Preprint finds cultural affiliation, not geography, drives most variation in prehistoric burial practices

A preprint posted to bioRxiv uses a combined dataset of ancient DNA (aDNA) genomic sequences and a newly compiled interdisciplinary database of prehistoric burial rites to examine what drives spatiotemporal patterns in mortuary practices across human prehistory.

The analysis finds that cultural affiliation — broadly, membership of a shared cultural tradition — accounts for most of the variation in burial rite practices across time and space, outweighing the explanatory power of geographic proximity alone. The authors frame their findings in relation to processes including isolation-by-distance, homophily, and common cultural descent, all of which have been invoked in the anthropological and archaeological literature to explain how cultural practices spread and persist.

The work is methodologically relevant to researchers working at the intersection of archaeogenomics and archaeology, where the relationship between genetic ancestry and cultural identity is a subject of active and sometimes contested debate. The preprint builds on a growing body of work applying aDNA data to questions that extend beyond population history into cultural and behavioural dimensions of the human past.

This work has not yet undergone peer review. Its primary audience is researchers in archaeogenomics, evolutionary anthropology, and population genetics, as well as genealogists and educators with an interest in how genetic evidence intersects with the archaeological record.