From Wheat to Watermelon: Clues from Ancient DNA about Food and Diet in the Ancient World
OI Museum Collections Talk Series
Hannah Moots, OI postdoctoral researcher

Have you always wondered about what’s in collections storage at the OI Museum? Less than two percent of the over 350,000 ancient Middle Eastern artifacts in the OI Museum collections are on display. Join us for the March installation of our Collections Talk as Hannah Moots, OI postdoctoral researcher, takes us behind the scenes!

What can we learn about plant and animal domestication from ancient DNA? What did early watermelons look and taste like? How have scientists been able to grow a species of extinct date palm after over 1000 years? What varieties of wine were the Romans drinking? What insights into the wild progenitors of corn and wheat have been gained using this new technology? Not only will we discuss how humans changed plants and animals, we’ll also discuss how our changing relationships with other species changed us. For instance, lactase persistence, the ability to drink milk into adulthood, has long been “hailed as one of the clearest examples of gene-culture co-evolution in humans” and has been intensively studied as such for nearly 30 years, however new evidence is calling into question when and how lactase persistence emerged. New bioarchaeological approaches are rewriting and refining our understanding of the history of lactase persistence and shedding light on the evolutionary history of other food intolerances.

Originally aired lived in March 2022

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