Archaeology is no longer simply a matter of digging in the earth and retrieving relics and artifacts. It now involves many sciences, and each one contributes to completing the historic picture of the past. Archaeogenetics is the study of the DNA found in various archaeological sites. Thanks to this technique, archaeologists may now not only know where civilizations were located, but who the people actually were, what other groups they may have been related too, and where they migrated from.
DNA studies have enable archaeologists to get a better picture of the world, its people, and how they moved from place to place, and it has brought about some amazing discoveries. Today, the combined sciences are revealing who migrated where and how some early civilizations, that were thousands of miles apart, are actually closely related.
One of the most commonly used techniques to identify any group of people living in a particular area has always been through the materials they left behind. However, in the past, similar artifacts were found at archaeological sites around the world, often thousands of miles apart. Archaeologists questioned how various cultures developed similar styles, and could only conjecture as to how these similarities came about. With the use of archaeogenetics, however, it was discovered that cultures and groups of people were always on the move, traveling to new areas and taking their customs and their skills with them. For the archaeologist, this has cleared up many mysteries, and enabled them to better map out the precise routes that were taken thousands of years ago.
Through archaeogenetics, it has been determined where civilization itself began, what and where cultures came together, and what their influence was on one another. It has also been discovered that people once thought to have had no contact with one another, were often connected in the distant past. This gives the archaeologist a time frame to work with, as they continue to delve back further in history.
Genetics are not only used in relation to humans. They are also a method to identify the origins of animals and plants, which are further indicators of where and when they were used and introduced into various regions.
Over all , Archaeogenetics has been a boon to the field of archaeology. This is just another scientific application that has benefited research in the last century. It has become more than simply a method of collecting interesting facts about human development. It has become a guide for organizing historical time lines.
