🚨 New paper out in Genome Biology and Evolution! We present new ancient DNA evidence from Central Italy suggesting that Eastern Mediterranean genetic influence predates the Roman Empire. @Benjopop_1977 🧵👇 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf149 1/

🧬 New preprint! Was Grecìa Salentina genetically isolated because of its Greek language? Our data say no! We found strong genetic connectivity with Southern Italy, with recurrent links to the Greek and Byzantine worlds. biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…

I am happy to annonce, that the Goths have crossed the frontier again -this time it is The Frontiers in Genetics. doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2026.1… Our ancient-DNA study of Gothic-associated communities in Late Antique Bulgaria is out. They arrive much as they did the first time: not as one people. Two cemeteries share Gothic-associated material culture and Christian east–west burial, but they are not a single genome-wide population. The data support a formation process: migration, multiethnic coalition, and frontier incorporation, with steppe-related individuals among them, and a north-south admixture signal that predates the burials. I am deeply grateful to Todor Chobanov and the whole team, and to David Reich, @iosif_lazaridis and Tianyi Wang for an extraordinary collaboration. Be, however, warned: the Tervingi and the Greuthungi are back. On the Frontiers. I hope it goes better for the Romans (and everyone else) than it did last time. @FrontGenetics, #ancientDNA

A segmental duplication-mediated deletion leads to neocentromere formation in orangutans biorxiv.org/content/10.64898… #biorxiv_genomic

🚨 EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS TALKS! 6th HAAM-RADIO Webinar 🌍 African Population Demography and Social Organizations of the Past. 🗓️ Wed, 28 Jan 2026 #AncientDNA #HumanGenetics #AfricanHistory #HAAM #Webinar Register here: 👉docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F…

Congrats to @Benjopop_1977 and all co-authors! 🎉

Not the Empire: The late republic roots of the Greek–Eastern Mediterranean ancestry in central Italy.