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DNA analysis of bones from Grave Circle B at Mycenae: a first report1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Terence A. Brown ,
Keri A. Brown ,
Christine E. Flaherty ,
Lisa M. Little  and
A.J.N.W. Prag
Terence A. Brown
Affiliation:
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
Keri A. Brown
Affiliation:
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology
Christine E. Flaherty
Affiliation:
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology andColumbia University
Lisa M. Little
Affiliation:
Indiana University
A.J.N.W. Prag
Affiliation:
The Manchester Museum
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Abstract

Following the successful identification of at least two different family groups in Grave Circle B using facial reconstruction (BSA 90 [1995], 107–36), a pilot project was carried out at Manchester to identify, analyse and match 22 DNA samples from burials in the Grave Circle. The first step was to determine whether ancient DNA has survived, as proved to be the case; the next was to use this information to sex the individual by polymerase chain reactions (PCRs). In some cases the results provided information which the excavators had not been able to achieve because of the poor state of the skeletal remains; in one there was an apparent disagreement between the DNA result and the conclusion reached on archaeological and anatomical grounds. The overall results suggest that these methods have considerable potential for kinship studies in Aegean Bronze Age populations.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 95 , November 2000 , pp. 115 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 2000

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References

2 e.g. J. L. Angel in Mylonas, Grave Circle B, 389–90; Dickinson, O. T. P. K., The Origins of Mycenaean Civilisation (SIMA 49, Göteborg, 1977), 40–49, 50–51Google Scholar; Kilian-Dirlmeier, I., ‘Beobachtungen zu der Schachtgräbern von Mykenai und zu der Schmuckbeigaben mykenischer Männergräber’, Jahrbuch des römisch-germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz, 33 (1986), 156–98Google Scholar.

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5 Brown, K. A., ‘Gender and sex: what can ancient DNA tell us?’, Ancient Biomolccules, 2 (1998), 3–15Google Scholar; Sullivan, K. M., Mannucci, A., Kimpton, C. P., and Gill, P., ‘A rapid and quantitative DNA sex test: fluorescence-based PCR analysis of X–Y homologous gene amelogenin’, Bio Techniques, 15 (1993), 636–41Google ScholarPubMed.

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9 Mylonas, Grave Circle B, 34–5, 400 (Mylonas' internal cross-reference is wrong), pl. 23 α; Angel's report is on p. 379, with Table 1.

10 ibid., 46–7, 379–80; Dickinson (n. 2), 45–6; BSA 90 (1995), 119–21Google Scholar.

11 Mylonas, Grave Circle B, 185–6, 402, pl. 161, with Angel's report on p. 383.

12 ibid., 129–31, 401, with Angel's report on p. 382; Dickinson (n. 2), 43; Cavanagh, W. and Mee, C., A Private Place: Death in Prehistoric Greece (SIMA 125; Jonsered, 1998), 28Google Scholar; Dietz, S., The Argolid at the Transition to the Mycenaean Age (Copenhagen, 1991), 106–32Google Scholar. In 1997 the box of remains from tomb A contained (1) a small bag of bone fragments, including a male os pubis, on the outside of which was the crossed-out place-name ‘Berbati’; and (2) the commingled cranial and post-cranial remains of three individuals, two adult males and one adult female.

13 The Romanovs: Gill, P., Ivanov, P. L., Kimpton, C., Piercy, R., Benson, N., Tully, G., Evett, I., Hagelberg, E. and Sullivan, K., ‘Identification of the remains of the Romanov family by DNA analysis’, Nature Genetics, 6 (1994) 130–5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. Microsateliite PCRs from archaeological remains: Kurosaki, K., Matsushita, T., and Ueda, S., ‘Individual DNA identifications from ancient human remains’, American Journal of Human Genetics, 53 (1993), 638–43Google Scholar.

14 On the ethnicity of the Argolid, e.g. Hall, Jonathan M., Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity (Cambridge, 1997), ch. 4CrossRefGoogle Scholar; more generally, Jones, Siân, The Archaeology of Ethnicity: Constructing Identities in the Past and Present (London and New York, 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.