Video Presentations

November 6th, 2025

Archaeogenetics, the study of ancient DNA, can reveal powerful insights into kinship and the movement of individuals in (pre)history. Science of the Human Past brought together scientists from the Max Planck Institute to report on the identification of two individuals with genetic profiles consistent with recent sub-Saharan African ancestry, both of whom were buried in early-medieval cemeteries in southern Britain. Focusing primarily on a sub-adult female from Updown in Kent, the authors and commenters explore the societal and cultural contexts in which these individuals lived and died, and the widening geographic links indicated by their presence, pointing back to the Byzantine reconquest of North Africa in AD 533–534.

Our system experienced some issues during the program, so please forgive any shortcomings in the audio and video. 

Speakers:

Joscha Gretzinger

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

John Hines 

School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff University

Comments by:

Orlando Patterson

Department of Sociology, Harvard University

Emmanuel K. Akyeampong 

African and African American Studies, Harvard University

November 20th, 2024

MHAAM researcher Megan Michel has published a path-breaking study (Megan Michel et al. 2024 Nature ) proving that the aDNA of malaria can be recovered, and putting down the first robust markers for a future comprehensive map of the endemicity of various forms of malaria over time and space. aDNA now shows that it was present in prehistoric Germany, Spain and Russia, and likely affected large stretches of Europe by ca. 3000 BC.

Speakers:

Megan Michel, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard

Dyann F. Wirth, Richard Pearson Strong Professor of Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Kyler Harper, G.T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty; Professor of Classics and Letters at Oklahoma University

Edward T. Ryan, Director, Global Infectious Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital; Professor, Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Christina Warinner, Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology Program Director; Department of Anthropology, Harvard University

Michael McCormick, Francis Goelet Professor of Medieval History, Harvard University; Chair of Science of the Human Past; Max Planck – Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean (MHAAM).

April 16, 2024
 

Attendees learned how the humanities are using biomolecules, archaeology and history to discover a dramatic new vision of the Roman Empire and its enduring impact. Stunning new ancient DNA evidence from the SoHP/MHAAM research team revealed the Roman Empire’s cosmopolitan society on the Danube Balkans frontier down to the Slavic migration.

Speakers:

Kyle Harper, G.T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty and Professor of Classics and Letters, University of Oklahoma

Michael McCormick, Francis Goelet Professor of Medieval History, Harvard University; Chair, SoHP; Director at Harvard, MHAAM

Iñigo Olalde, Ikerbasque Research Fellow, BIOMICS research group, University of Basque Country

David Reich, Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School; Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University

With comments provided by: 
Margaret M. Andrews, Assistant Professor of Classics, Harvard University; 
Victoria Moses, Getty Postdoctoral Fellow, MHAAM, Harvard University; 
Solenn Troadec, Lounsbery Postdoctoral Fellow, MHAAM, Harvard University.

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

This event is generously co-sponsored at Harvard by:
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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Deputy Director of MHAAM

(MHAAM; Archaeogenetics, MPI-SHH) 

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.

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.

November 14, 2018

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.

November 14, 2018

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.

November 14, 2018

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.

April 11, 2018

"'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.

February 15, 2018

"'The Archaeology of Poverty: How poor were Roman peasants?  Did they get poorer?"

Kimberly D. Bowes, 
Associate Professor of Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania

Event sponsored by the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard, Department of the Classics, Department of History.

November 16, 2017

"'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

Event sponsored by the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard, Department of the Classics, Department of History.

October 14, 2017

"Science and the Future of the Human Past"

Prof. Michael McCormick,
Francis Goelet Professor of Medieval History
Chair, Science of the Human Past

Event sponsored by TEDxHarvard College

October 10, 2017

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.

February 2, 2017

"Solar Storms, Tree Rings and Astrochronology: New Radiocarbon Research from Oxford"

Dr. Michael Dee, Centre for Isotope Research, University of Groningen

Event sponsored by the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard.

February 17, 2017

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)
 

Event sponsored by the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean.

February 16, 2017

"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

Event sponsored by the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard, Department of the Classics, Department of History.

October 20, 2016

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

Event sponsored by the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard.

October 11, 2016

Douglas H. Erwin,
Curator of Paleozoic Invertebrates, Smithsonian Institution

Event sponsored by the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard, and the Departments of History, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and Philosophy at Harvard University.

Event sponsored by the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard, and the Departments of History, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and Philosophy at Harvard University.

September 28, 2016

David Christian, Macquarie University

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.

December 7, 2015

John Hines, Professor of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology & Old English, Cardiff University

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.

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)

October 5, 2015

For Photos, see the event listing. 

April 14, 2015

Speaker(s):
Cyprian Broodbank, Emma Dench, Michael Herzfeld, Nick Patterson, Daniel Lord Smail, Jason Ur

Hosted by: Michael McCormick

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPGU7RxTkNw

October 8, 2014

Yale University
The Yale Working Group in Climate and History

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0PWjxs-wXI

November 1, 2013

1. Introduction:

Michael McCormick,
Francis Goelet Professor of Medieval History
Chair, Science of the Human Past

Alan Garber

2. Evolutionary Forces in Humans and Pathogens:

Pardis Sabeti  Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrbtKT8TvUQ

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

4. Mixture between Highly Differentiated Populations in India, 1900-2400 years ago:

David Reich