The Genome as Historical Archive

DNA, the medium of biological inheritance, is also a historical archive. We are now fifteen years into the ancient DNA era (counting from the publication of the first complete archaeological genome), and already DNA has made major contributions to our understanding of both longstanding and novel questions about the past, including prehistory and the historical period. Ancient DNA has shed light on pathogens and diseases, animals and crops, migrations and social structures. It can be a tool to understand fine-grained questions about individual biography as well as the biggest questions about biological and cultural evolution. Like any archive, DNA also has nuances, limits, and biases of the sort familiar to historians, and the information it provides should be treated critically and triangulated with other kinds of written and archaeological evidence. DNA is a truly global, human archive that will be most impactful with the engagement of historians, from study design to interpretation.