1985 as a scientific curiosity, from the excitement of the discovery that the polymerase chain reaction could be used to amplify degraded DNA templates in the late 1980s, the first amplifications of human DNA from archaeological bone samples in 1989, the realisation in the mid-1990s that contamination was a major issue, to the concerns with establishing standards for ancient DNA research. The latter is still a live debate, as is contamination. In 2000 a pivotal paper was published entitled ‘Ancient DNA – Do it right or not at all’ (Cooper and Poinar in Science) which set out the concerns and standards for the field. Many papers have been rejected by JAS because they have not followed these standards. JAS is not to be used as a ‘dumping ground’ for work that is substandard or trivial. I have chosen papers that I feel have made a significant contribution to ancient DNA research, either methodologically or through applications to archaeological questions. This is after all a journal of Archaeological Science, so some archaeology ought to appear somewhere!

>> Read the full editorial

2008

External linkTemperature monitoring in archaeological animal bone samples in the Near East arid area, before, during and after excavation
Volume 35, Issue 4, April 2008, Pages 873-881
Ruth Bollongino and Jean-Denis Vigne

 

2007

External linkMitochondrial haplogroup M discovered in prehistoric North Americans
Volume 34, Issue 4, April 2007
Ripan S. Malhi, Brian M. Kemp, Jason A. Eshleman, Jerome Cybulski, David Glenn Smith, Scott Cousins and Harold Harry

External linkDigging deeper into the limits of ancient DNA research on syphilis
Volume 34, Issue 12, December 2007, Pages 2091-2100
Tanya E. von Hunnius, Dongya Yang, Barry Eng, John S. Waye and Shelley R. Saunders

 

2006

 

External linkVariable nucleotide tandem repeat (VNTR) typing of two palaeopathological cases of lepromatous leprosy from Mediaeval England
Volume 33, Issue 11, November 2006
G.M. Taylor, C.L. Watson, A.S. Bouwman, D.N.J. Lockwood and S.A. Mays

 

External linkGenetic analysis of archaeological wood remains: first results and prospects
Volume 33, Issue 9, September 2006
M.F. Deguilloux, L. Bertel, A. Celant, M.H. Pemonge, L. Sadori, D. Magri and R.J. Petit

 

External linkAncient olive DNA in pits: preservation, amplification and sequence analysis 
Volume 33, Issue 1, January 2006
Rivka Elbaum, Cathy Melamed-Bessudo, Elisabetta Boaretto, Ehud Galili, Simcha Lev-Yadun, Avraham A. Levy and Steve Weiner

2005

External linkThe limits of biomolecular palaeopathology: ancient DNA cannot be used to study venereal syphilis
Volume 32, Issue 5, May 2005
Abigail S. Bouwman and Terence A. Brown

External linkReal-time quantitative PCR to assess the authenticity of ancient DNA amplification
Volume 31, Issue 9, September 2004
Mélanie Pruvost and Eva-Maria Geigl

External linkDNA from primitive maize landraces and archaeological remains: implications for the domestication of maize and its expansion into South America 
Volume 30, Issue 7, July 2003
Fabio Oliveira Freitas, Gerhard Bendel, Robin G. Allaby and Terence A. Brown

External linkMicrosatellites from archaeological Vitis vinifera seeds allow a tentative assignment of the geographical origin of ancient cultivars
Volume 30, Issue 6, June 2003
J. -F. Manen, L. Bouby, O. Dalnoki, P. Marinval, M. Turgay and A. Schlumbaum

2001

External linkSex Identification in Some Putative Infanticide Victims from Roman Britain Using Ancient DNA
Volume 28, Issue 5, May 2001
Simon Mays and Marina Faerman

2000

External linkA Mediaeval Case of Lepromatous Leprosy from 13–14th Century Orkney, Scotland
Volume 27, Issue 12, December 2000
G. Michael Taylor, Stephanie Widdison, Ivor N. Brown, Douglas Young and Theya Molleson

1998

External linkDetermining the Sex of Infanticide Victims from the Late Roman Era through Ancient DNA Analysis
Volume 25, Issue 9, September 1998
Marina Faerman, Gila Kahila Bar-Gal, Dvora Filon, Charles L. Greenblatt, Lawrence Stager, Ariella Oppenheim and Patricia Smith

External linkCoexistence of Tetraploid and Hexaploid Naked Wheat in a Neolithic Lake Dwelling of Central Europe: Evidence from Morphology and Ancient DNA
Volume 25, Issue 11, November 1998
Angela Schlumbaum, Jean-Marc Neuhaus and Stefanie Jacomet

1997

External linkDNA Analysis of Seven Human Skeletons Excavated from the Terp of Wijnaldum
Volume 24, Issue 10, October 1997
I. B. Colson, M. B. Richards, J. F. Bailey, B. C. Sykes and R. E. M. Hedges

External linkDNA from Mycobacterium tuberculosis Identified in Mediaeval Human Skeletal Remains Using Polymerase Chain Reaction 
Volume 23, Issue 5, September 1996
Michael G. Taylor, Mary Crossey, John Saldanha and Tony Waldron

External linkMycobacterium tuberculosis Complex DNA in Ancient Human Bones
Volume 23, Issue 5, September 1996
Heike Baron, Susanne Hummel and Bernd Herrmann