Doctoral Dissertation Research: Genetic and Isotopic Investigations of Human Population Origins and Dispersals in Island Settings

University Of Oregon Eugene, Eugene OR

Investigators

Abstract

Modern humans have dispersed and settled nearly every region on the planet. The complex timing, movements, and interactions of populations, cultures, and technology in the past are an important part of our human story. This doctoral dissertation project combines genetic and geochemical analyses of human skeletal material from the Chelechol ra Orrak site in Palau, western Micronesia, to investigate prehistoric colonization of an island setting during one of the most widespread and rapid dispersals in human history. Despite this being the last major geographical region to be colonized by humans, information regarding the timing, direction, and origins of settlement in many respects remains unclear. This research will also make broader contributions to local, national, and global communities through undergraduate training and mentorship at the University of Oregon; community involvement and outreach through public talks and the distribution of comics about aDNA in archaeology in Palau; and the implementation of a learning module that teaches the scientific method, archaeological fieldwork, and genetic techniques to underrepresented elementary and middle school students in Oregon. The investigators will analyze human ancient DNA (aDNA) and geochemical mobility data for Micronesia and provide critical baseline information for future isotopic and genetic research in the region. The objective of this research is to investigate the origins of prehistoric Palauans on a regional scale and subsequent local human mobility within the archipelago following settlement. While linguistic, computer modeling, and biodistance studies have resulted in hypotheses identifying broad general regions of Micronesian population origins, numerous questions regarding the relationship of early Micronesians to other regional populations, and a more specific area of origin still remain. In generating aDNA data for western Micronesia, this project will place early Palauans in a regional framework to examine broader scale genetic relationships. Examination of mobility via strontium (87Sr/ 86Sr) and lead (206Pb/204Pb, 207Pb/204Pb, 208Pb/204Pb) isotope analysis from human remains--in conjunction with biological and geological samples taken from locations across the archipelago--will help to identify where individuals buried at Chelechol ra Orrak may have been residing during their lifetime and shed light on inter-island mobility during the earliest phases of settlement in Palau. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.