Oct 12, 2026 · 36 min · 11 segments
Chris dives into the world of ancient DNA methods with Elena Essel, a molecular geneticist and ancient-DNA researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. Her…
Chris LynnHost
Well, let me read the name of the article that you have out so that readers know what we're talking about.
So it's ancient human DNA recovered from a paleolithic pendant and it appeared in nature a few years ago, but this is just, this is amazing stuff.
So when we look at the Paleolithic times, when you look at a typical excavation that looks into Paleolithic times, what often is the case is that you have a lot of sediment in those sites and then you dig.
And even if there was a burial context, which we don't know, it's not visible anymore.
And so it's basically impossible to direct an object that is found at an excavation to the skeleton.
And that was a bit of a frustrating part because there are so many artifact websites and there's so much to learn about how these people lived and how they basically did their daily life.
And then the most exciting question for me was then those layers at sites where we have to sit with the so-called transitional periods.
We have Neanderthal technology, modern human technology, and then we have something sandwiched in between.
So for example, the Sheppartonian technology, there's still debate who was the actual maker of this technology.
And in 2018, we thought we came a bit closer because that's That was when we, for the first time, or when we published the method on how we can isolate DNA from the sediment.
Well, let me read the name of the article that you have out so that readers know what we're talking about.
So it's ancient human DNA recovered from a paleolithic pendant and it appeared in nature a few years ago, but this is just, this is amazing stuff.
So when we look at the Paleolithic times, when you look at a typical excavation that looks into Paleolithic times, what often is the case is that you have a lot of sediment in those sites and then you dig.
And even if there was a burial context, which we don't know, it's not visible anymore.
And so it's basically impossible to direct an object that is found at an excavation to the skeleton.
And that was a bit of a frustrating part because there are so many artifact websites and there's so much to learn about how these people lived and how they basically did their daily life.
And then the most exciting question for me was then those layers at sites where we have to sit with the so-called transitional periods.
We have Neanderthal technology, modern human technology, and then we have something sandwiched in between.
So for example, the Sheppartonian technology, there's still debate who was the actual maker of this technology.
And in 2018, we thought we came a bit closer because that's That was when we, for the first time, or when we published the method on how we can isolate DNA from the sediment.
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