Ancient Genomics and Irish Human History

The overarching aim of this project is to construct one of the most highly resolved prehistoric demographies known for any world region with long-term human occupation, with a specific focus on interrogating past cycles of collapse, recovery and migration. This will be done through the construction of a dense time-series dataset of ancient Irish genomes, which will be used (1) to provide rich detail to the size, structure and connectivity of Irish societies through space and time and (2) to unravel the evolutionary trajectories of loci of functional interest within the Irish population. These phenomena will be unpacked first at the macro-scale (e.g. islandwide patterning of variation), which will in turn provide deeper context to local histories (e.g. manifestations of kinship, mobility and disease within individual communities). Two PhD students will be hired to work on this project, with research focuses chosen based on strengths and interests. Within the four year duration, there will also be opportunities to work on one of two pilot studies. The first will use novel sedimentary aDNA techniques (sedaDNA), in an attempt to characterise human populations living on the island during periods where unburnt bone is sparse or absent. The second will focus on ancient pathogen detection in tooth and calculus samples, including potential causative agents of past epidemics.