Roman Era Anatolia

Population history of coastal and inland societies from an archaeogenomic perspective (2021–2024)

Investigation of the Population History of the Roman Era Coastal and Inland Societies in Anatolia from an Archaeogenomic Perspective

   
Role Principal Investigator
Funding TÜBİTAK 1001 Scientific and Technological Research Projects Funding Program (121Z485)
Additional funding Hacettepe University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit (BAP), 2023–2025
Duration 2021–2024
Host institution Department of Anthropology, Hacettepe University

Background

Anatolia has long stood at a crossroads of human movement. Ancient DNA research in the region has focused mainly on the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, when Anatolia played a central role in the spread of farming into western Eurasia. Later periods, when the peninsula sat at the intersection of major trade and sea routes, have remained largely unexplored. This is especially true of the Roman era, which profoundly shaped Anatolian history: archaeogenomic studies of the Roman world have so far concentrated on Italy, the Iberian Peninsula and the Levant, revealing high genetic diversity and extensive gene flow between regions. Preliminary data from Roman-era Tlos and Boğazköy/Hattuşa pointed to continuity with the earlier Anatolian gene pool, but larger samples are needed to understand how local communities and newcomers interacted across the region.

Aims

The project investigates the population structure of Roman-era Anatolia through time and across space, generating ancient genomes from Roman-period Anatolian skeletons to compare the genetic diversity of coastal and inland communities and to model the relationships between regions in detail.

Sites and data

The project targets ancient DNA from 90 individuals, 30 from each of three sites, with direct radiocarbon dating of selected individuals:

  • Tlos (Muğla), in Roman Lycia
  • Perge (Antalya), in Roman Pamphylia
  • Karlığın Tepesi (Malatya), excavated during rescue excavations in southeastern Anatolia

Genomes from Boğazköy/Hattuşa in central Anatolia, spanning the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages, provide a comparative time series.

Methods

Genetic structure is explored through clustering analyses, and population history is modelled with f-statistics and admixture models. The timing of admixture events is estimated using ALDER and DATES.

  • Human Mobility in the First Millennium AD of Asia Minor: An Archaeogenomic Approach. 93rd Annual Meeting of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists, 2024.
  • İnsan Hareketliliğinin İzleri: Roma İmparatorluğu’nda Popülasyon Yapısı [Traces of Human Mobility: Population Structure in the Roman Empire]. 8th Biological Anthropology Symposium, Ankara, 2023.