Over the last decade, the development of
ancient DNA technology, allowing us to study the genetics of
past populations, transformed our understanding of our
origins. It be came clear, that up until about 40,000 years
ago our species was not alone on this planet, but coexisted
with several other human groups such as the Neanderthals,
Denisovans and others. These populations interacted, and the
genetical traces of these contacts still linger in us today.
In this talk, I will present some of the recent advances in
our understanding of how these groups interacted both
biologically and culturally. I will focus on Central Asia,
especially the Altai Mountains, where these three populations,
early modern humans, Neanderthals and the enigmatic Denisovans
- a group only known from a few fragmentary fossils and their
DNA - interacted. By combining ancient DNA, archaeological and
morphological data we will look at the dynamics of these
populations, and explore these contacts.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Viola is a paleoanthropologist focusing
on the biological and cultural interactions between different
hominin groups in the Late Pleistocene. After studying at the
universities of Vienna and Bordeaux, he spent four years as a
postdoctoral fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute of
Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, and is now an Associate
Professor at the Department of Anthropology, University of
Toronto. Dr. Viola's research uses an interdisciplinary
approach combining morphological, archaeological and genetic
data to better understand how the Neanderthals, their
enigmatic Asian cousins, the Denisovans, and the first modern
humans interacted. He has led excavations in Central Europe,
East Africa and Central Asia, and is currently conducting
fieldwork in Sel'ungur cave in Kyrgyzstan and at
Grub/Kranawetberg in Austria.