3,000 years in the Levant

The Insight Show Notes — Season 3, Episode 3: 3,000 years in the Levant

This week on The Insight (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts) Razib talks to Marc Haber of the University of Birmingham about the genetics and history of the Levant.

First, we talked about the paper Genome-Wide Diversity in the Levant Reveals Recent Structuring by Culture. Though the various communities of Lebanon are genetically distinct, they also share broad similarities. But Sunni Muslims, in particular, seem influenced by gene flow from other regions.

Then we discussed A Transient Pulse of Genetic Admixture from the Crusaders in the Near East Identified from Ancient Genome Sequences. This paper illustrated the fascinating interplay between recent history and genetics.

Finally, Haber’s work on ancient DNA was reviewed in Continuity and Admixture in the Last Five Millennia of Levantine History from Ancient Canaanite and Present-Day Lebanese Genome Sequences. We talked about the Bronze Age roots of modern Levantines, and the diversity of the genetics of the early Holocene.

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Razib Khan

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Genetics.

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