Papers by Tara Ingman
Alalakh and its Neighbours
The Archaeology of Anatolia, Volume IV, 2021
Science
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been infecting humans for millennia and remains a global health probl... more Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been infecting humans for millennia and remains a global health problem, but its past diversity and dispersal routes are largely unknown. We generated HBV genomic data from 137 Eurasians and Native Americans dated between ~10,500 and ~400 years ago. We date the most recent common ancestor of all HBV lineages to between ~20,000 and 12,000 years ago, with the virus present in European and South American hunter-gatherers during the early Holocene. After the European Neolithic transition, Mesolithic HBV strains were replaced by a lineage likely disseminated by early farmers that prevailed throughout western Eurasia for ~4000 years, declining around the end of the 2nd millennium BCE. The only remnant of this prehistoric HBV diversity is the rare genotype G, which appears to have reemerged during the HIV pandemic.
PLoS ONE, 2021
The Middle and Late Bronze Age, a period roughly spanning the 2 nd millennium BC (ca. 2000-1200 B... more The Middle and Late Bronze Age, a period roughly spanning the 2 nd millennium BC (ca. 2000-1200 BC) in the Near East, is frequently referred to as the first 'international age', characterized by intense and far-reaching contacts between different entities from the eastern Mediterranean to the Near East and beyond. In a large-scale tandem study of stable isotopes and ancient DNA of individuals excavated at Tell Atchana (Alalakh, located in Hatay, Turkey), we explored the role of mobility at the capital of a regional kingdom, named Mukish during the Late Bronze Age, which spanned the Amuq Valley and some areas beyond. We generated strontium and oxygen isotope data from dental enamel for 53 individuals and 77 individuals, respectively, and added ancient DNA data of 10 newly sequenced individuals to a dataset of 27 individuals published in 2020. Additionally, we improved the DNA coverage of one individual from this 2020 dataset. The DNA data revealed a very homogeneous gene pool. This picture of an overwhelmingly local ancestry was consistent with the evidence of local upbringing in most of the individuals indicated by the isotopic data, where only five were found to be non-local. High levels of contact, trade, and exchange of ideas and goods in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, therefore, seem not to have translated into high levels of individual mobility detectable at Tell Atchana.
PLOS ONE
The Middle and Late Bronze Age, a period roughly spanning the 2 nd millennium BC (ca. 2000-1200 B... more The Middle and Late Bronze Age, a period roughly spanning the 2 nd millennium BC (ca. 2000-1200 BC) in the Near East, is frequently referred to as the first 'international age', characterized by intense and far-reaching contacts between different entities from the eastern Mediterranean to the Near East and beyond. In a large-scale tandem study of stable isotopes and ancient DNA of individuals excavated at Tell Atchana (Alalakh, located in Hatay, Turkey), we explored the role of mobility at the capital of a regional kingdom, named Mukish during the Late Bronze Age, which spanned the Amuq Valley and some areas beyond. We generated strontium and oxygen isotope data from dental enamel for 53 individuals and 77 individuals, respectively, and added ancient DNA data of 10 newly sequenced individuals to a dataset of 27 individuals published in 2020. Additionally, we improved the DNA coverage of one individual from this 2020 dataset. The DNA data revealed a very homogeneous gene pool. This picture of an overwhelmingly local ancestry was consistent with the evidence of local upbringing in most of the individuals indicated by the isotopic data, where only five were found to be non-local. High levels of contact, trade, and exchange of ideas and goods in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, therefore, seem not to have translated into high levels of individual mobility detectable at Tell Atchana.
Cell, 2020
Here, we report genome-wide data analyses from 110 ancient Near Eastern individuals spanning the ... more Here, we report genome-wide data analyses from 110 ancient Near Eastern individuals spanning the Late Neolithic to Late Bronze Age, a period characterized by intense interregional interactions for the Near East. We find that 6th millennium BCE populations of North/Central Anatolia and the Southern Caucasus shared mixed ancestry on a genetic cline that formed during the Neolithic between Western Anatolia and regions in today’s Southern Caucasus/Zagros. During the Late Chalcolithic and/or the Early Bronze Age, more than half of the Northern Levantine gene pool was replaced, while in the rest of Anatolia and the Southern Caucasus, we document genetic continuity with only transient gene flow. Additionally, we reveal a genetically distinct individual within the Late Bronze Age Northern Levant. Overall, our study uncovers multiple scales of population dynamics through time, from extensive admixture during the Neolithic period to long-distance mobility within the globalized societies of the Late Bronze Age.
Alalakh and its Neighbors: Proceedings of the 15th Anniversary Symposium at the New Hatay Archaeology Museum, June 10-12, 2015, 2020
The burial record of Tell Atchana, Alalakh, is one of the largest in the region, with over 300 in... more The burial record of Tell Atchana, Alalakh, is one of the largest in the region, with over 300 individuals excavated to date. This large corpus displays a wide variety of burial practices dating to the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, and its study provides valuable insight into the mortuary rituals of the second millennium BC. This contribution represents an initial analysis of the burials at the site, including the three-dimensional GIS model of the extramural cemetery area, created to facilitate the analysis of the graves. Insights and preliminary interpretations of observed trends are discussed, in particular, the use of specific vessels in the graves, here identified as 'funerary vessels.'*
Tell Atchana, Alalakh, Vol. 2: The Late Bronze II City, the 2006-2010 Excavations Seasons
Memento Mori: Ölüm ve Ölüm Uygulamalari, 2019
Overturning Certainties in Near Eastern Archaeology: A Festschrift in Honor of K. Aslıhan Yener, 2017
The renewed excavations at Tell Atchana, Alalakh, directed by K. Aslıhan Yener, uncovered an extr... more The renewed excavations at Tell Atchana, Alalakh, directed by K. Aslıhan Yener, uncovered an extramural cemetery stretching across four excavation squares on the northeastern slope of the mound in Area 3. Because of its position on the edge of the mound, the cemetery has been subjected to heavy slope wash and erosion both during the period of the cemetery (current evidence suggests Middle and Late Bronze Ages) and up until the present, making preservation conditions poor and the stratigraphy difficult to establish clearly. As part of an effort to analyze burial practices at the site, a three-dimensional model of Squares 45.44 and 45.45 was created using Geographic Information System (gis) software in order to examine in more detail the horizontal and vertical relationships among the graves in the cemetery. This contribution presents the nature of the extramural cemetery and results of this gis model.
Proceedings by Tara Ingman
2019-2020 Yılı Kazı Çalışmaları, 2022
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Papers by Tara Ingman
Proceedings by Tara Ingman