{"id":603402,"date":"2026-04-24T10:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T10:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/603402\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T10:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T10:07:12","slug":"new-secrets-of-human-evolution-unlocked-in-study-of-ancient-dna-from-europe-and-near-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/603402\/","title":{"rendered":"New secrets of human evolution unlocked in study of ancient DNA from Europe and Near East"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some 4,000 years ago, as ancient civilizations such as the Minoans in Crete and the Neo-Sumerian Empire in Mesopotamia were shaping cultures in Europe and the Middle East, human biology itself was evolving apace.<\/p>\n

A groundbreaking study of ancient DNA, published last week in the prestigious journal Nature<\/a>, has documented that the frequency of two DNA variants linked to celiac disease increased dramatically across populations in those regions.<\/p>\n

Hundreds more such DNA variants were also uncovered in the study, which sheds unprecedented light on how, in the past 10,000 years, human evolution, and specifically the biology of the human body, have been shaped by natural selection. (Natural selection occurs when a version of a gene linked to a specific trait, such as a disease like celiac, but also qualities like red hair or a blood type, proves advantageous enough for survival and reproduction).<\/p>\n

Led by scientists from Harvard University, the researchers analyzed and compared the genomes, or complete DNA sequences, of some 22,000 individuals. The data included 10,000 ancient genomes never studied before, 6,000 previously published genomes, and 6,000 modern individuals.<\/p>\n

Previously, only 21 genetic shifts due to natural selection \u2014 as opposed to migrations, community mergers, or similar factors \u2014 were known.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s so powerful to be able to watch evolution happening in action, not just to study the scars that evolution leaves on modern patterns of variation,\u201d the study\u2019s senior author, Harvard geneticist David Reich, told The Times of Israel in a video interview.<\/p>\n

\u2018Industrializing the production of ancient DNA<\/p>\n

Reich, who heads a lab focused on ancient DNA, biology, and disease, explained that extracting ancient DNA has only been possible for the past few years, and it took time to accumulate enough data to conduct a study on human evolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe technology for getting ancient DNA out of human remains only became available beginning in 2010,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s not an understatement to say that it has had a transformative impact on our understanding of the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tScientist at work at the Reich Lab on Ancient DNA, Biology, and Disease at Harvard University in an undated picture. (Andy Caulfield Architectural Photography)<\/p>\n

The scientist has authored many studies on the human history of specific groups, archaeological sites, and regions, including Jews<\/a> and populations in the land of Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Nature paper, which analyzed genomes from countries spanning from Iceland to Spain, Russia, Iran, and Israel, took a different approach, investigating human biology.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the people who started this field were biologists, and really thought that the most exciting thing one could do with ancient DNA would be to try to understand how our biology might have changed over time, \u201d he said. \u201cHowever, in order to study human history, you only need one or a few samples per population, but to understand evolution, you need many samples. The data just did not exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tA map of the areas included in a study on ancient DNA published in Nature on April 15, 2026. (Akbari A et al., \u2018Ancient DNA reveals pervasive directional selection across West Eurasia,\u2019 Nature, 2026)<\/p>\n

To make this type of study possible, the Reich Lab and other laboratories worldwide focused on \u201cindustrializing the production of ancient DNA\u201d for the last decade, according to the scientist.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe extracted the DNA from individuals with robots, cleaned it up with robots, and we turned it into a form that can be sequenced with robots,\u201d he said. \u201cWe also used all sorts of computational methods to analyze the data in uniform ways that produce high-quality, good data.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Reich Lab collaborated with some 270 archaeologists who provided samples with the basic data needed for the analysis, with the understanding that research touching on the study\u2019s human-history angle would be shared later.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe archaeologists are not particularly interested in the biological change question, and they saw that the data could be useful and could be released in a way that did not detract from the story about the archaeology,\u201d Reich said.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tA group of scientists extracted the DNA from the remains of 10,000 individuals from archaeological excavations across Europe and the Middle East. The study, published in Nature on April 15, 2026, shed unprecedented light on human evolution. Illustrative: Human bones from 79 CE discovered in Pompeii, near Naples, Italy. (Pompeii Archaeological Site Press Office via AP)<\/p>\n

As a result, according to the geneticist, the new study has doubled the amount of data in the entire field of ancient DNA \u2014 and tripled what was available for West Eurasia.<\/p>\n

Asked how the ancient samples were dated, Reich said they only worked with samples they felt had reliable, relatively precise dating, either based on radiocarbon dating, clear placement in a timeline based on the layer of soil in which it was found, or a combination of both.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe excluded samples that had less clear chronology,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Going beyond population movements<\/p>\n

Another challenge the paper solves, thanks to the intuition of the study\u2019s lead author, Reich Lab senior staff scientist Ali Akbari, is documenting only shifts caused by natural selection alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistory has been so complicated everywhere in the world, including in Europe and the Middle East, with lots of population movements and migrations and mixtures,\u201d Reich said. \u201cMany of the changes are just due to the fact that new people arrived in a place, or they resulted from a mixture of two groups. We needed a strategy to detect the needle in the haystack.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statistical model the researchers used compared each genome to the other 22,000 and measured how closely related they were.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost human genomes are extremely similar to each other, so if you line them up with each other, 99.9 percent of the DNA letters will be the same,\u201d Reich explained. \u201cOut of 3 billion letters, which is the length of a genome, there might be 3 million differences, which sounds like a lot, but really represents only one out of 1,000 of the whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tHarvard geneticist David Reich (left) and Ali Akbari (right), senior staff scientist at Reich Lab. (Jessica Kisluk\/ Harvard Medical School)<\/p>\n

The system analyzed approximately 10 million letters that differed across the human genomes studied and examined whether considering time alone helped predict changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe previous literature had found only about 20 positions [in the genome] that had changed significantly over time,\u201d said Reich. \u201cNow this has increased to almost 500 such positions where we find clear evidence of adaptation, and probably several thousands more, if you lower your threshold for certainty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stark increase in the frequency of the two DNA variants associated with celiac disease risk was among them.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou might have thought that these variants would have become less common in the last few thousand years because, as people started eating wheat, [they could have] become less susceptible to these things, but they became more susceptible,\u201d Reich said. \u201cWhy? We don\u2019t know. Probably because [these variants] also protected against some other disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tScientist at work at the Reich Lab on Ancient DNA, Biology, and Disease at Harvard University in an undated picture. (Andy Caulfield Architectural Photography)<\/p>\n

The scientists also documented a shift connected with the risk of contracting tuberculosis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are several genetic variations [whose frequency] kind of flipped,\u201d Reich said. \u201cOne of these variations is the most important risk factor for serious cases of tuberculosis. We see very strong natural selection for the risk factor to increase in frequency between 6,000 years ago and 2,000 years ago. Afterward, there was a very strong selection against it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeculatively, what happened was that tuberculosis became widespread, and carrying the variant became very bad, but before that, it may have protected against something else, another infectious disease, so it was good to carry it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tDNA, helix model. (Tampatra\/iStock)<\/p>\n

The study documented the evolution of variants associated with a range of conditions, including multiple sclerosis, hemochromatosis, bipolar disease, and Crohn\u2019s, as well as with human traits such as red hair, light skin tone, and different blood types.<\/p>\n

The authors also published an open database where any fellow researcher can look up any location in the human genome and see which DNA variants are found there.<\/p>\n

Asked whether the study could offer new insights into ancient Jewish DNA or specific genetic variants associated with diseases common in the Jewish community, Reich said there were not many samples from Jewish individuals included in the study.<\/p>\n

He said ancient DNA from Jewish individuals is generally easy to identify, as Jews historically tended not to mix with surrounding populations. However, because Jews are typically buried in distinct cemeteries, the likelihood of identifying Jewish DNA in a non-Jewish burial context is low.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tThe excavation at the medieval Jewish cemetery of Erfurt, Germany. During a salvage excavation, archaeologists uncovered 47 graves, and scientists obtained DNA samples from 33 individuals in the largest ancient Jewish DNA study ever conducted. The study was published in the Cell science magazine in 2022. (TLDA Ronny Krause)<\/p>\n

Similarly, the scientists did not examine how specific regions or populations within West Eurasia compared with one another, including specifically investigating ancient DNA from the land of Israel.<\/p>\n

However, this will likely be an avenue for future research, as Reich emphasized the current study is \u201conly the beginning,\u201d highlighting the potential for its data and results to be used in further studies across the medical and biological fields, as well as in history and archaeology.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have any systematic observations yet that distinguish Near Eastern populations from European populations, but that\u2019s an important and interesting direction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Further expanding the pool of genomes analyzed could also yield important results.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked with an amazing data set that can be reused for all sorts of purposes, but it\u2019s very clear that if you further increase the sample size, you\u2019ll get more discoveries,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tA group of scientists extracted the DNA from the remains of 10,000 individuals from archaeological excavations across Europe and the Middle East. The study, published in Nature on April 15, 2026, shed unprecedented light on human evolution. Illustrative: A scientist at work in a project by the Vapriikki Museum Centre and the Universities of Turku and Helsinki in Finland to extract the DNA from the remains of 25 ancient individuals in 2025. (Heli Nousiainen \/ Vapriikki)<\/p>\n

In the future, the scientist also hopes to conduct a similar study in other regions of the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat results could we get if we conducted a study like this in East Asia, or among Native Americans? Would they be similar or different?\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

Reich explained that similar research could also be conducted on animal DNA to better understand their evolution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the things that we\u2019re interested in doing and could be interesting to do next,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some 4,000 years ago, as ancient civilizations such as the Minoans in Crete and the Neo-Sumerian Empire in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[18380,1155,262498,20231,97],"class_list":{"0":"post-603402","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-archaeology","9":"tag-dna","10":"tag-dna-research","11":"tag-harvard-university","12":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}