Populations in motion
Follow the migrations, replacements, mixtures, and local continuities that assembled Europe and reshaped peoples across Eurasia.
A new book by Davide Piffer
Buried in
the Genome
Ancient DNA, Human Variation, and the Evolution of Civilization
Human history is written not only in ruins and chronicles, but in DNA. Follow the evidence from ancient genomes to the migrations, adaptations, and population changes that shaped civilization.
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About the book
The genome
remembers.
Every living genome is an archive—of migrations survived, environments endured, and populations transformed.
Buried in the Genome brings ancient DNA into conversation with archaeology, history, and quantitative genetics. It explains what genetic distance actually measures, why ancient populations cannot be reduced to modern labels, and how traits changed long after the first great migrations.
The result is a wide-ranging account of human variation that moves from Neanderthals and early farmers to Rome, modern Italy, and the unresolved question of how biological and cultural evolution shape one another.
Traits through time
Trace the separate histories of pigmentation, height, cognition, and other polygenic traits across thousands of ancient genomes.
Genes and civilization
Explore how agriculture, climate, institutions, and selection may have interacted as increasingly complex societies emerged.
Five parts · Twelve chapters
From deep ancestry
to civilization
A narrative for general readers, followed by technical appendices for those who want to inspect the data, models, and robustness tests.
- Part I
How to Read a Genome
Genetic distance, population structure, ancient DNA, and the limits of polygenic prediction.
- Part II
Populations in Motion
How Europe was assembled and how peoples form through movement, mixture, and history.
- Part III
Traits Through Time
Pigmentation, stature, and brains before and after the Paleolithic.
- Part IV
Agriculture, Climate, and Civilization
The farming transition, cold-winter hypotheses, and selection within complex societies.
- Part V
The Italian Laboratory
Rome, regional reversals, and Italy as a population-genetic case study.
A science of change
Ancient DNA has turned human history from a gallery of static types into a moving picture of populations, traits, and societies.
Available now