(Bio)archaeological approaches to disease and death in early medieval France. Conference Harvard University, June 24, 2022, 3-4PM Harvard History. Sponsored by the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center (MHAAM), SoHP, w/ support of Lounsbery Foundation, fostering French-American cooperation.

Summary

Participants and discussants.

Our world has changed. The Covid-19 pandemic has reshaped the way we think about diseases, their transmission, and their impact on our lives. But are we the first to face such a crisis?

A written record marks past pandemics. But the victims remain, and from their burials and ancient DNA, SoHP at Harvard has begun to reconstruct what happened, in France and western Eurasia, during the #FirstPandemic of bubonic plague in Rome and its neighbors from 541 to 750 AD.

Come and be a part of the launch of an international investigation of anomalous burials in France that take us back to that #firstpandemic. Learn what French archaeologists and the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for Archaeoscience’s biomolecular archaeologists are discovering

Join us and our expert archaeologists in a new transatlantic collaboration that brings together Harvard University, the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for Archaeoscience and the advanced research of France.

Speakers and Discussants: Philippe Blanchard, Archéologue, Ingénieur chargé de Recherche INRAP/UMR 5199 PACEA Isabelle Catteddu, Ingénieure Chargée de Recherche à l'INRAP Grand Ouest, Archéologue Spécialiste du premier Moyen Age rural, UMR 6566 CReAAH

Valérie Delattre, Archéo-anthropologue Inrap, UMR 6298 ARTeHIS -Université de Bourgogne Me! Claude Raynaud, Directeur de recherches, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, UMR 5140 ASM, LabEx

Solenn Troadec, Postdoctoral Fellow, Initiative for the Science of the Human Past, Harvard University Marie-Cécile Truc, Responsable d’opération et étude du petit mobilier haut Moyen Âge - Moyen Âge, Ingénieure de recherche Inrap, UMR 6273 CRAHAM Université de Caen

Friday, June 24, 2022 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm EDT (followed by public reception) CGIS South: Belfer Case Study Room (Lower Level) 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA The program will be conducted in English. Hybrid In-Person and Virtual! Zoom webinar link: harvard.zoom.us/webinar/regist…

Our paper published today @nature describes an ancient epidemic that occurred in central Eurasia in the years 1338-1339. We find that the epidemic was caused by plague (Y. pestis) and that it was associated with the beginnings of the Black Death. nature.com/articles/s4158…

The lab of Harvard Department of Human Evolutionary Biology professor David Reich has sequenced more than 16,000 #ancient humans from around the world. The #DNA shows interbreeding among modern humans, #Neanderthals, and another archaic human, the Denisovans. harvardmagazine.com/2022/07/featur…

This week and you won’t want to miss it! Sign up link within thread

.SoHP at Harvard & MHAAM take deep satisfaction in the 2022 The Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine awarded to Svante Paabo Dir. of MPI-EVA Leipzig, pioneer in the study of ancient DNA to reconstruct the human past. Dr. Pääbo is one of the inventors of the new Science of the Human Past!

Family, Food, & Health in Bronze Age Greece: New Light from the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center Philipp Stockhammer @stockhammerph, Professor of Prehistoric #Archaeology, Ludwig Maximilian University & Deputy Director (MHAAM) at Harvard University 11/14, 5PM. Reception to follow

SoHP, MHAAM, & the Historical Ice Core Project are featured on PBS this month! “The End of the Romans,” a documentary in the series Secrets of the Dead, explores how #archaeoscience is changing our understanding of the fall of Rome. Available until Nov 23 pbs.org/wnet/secrets/e…

Good news! SoHP at Harvard, MHAAM, & the Historical Ice Core Project are on PBS this month! “The End of the Romans” explores how #archaeoscience is changing our understanding of the fall of Rome. Available until Nov 23! pbs.org/wnet/secrets/e…

MHAAM Fellowship Recipient Éadaoin Harney, along with co-senior author David Reich and team, publish key new research on "The Genetic Legacy of African Americans from Catoctin Furnace." …science-org.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/doi/10.1126/sc…