Video Presentations
Ancient DNA & U.S. History:
The Genetic Legacy of African Americans from Catoctin Furnace
February 7, 2024
The Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard sponsored a discussion about recent work in U.S. History from Prof. David Reich’s lab that deploys ancient DNA and Big Data to discover new genomic insights into the life stories of 27 enslaved African American Ironmakers at Catoctin Furnace MD, 1774-1850. Senior author David Reich and lead author Dr. Éadaoin Harney briefly recapitulated their findings and eminent experts from the Harvard community offered brief comments from their different disciplinary perspectives.
Speakers:
Éadaoin Harney,
Population Genetics Research and Development, 23andMe; Lecturer, Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
David Reich,
Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School; Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham,
Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and Professor of African and African American Studies, Harvard University
Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof,
Professor of History, Harvard University
Jason Ur,
Stephen Phillips Professor of Archaeology and Ethnology, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University; Project Director, Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey, Kurdistan Region of Iraq
Michael McCormick,
Francis Goelet Professor of Medieval History, Harvard University; Chair, SoHP;
Director at Harvard, MHAAM
Department of African and African American Studies, Department of History, Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Standing Committee on Archaeology
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How Rome Became Byzantium:
New Light from DNA, Ice Cores, and Harvard’s Science of the Human Past
May 4, 2023
Historians and archaeologists have long debated the processes that ended the ancient world and gave rise to the civilizations of Byzantium, the medieval West, and Islam. The advances of archaeology are delivering ever more material pieces of the past that are suitable for expanding scientific toolkits, featuring ancient DNA, ice cores, and digital humanities. Come learn how—from senior faculty members to freshmen—historians, archaeologists, geneticists, biomolecular archaeologists, and computer and climate scientists at Harvard University are working together, and in concert with our American and international partners, to expand what we know about the fall of Rome and the origins of Byzantium, as science, archaeology, and history combine to begin a new day in the discovery of ancient and medieval civilization.
Speaker:
Michael McCormick, Francis Goelet Professor of Medieval History at Harvard; Chair, Science of the Human Past
Presented by M. H. Wiener Laboratory for Archaeological Science, American School of Classical Studies at Athens
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Family, Foods, and Health in Bronze Age Greece:
New Light from the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center
November 14, 2022
How was life in the Mycenaean World? Whom did they marry, what did they eat and what did they suffer from? For a long time, these questions were almost impossible to answer. Now, archaeoscience has revolutionized our understanding about the past – including, robustly, for the Bronze Age Mediterranean world with its limited written record. Please join SoHP and MHAAM for a special presentation by Philipp Stockhammer, Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology, Ludwig Maximilian University (Munich) and Deputy Director, Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean (MHAAM). Prof. Stockhammer will present the latest published and unpublished insights into ancient Aegean food and family relations as well as the oldest infectious diseases ever traced scientifically in the Aegean.
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Approches (bio)archéologiques: la maladie et la mort dans la France du haut Moyen-Âge
(Bio)archaeological approaches to disease and death in early medieval France
June 24, 2022
Speakers and Discussants:
Philippe Blanchard, Archéologue, Ingénieur chargé de Recherche Inrap/UMR 5199 PACEA
Isabelle Catteddu, Ingénieure Chargée de Recherche à l'Inrap Grand Ouest, Archéologue Spécialiste du premier Moyen Age rural, UMR 6566 CReAAH
Valérie Delattre, Archéo-anthropologue Inrap, UMR 6298 ARTeHIS -Université de Bourgogne
Michael McCormick, Francis Goelet Professor of Medieval History, Harvard University; Chair, Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard (SoHP); Director at Harvard, Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean (MHAAM).
Claude Raynaud, Directeur de recherches, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, UMR 5140 ASM, LabEx
Solenn Troadec, Postdoctoral Fellow, Initiative for the Science of the Human Past, Harvard University
Marie-Cécile Truc, Responsable d’opération et étude du petit mobilier haut Moyen Âge - Moyen Âge, Ingénieure de recherche Inrap, UMR 6273 CRAHAM Université de Caen
Sponsored by the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean (MHAAM) and the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard (SoHP), with the support of the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, fostering French-American cooperation in science and technology, and the Standing Committee on Medieval Studies at Harvard.
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Post-Pandemic Update:
What has the Science of the Human Past discovered lately?
May 12, 2022
Participants:
Margaret Andrews - Department of Classics, Michael Isakov - Departments of Mathematics/Statistics; Michael McCormick - Department of History, Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for Archaeoscience, Science of the Human Past at Harvard; Alexander More - Science of the Human Past at Harvard; Gabriel Pizzorno - Department of History; Daniel Lord Smail - Department of History; Solenn Troadec - Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for Archaeoscience; David Reich - Department of Human Evolutionary Biology and Genetics, HMS; Jason Ur - Department of Anthropology/Archaeology; Christina Warinner - Department of Anthropology, Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for Archaeoscience.
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Pandemic-related Lectures
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SoHP international collaboration boosts innovative scientific discoveries at Reccopolis
December 7, 2020
An SoHP international collaboration, boosting innovative scientific discoveries about the origins of medieval Spain. This project is a collaboration between Universidad de Alcalá, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, the German Institute of Archaeology and the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard.
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From Homer To History:
Recent Results from Bronze Age Investigations
November 1, 2019
German and U.S. team members from the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean (MHAAM) presented some of their most remarkable discoveries from archaeoscience and ancient genetics in a day-long symposium at Harvard University. For more, please see the photos and videos linked here.
Introduction by Prof. Michael McCormick
Francis Goelet Professor of Medieval History, Harvard University, Chair, Steering Committee, Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard, Co-Director, MHAAM
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Recent advances and publications in the laboratory of Prof. David Reich
Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Deputy Director of MHAAM
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Recent research on gene flow in Philistine Ashkelon by Michal Feldman
(MHAAM; Archaeogenetics, MPI-SHH)
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From Homer to History
November 1st, 2019
Joint SoHP/MHAAM presentation with concluding remarks by:
Prof. Eszter Bánffy, Director of the Romano-Germanic Commission, German Archaeological Institute
Prof. Michael McCormick, Co-director, MHAAM, Chair of the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard Goelet Professor of Medieval History, Harvard University
MHAAM is made possible with the support of the Institute for Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP); the President of the Max Planck Society; the Goelet-Berkowitz Fund to support the Science of the Human Past; the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany; the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard (SoHP); the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University; and individual contributors to SoHP.
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Marriage, Mobility, & Households in Bronze Age Germany:
Integrating Ancient DNA, Isotopes & Archaeology
October 15, 2019
Dr. Alissa Mittnik, Department of Genetics, Reich Lab, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Mittnik spoke on her remarkable research showing the power of traditional archaeological and newer archaeoscientific methods to illuminate life in Bronze Age Germany. Professor Matthew Liebmann (Archaeology/Anthropology) will comment.
Co-sponsored by The Standing Committee on Archaeology at Harvard University and the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean.
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November 14, 2018
SoHP Symposium
Climate, Pollution, & Economic Growth in Human History:
New Results from the Historical Ice Core Project
"From Roman Gold to Merovingian 'Pale Gold,' to Medieval Silver"
Michael McCormick,
Francis Goelet Professor of Medieval History, Harvard University
Chair, Steering Committee, Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard
with Christopher Loveluck,
Professor of Medieval Archaeology, University of Nottingham
Event co-sponsored by the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard (SoHP) and the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine (CCI). Project supported by Arcadia: a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.
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November 14, 2018
SoHP Workshop
Climate, Pollution, & Economic Growth in Human History:
New Results from the Historical Ice Core Project
"Extending the Climate Record into the Pre-Instrumental Era, Decades to Millennia"
Paul A. Mayewski, Director of the Climate Change Institute, and Distinguished Professor, University of Maine
Event co-sponsored by the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard (SoHP) and the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine (CCI). Project supported by Arcadia: a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.
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November 14, 2018
SoHP Workshop
Climate, Pollution, & Economic Growth in Human History:
New Results from the Historical Ice Core Project
"Tephra Evidence of the 536AD Volcanic Eruption"
Andrei V. Kurbatov, Associate Professor, Climate Change Institute, University of Maine
Event co-sponsored by the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard (SoHP) and the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine (CCI). Project supported by Arcadia: a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.
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April 11, 2018
MHAAM Lecture
"'Death by Contact: Ancient Pathogen Genomes from Epidemics in Early Mexico"
Johannes Krause, Director, Department of Archaeogenetics,
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and Co-Director, MHAAM
Event sponsored by the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean (MHAAM); the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, and the Standing Committee on Archaeology, Harvard University.
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February 15, 2018
SoHP Lecture Series: What's New in the Fall of the Roman Empire
"'The Archaeology of Poverty: How poor were Roman peasants? Did they get poorer?"
Kimberly D. Bowes,
Associate Professor of Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania
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November 16, 2017
SoHP Lecture Series: What's New in the Fall of the Roman Empire
"'An Early Islamic Agricultural Revolution?' New light on the transformation of agricultural and irrigation technologies in Late Roman and Islamic Near East"
Gideon Avni,
Head of the Archaeological Division,
Israel Antiquities Authority; Lecturer, Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University
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October 14, 2017
TEDxHarvard College
"Science and the Future of the Human Past"
Prof. Michael McCormick,
Francis Goelet Professor of Medieval History
Chair, Science of the Human Past
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October 10, 2017
MHAAM Inaugural Workshop
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February 2, 2017
SoHP Radiocarbon Workshop
"Solar Storms, Tree Rings and Astrochronology: New Radiocarbon Research from Oxford"
Dr. Michael Dee, Centre for Isotope Research, University of Groningen
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February 17, 2017
MHAAM Workshop Introduction
Mark C. Elliot,
Vice Provost for International Affairs
and Mark Schwartz Professor of Chinese and Inner Asian History, Harvard University
Michael McCormick,
Francis Goelet Professor of Medieval History;
Director at Harvard, MHAAM;
Chair, Initiative for the Science of the Human Past, Harvard Univeristy
Malcolm Wiener,
The Institute for Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP)
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February 16, 2017
SoHP Lecture Series: What's New in the Fall of the Roman Empire
"The Genetic History of Plague: From the Stone Age to the 18th Century via the Roman Empire"
Johannes Krause,
Director, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
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October 20, 2016
SoHP Lecture Series: What's New in the Fall of the Roman Empire
Nature Did It: Romans, Ecology and the Global History of Infectious Disease"
Kyle Harper, Professor of Classics and Letters, Senior Vice President and Provost, University of Oklahoma
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October 11, 2016
"Contingency, Chance and Determinism in Deep History"
Douglas H. Erwin,
Curator of Paleozoic Invertebrates, Smithsonian Institution
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September 28, 2016
David Christian, Macquarie University
"Australian History in Deep Time"
Event sponsored by the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard University, the Australian Studies Committee and the Departments of Anthropology and History at Harvard University, The Australian Centre for Indigenous History, and Australian National University.
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December 7, 2015
John Hines, Professor of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology & Old English, Cardiff University
"Radiocarbon, Statistics and Archaeology: Building a scientific chronological framework for Early Anglo-Saxon England and its implications."
Event sponsored by the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard and the Medieval History Workshop in the Department of History, Harvard University.
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November 11, 2015
For Photos, Link to event page
Paul A. Mayewski (U. of Maine), Michael McCormick (Harvard, SoHP), Pascal Bohleber (U. of Maine), Andrei Kurbatov (U. of Maine), Alexander More (Harvard, SoHP), Nicole Spaulding (U. of Maine), Matthew Luongo (Harvard College '17)
"2,000 Years of European Climate: First Results from the SoHP Historical Ice Core Project"
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October 5, 2015
David Reich (Harvard HMS/SoHP): "Toward a New History and Geography of Human Genes Informed by Ancient DNA” with comments by Nick Patterson (Broad Institute Harvard/MIT)
For Photos, see the event listing.
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April 14, 2015
“Environments, Genes, Archaeology, and the End of Prehistory: Discussion of the Making of the Middle Sea” A Round Table by the SoHP at Harvard University
Speaker(s):
Cyprian Broodbank, Emma Dench, Michael Herzfeld, Nick Patterson, Daniel Lord Smail, Jason Ur
Hosted by: Michael McCormick
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October 8, 2014
Yale University
The Yale Working Group in Climate and History
“Connecting Roman and Medieval climate and Historical Change: Five Challenges for the 21st Century”
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November 1, 2013
The Encounter of Science and History Inaugural Conference
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Introduction:
Michael McCormick,
Francis Goelet Professor of Medieval History
Chair, Science of the Human Past
Alan Garber
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2. Evolutionary Forces in Humans and Pathogens:
Pardis Sabeti Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrbtKT8TvUQ
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3. Ancient and Medieval Climate Change and the Future of Humanity:
Michael McCormick,
Francis Goelet Professor of Medieval History
Chair, Science of the Human Past
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4. Mixture between Highly Differentiated Populations in India, 1900-2400 years ago:
David Reich