Genetic Kinship and Sex Determination of Early Modern Period Human Remains from a Defunct Graveyard in the Former Village of Obora (Located on Šporkova Street in Prague’s Lesser Town District)

Jana Nováčková,Dana Kvítková,Martin Omelka,Vlastimil Stenzl,Otakara Řebounová

doi:10.24916/iansa.2018.2.4

Jana Nováčková, Dana Kvítková + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.24916/iansa.2018.2.4

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Abstract

Genetic Kinship and Sex Determination of Early Modern Period Human Remains from a Defunct Graveyard in the Former Village of Obora (Located on Šporkova Street in Prague’s Lesser Town District)

Highlights

The implementation of genetic analyses into studies of archaeological skeletal remains can provide information about genetic kinship (Ciu et al, 2015; Deguilloux et al, 2014) and the genetic sex of children, when incomplete and poorly-preserved skeletons (Álvarez‐Sandova et al, 2014; Lassen et al, 2000; Tierney, Bird, 2014) cannot be reliably determined with different methods
Genetic sex and genetic kinship was evaluated for individuals that were successfully genotyped in several independent reactions of two or three different samples from one individual
The results of the genetic analyses confirmed the hypothesis about the funerary practices of Early Modern period burghers, which was based on the study of historical written sources such as death registers, parish registers and testaments

Summary

Introduction

The implementation of genetic analyses into studies of archaeological skeletal remains can provide information about genetic kinship (Ciu et al, 2015; Deguilloux et al, 2014) and the genetic sex of children, when incomplete and poorly-preserved skeletons (Álvarez‐Sandova et al, 2014; Lassen et al, 2000; Tierney, Bird, 2014) cannot be reliably determined with different methods. Analyses of ancient DNA (aDNA) have been previously used in demographic studies of skeletal archaeological remains from several archaeological sites in the Czech Republic, for example, by Boberová et al, 2012, Bravermanová et al, 2018, or Frolík et al, 2017. The determination of genetic kinship among the buried individuals would give an important insight into understanding funerary practices, and the social and demographic structures of historical cultures. While working with our samples for genetic analyses, we followed the instructions published by Yang and Watt (2005)

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