Eesti juured: rahvastiku ja kultuuri kujunemise transdistsiplinaarsete uuringute tippkeskus
Full program: Autumn School on Interdisciplinary Datasets and Analyses in the Study of Human Past
Focus workshop
aDNA research for non-geneticists
Presentations
Large databases and their usage in folkloristics, archaeology, and pollen analyses
Organizers
Monika Karmin, Miina Norvik, Anneli Poska, Kadri Raav // Center of Excellence Estonian Roots, ECHO, Estonian Doctoral School
Number of participants
up to 35
Nov 25: Introduction and inspiration
~14:30 Arrival, coffee and snacks
15:00–17:30 Introduction, incl. introductory presentations by participants (5 minutes each: Who am I? What do I do? What is the burning question in my field/research, etc.)
Lehti Saag and Alena Kushniarevich (University of Tartu): Introductions to the workshop aDNA for non-geneticists
Read description
The workshop is aimed towards archaeologists, anthropologists, linguists or researchers from any other field interested in ancient DNA research who would like to have an introduction into research tools used in human population genetics and into the interpretation of the results gained. The topics include ancient DNA laboratory workflow, sequencing technologies, overview of different bioinformatic human population genetics methods, and the multidisciplinary approach to interpreting genomic results. The workshop includes lectures and group work.
Workshop is organized by the Archaeogenomics group, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu
Instructors: Lehti Saag and Alena Kushniarevich
PhD students who will support the group work during the Autumn school: Erkin Alaçamlı, Roberto Didonna, Giulio Castellano
17:30–18:00 Group work introduction
18:00–19:00 Dinner
19:00–20:00 Kristiina Tambets (University of Tartu): Why transdisciplinarity, challenges and rewards
Evening activities until 23:00
Nov 26: aDNA for non-geneticists; folkloristics, archaeology
8:00–9:00 Breakfast
9:00–10:30 Lehti Saag and Alena Kushniarevich (University of Tartu): aDNA for non-geneticists I
10:30 Coffee break
11:00–12:30 Lehti Saag and Alena Kushniarevich (University of Tartu): aDNA for non-geneticists II
12:30–14:30 Lunch and outdoor activity
14:30–15:30 Kati Kallio (University of Helsinki): Databases and analyses of folkloristics
15:30–16:00 Group work
16:00–16:30 Coffee break
16:30–18:00 Group work
18:00–19:00 Dinner
19:00–20:00 Robert Staniuk (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań): Large database for archaeology: BIAD and metadata presentation
Evening activities until 23:00
Nov 27: aDNA workshop for non-geneticists, pollen analyses, and reflections
8:00–9:00 Breakfast
9:00–10:00 Group work finalization
10:00–11:00 Elisabeth Renée Martveldt and Mark Top (Tallinn University of Technology): Palynology: A Window into Past Environments
Read description
This workshop will introduce palynology and demonstrate how it can help to reconstruct the past environments and climates. Participants will learn about the diverse applications of pollen analysis, as well as the limitations of the method and how these can be addressed through multidisciplinary research. The workshop will explain how pollen diagrams are constructed and how they can assist archaeologists to reconstruct past environments and infer climatic conditions during different stages of human development throughout the Holocene. In addition, modern modelling approaches that improve the interpretation of pollen records in terms of landcover composition and enhance our understanding of the spatial scale represented by pollen data will be presented. Participants will also be introduced to open-access palaeoecological databases and learn how to access and explore these valuable resources. We will examine Neotoma, one of today’s largest palaeoecological data repositories, which contains records from a wide range of ecological proxies that can be used for environmental interpretations. The workshop will conclude with a hands-on session, allowing participants to explore Neotoma independently and become familiar with its search tools, data visualisation options, and available datasets.
11:00–11:30 Coffee break
11:30–13:00 Group work presentations
13:00–14:00 Lunch
14:00–15:00 Reflections and closing remarks
