Hannah Moots
@mootspoints.bsky.social
Archaeology and Ancient DNA 🧬
Mobility in the Iron Age and Roman Mediterranean 🏺
Human-Environment Interactions 🌱 🦣
Researcher @cpgsthlm.bsky.social
https://mootspoints.blogspot.com/
Mobility in the Iron Age and Roman Mediterranean 🏺
Human-Environment Interactions 🌱 🦣
Researcher @cpgsthlm.bsky.social
https://mootspoints.blogspot.com/
Pinned
Hannah Moots
@mootspoints.bsky.social
· Nov 22
Tides of History: S5 E102: Ancient DNA and the Iron Age Mediterranean: Interview with Dr. Hannah Moots
Ancient DNA has transformed our understanding of the more distant reaches of the human past, but what can it tell us about more recent ages of history? Dr. Hannah Moots has extensively investigated th...
wondery.com
The new episode of Tides of History is out today! It was truly a pleasure speaking with @patrickwyman.bsky.social about the Iron Age Mediterranean - everything from Carthage and the Phoenicians to the rise of Rome. wondery.com/shows/tides-...
Reposted by Hannah Moots
Despite my insomnia, I'm very happy to share our preprint: a multi-disciplinary assessment of a sheep mass mortality event from ~18th century France. We report the first ancient sheeppox virus (think smallpox) and the Taenia hydatigena (nasty roundworm) genomes.
#aDNA
#aDNA
Evidence of sheeppox in 17th-19th century France: a multi-disciplinary investigation of a sheep mass mortality assemblage
Epizootic outbreaks posed major threats to food security, economic stability, and animal welfare in past communities. While these events and their impacts are well documented in historical records, ve...
www.biorxiv.org
November 26, 2025 at 6:33 AM
Despite my insomnia, I'm very happy to share our preprint: a multi-disciplinary assessment of a sheep mass mortality event from ~18th century France. We report the first ancient sheeppox virus (think smallpox) and the Taenia hydatigena (nasty roundworm) genomes.
#aDNA
#aDNA
Reposted by Hannah Moots
Hello @science.org NativeBio has been on the forefront of this conversation from 2019 and even earlier (UW Indigenous grad school members Keolu Fox, Moroni Benally, Chad Uran, Marisa Duarte, Katrina Claw and many more). We've been on @scifri.bsky.social WAMU's 1A. We built the @d4itdr.bsky.social
Please Repost! We are in an era of huge gains in technology, discovery and data "sequestration". We need to be honest about what's happening and the terrible outcomes that could happen if we continue the 533 years of colonial extraction. www.science.org/content/arti...
How scientists are confronting the lingering imprint of colonialism
Science series to spotlight efforts to reduce parachute science, empower Global South countries
www.science.org
November 25, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Hello @science.org NativeBio has been on the forefront of this conversation from 2019 and even earlier (UW Indigenous grad school members Keolu Fox, Moroni Benally, Chad Uran, Marisa Duarte, Katrina Claw and many more). We've been on @scifri.bsky.social WAMU's 1A. We built the @d4itdr.bsky.social
Reposted by Hannah Moots
Human prehistory keeps delivering surprises, here in the shape of wolves. A very fun project to work on 👇
🐺 Wolves in dog's clothing 🐺
Our latest in @pnas.org uncovers a surprise three to five thousand years ago: 2 canids in human contexts on a tiny island in the middle of the Baltic Sea, that ate marine food—but had 100% gray wolf ancestry.
Where they tame wolves, or even an incipient domestication?
Our latest in @pnas.org uncovers a surprise three to five thousand years ago: 2 canids in human contexts on a tiny island in the middle of the Baltic Sea, that ate marine food—but had 100% gray wolf ancestry.
Where they tame wolves, or even an incipient domestication?
November 25, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Human prehistory keeps delivering surprises, here in the shape of wolves. A very fun project to work on 👇
Reposted by Hannah Moots
Our paper is out! Although wolves and dogs can interbreed and produce fertile offspring, hybridization between the two is rare. We found that most dogs today have low but detectable levels of post-domestication wolf ancestry that has shaped their evolution in human environments. tinyurl.com/yt4x4r7n
A legacy of genetic entanglement with wolves shapes modern dogs | PNAS
Dogs evolved through interactions between people and gray wolves during the Late Pleistocene
and have been ubiquitous in human societies ever since...
www.pnas.org
November 25, 2025 at 2:42 AM
Our paper is out! Although wolves and dogs can interbreed and produce fertile offspring, hybridization between the two is rare. We found that most dogs today have low but detectable levels of post-domestication wolf ancestry that has shaped their evolution in human environments. tinyurl.com/yt4x4r7n
Reposted by Hannah Moots
During the earliest stages of domestication, dogs in archaeological sites would be indistinguishable from wolves.
Unless you find them on a small island where no wolves would survive on their own, eating things wolves normally don’t eat.
Such as here:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Unless you find them on a small island where no wolves would survive on their own, eating things wolves normally don’t eat.
Such as here:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
November 25, 2025 at 7:43 AM
During the earliest stages of domestication, dogs in archaeological sites would be indistinguishable from wolves.
Unless you find them on a small island where no wolves would survive on their own, eating things wolves normally don’t eat.
Such as here:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Unless you find them on a small island where no wolves would survive on their own, eating things wolves normally don’t eat.
Such as here:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Hannah Moots
🚨 PNAS Special Feature 2 🐕
We used ancient DNA and dietary isotopes to show that landscape modification and the introduction of European dogs impacted dingo populations across Australia.
🔗 Full paper here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
We used ancient DNA and dietary isotopes to show that landscape modification and the introduction of European dogs impacted dingo populations across Australia.
🔗 Full paper here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
November 24, 2025 at 9:22 PM
🚨 PNAS Special Feature 2 🐕
We used ancient DNA and dietary isotopes to show that landscape modification and the introduction of European dogs impacted dingo populations across Australia.
🔗 Full paper here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
We used ancient DNA and dietary isotopes to show that landscape modification and the introduction of European dogs impacted dingo populations across Australia.
🔗 Full paper here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Hannah Moots
Excited to announce the closing workshop of our multidisciplinary research into the #archaeology of #wine in northern #Adriatic #Italy on Dec 1-2 in Verona! For those interested in participating online, please write [email protected]
For a sneak peek, go to: www.archaeoadwine.it 🍇 🍷
For a sneak peek, go to: www.archaeoadwine.it 🍇 🍷
November 19, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Excited to announce the closing workshop of our multidisciplinary research into the #archaeology of #wine in northern #Adriatic #Italy on Dec 1-2 in Verona! For those interested in participating online, please write [email protected]
For a sneak peek, go to: www.archaeoadwine.it 🍇 🍷
For a sneak peek, go to: www.archaeoadwine.it 🍇 🍷
Reposted by Hannah Moots
Two scientists who are fast friends, one Nigerian and one American, have won the MacArthur Foundation's 100&Change competition for their network to catch the next disease with pandemic potential.
$100 million prize goes to dynamic duo aiming to stop next pandemic before it starts
Two scientists who are fast friends, one Nigerian and one American, have won the MacArthur Foundation's 100&Change competition for their network to catch the next disease with pandemic potential.
n.pr
November 22, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Two scientists who are fast friends, one Nigerian and one American, have won the MacArthur Foundation's 100&Change competition for their network to catch the next disease with pandemic potential.
Reposted by Hannah Moots
At today’s plenary of the American Anthropological Association #TheDawnOfEverything was awarded the Staley Prize for ‘outstanding scholarship’ by the School for Advanced Research🙏
It would have meant so much to David Graeber, as it does to me
sarweb.org/awards/j-i-s...
It would have meant so much to David Graeber, as it does to me
sarweb.org/awards/j-i-s...
J.I. Staley Prize - School for Advanced Research
sarweb.org
November 21, 2025 at 2:01 AM
At today’s plenary of the American Anthropological Association #TheDawnOfEverything was awarded the Staley Prize for ‘outstanding scholarship’ by the School for Advanced Research🙏
It would have meant so much to David Graeber, as it does to me
sarweb.org/awards/j-i-s...
It would have meant so much to David Graeber, as it does to me
sarweb.org/awards/j-i-s...
Reposted by Hannah Moots
I really enjoyed talking with Rachel Donald on my work documenting the origins and history of the @scientistrebellion.bsky.social movement and where it and the many other collective liberation movements that exist could go moving forwards, under increased reppression conditions we find ourselves in.
November 20, 2025 at 9:33 AM
I really enjoyed talking with Rachel Donald on my work documenting the origins and history of the @scientistrebellion.bsky.social movement and where it and the many other collective liberation movements that exist could go moving forwards, under increased reppression conditions we find ourselves in.
Reposted by Hannah Moots
OUT NOW!
A Social Archaeology of Kinship in Iberia and Beyond.
edited by Antonio Blanco-González & Eva Alarcón-García
📚 Read online for free or purchase your own volume at www.sidestone.com/books/a-soci...
#archaeogenetics #ancientDNA
A Social Archaeology of Kinship in Iberia and Beyond.
edited by Antonio Blanco-González & Eva Alarcón-García
📚 Read online for free or purchase your own volume at www.sidestone.com/books/a-soci...
#archaeogenetics #ancientDNA
November 19, 2025 at 10:59 AM
OUT NOW!
A Social Archaeology of Kinship in Iberia and Beyond.
edited by Antonio Blanco-González & Eva Alarcón-García
📚 Read online for free or purchase your own volume at www.sidestone.com/books/a-soci...
#archaeogenetics #ancientDNA
A Social Archaeology of Kinship in Iberia and Beyond.
edited by Antonio Blanco-González & Eva Alarcón-García
📚 Read online for free or purchase your own volume at www.sidestone.com/books/a-soci...
#archaeogenetics #ancientDNA
Reposted by Hannah Moots
NEW VIDEO! Investigating Elon Musk's very weird claims (based off of no evidence) about the Fall of Rome and birth rates led me down a very strange rabbit hole that shows how his catastrophic view of history informs the decisions he makes
youtu.be/s2fEaglzsR0
youtu.be/s2fEaglzsR0
Fall of Rome: Elon Musk’s Crazy Doomsday History
YouTube video by Archaeology with Flint Dibble
youtu.be
November 20, 2025 at 4:32 PM
NEW VIDEO! Investigating Elon Musk's very weird claims (based off of no evidence) about the Fall of Rome and birth rates led me down a very strange rabbit hole that shows how his catastrophic view of history informs the decisions he makes
youtu.be/s2fEaglzsR0
youtu.be/s2fEaglzsR0
Reposted by Hannah Moots
Our manuscript on bovine deep-time paleogenomics at Denisova Cave and in the broader mid-latitude Asia is online! doi.org/10.1093/gbe/... 🦬🦴🧬
Main findings in the 🧵 below ⬇️
@cpgsthlm.bsky.social @genomebiolevol.bsky.social #aDNA
Main findings in the 🧵 below ⬇️
@cpgsthlm.bsky.social @genomebiolevol.bsky.social #aDNA
Paleogenomics Reveals a Loss of Bovine Lineages in Mid-latitude Asia Over the Last 200,000 Years
Abstract. Bovines have a complex yet poorly understood evolutionary history that is characterized by admixture and diversity loss during the Late Pleistoce
doi.org
November 20, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Our manuscript on bovine deep-time paleogenomics at Denisova Cave and in the broader mid-latitude Asia is online! doi.org/10.1093/gbe/... 🦬🦴🧬
Main findings in the 🧵 below ⬇️
@cpgsthlm.bsky.social @genomebiolevol.bsky.social #aDNA
Main findings in the 🧵 below ⬇️
@cpgsthlm.bsky.social @genomebiolevol.bsky.social #aDNA
Reposted by Hannah Moots
Are you participating in the 2025-2026 FIRST® LEGO® League UNEARTHED™? 🏺🧪
Here's my resource page: smitinathan.com/first-lego-l...
It includes:
▶️ Curated #archaeology YouTube videos
▶️ Resources made by archaeologists for #FirstLegoLeague
▶️ Guidance on how to chat with a real archaeologist
Here's my resource page: smitinathan.com/first-lego-l...
It includes:
▶️ Curated #archaeology YouTube videos
▶️ Resources made by archaeologists for #FirstLegoLeague
▶️ Guidance on how to chat with a real archaeologist
FIRST LEGO League Archaeology Resources - Dr. Smiti Nathan
Resources for FIRST LEGO League teams exploring archaeology. Includes videos, other links, and ways to connect with archaeologists.
smitinathan.com
November 19, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Are you participating in the 2025-2026 FIRST® LEGO® League UNEARTHED™? 🏺🧪
Here's my resource page: smitinathan.com/first-lego-l...
It includes:
▶️ Curated #archaeology YouTube videos
▶️ Resources made by archaeologists for #FirstLegoLeague
▶️ Guidance on how to chat with a real archaeologist
Here's my resource page: smitinathan.com/first-lego-l...
It includes:
▶️ Curated #archaeology YouTube videos
▶️ Resources made by archaeologists for #FirstLegoLeague
▶️ Guidance on how to chat with a real archaeologist
Reposted by Hannah Moots
Testing clay from the Roman pottery production site at Highgate Wood, North London and using Munsell colour charts to record the results. Same clay, different temperatures and kiln atmosphere. 🏺#Archaeology #AncientBluesky
November 17, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Testing clay from the Roman pottery production site at Highgate Wood, North London and using Munsell colour charts to record the results. Same clay, different temperatures and kiln atmosphere. 🏺#Archaeology #AncientBluesky
Excited to share that our cross-disciplinary conversation on ancient DNA and mobility is now published in Studies in Late Antiquity doi.org/10.1525/sla.... - and also out as an episode of the Byzantium & Friends podcast youtu.be/PdNeL6ika-k?... 🏺🧬
Human paleogenetics and late antique migration: a cross-discipline discussion
YouTube video by Medievalists
youtu.be
November 18, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Excited to share that our cross-disciplinary conversation on ancient DNA and mobility is now published in Studies in Late Antiquity doi.org/10.1525/sla.... - and also out as an episode of the Byzantium & Friends podcast youtu.be/PdNeL6ika-k?... 🏺🧬
Reposted by Hannah Moots
Museum workers at the MET petition for a union! www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/a...
Met Museum Employees Petition to Create Union
www.nytimes.com
November 18, 2025 at 7:55 AM
Museum workers at the MET petition for a union! www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/a...
Reposted by Hannah Moots
A PhD project on historical genomics in the declining red squirrel in Britain is available in my group, through the @aries-dtp.bsky.social. Use historical genomes to track the effects of decline and genetic rescue in this charismatic species. aries-dtp.ac.uk/studentships...
Historical genomics of the declining red squirrel in Britain | Aries
Dr Anders Bergström, School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia Professor Cock van Oosterhout, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia Dr Selina Brace…
aries-dtp.ac.uk
November 17, 2025 at 1:12 PM
A PhD project on historical genomics in the declining red squirrel in Britain is available in my group, through the @aries-dtp.bsky.social. Use historical genomes to track the effects of decline and genetic rescue in this charismatic species. aries-dtp.ac.uk/studentships...
Reposted by Hannah Moots
Want to join the www.codicum.eu project?
3 year PostDoct at SDU (Odense, Denmark) for an Latin expert with palaeographical as well as text and book historical skills.
#Medieval #Manuscript
3 year PostDoct at SDU (Odense, Denmark) for an Latin expert with palaeographical as well as text and book historical skills.
#Medieval #Manuscript
3-year postdoc position in medieval studies
3-year postdoc position in medieval studies The Department of Culture and Language invites applications for a 3-year postdoc position in Dominican studies within the CODICUM project. The position is e...
fa-eosd-saasfaprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com
November 16, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Want to join the www.codicum.eu project?
3 year PostDoct at SDU (Odense, Denmark) for an Latin expert with palaeographical as well as text and book historical skills.
#Medieval #Manuscript
3 year PostDoct at SDU (Odense, Denmark) for an Latin expert with palaeographical as well as text and book historical skills.
#Medieval #Manuscript
Reposted by Hannah Moots
I'm thrilled to announce, together with @RajivBoscoloAgostini and @jack-the-villain.bsky.social, that our paper entitled "Fifteen millennia of human mitogenome evolution in Sicily" is out now in Science Advances!
Check it out!
doi.org/10.1126/scia...
Check it out!
doi.org/10.1126/scia...
Fifteen millennia of human mitogenome evolution in Sicily
Mitogenomes spanning 15 millennia reveal a genetic discontinuity within Sicily and continuous gene flow from Eurasia and Africa.
doi.org
November 14, 2025 at 7:52 PM
I'm thrilled to announce, together with @RajivBoscoloAgostini and @jack-the-villain.bsky.social, that our paper entitled "Fifteen millennia of human mitogenome evolution in Sicily" is out now in Science Advances!
Check it out!
doi.org/10.1126/scia...
Check it out!
doi.org/10.1126/scia...
Reposted by Hannah Moots
Nature research paper: An ancient recombination desert is a speciation supergene in placental mammals
go.nature.com/47UiBWa
go.nature.com/47UiBWa
An ancient recombination desert is a speciation supergene in placental mammals - Nature
Deep learning methods identified a large and evolutionarily conserved X-linked low recombination region in placental mammals that serves as both a barrier to gene flow in hybridizing lineages and an accurate phylogenomic marker.
go.nature.com
November 14, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Nature research paper: An ancient recombination desert is a speciation supergene in placental mammals
go.nature.com/47UiBWa
go.nature.com/47UiBWa
Reposted by Hannah Moots
🦣🧬🦣🤯💥We are pleased to share our new paper about ancient RNA expression profiles from the Woolly Mammoth, now published in Cell @cellpress.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
If you want to know more, read the 🧵 below:
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
If you want to know more, read the 🧵 below:
November 14, 2025 at 4:08 PM
🦣🧬🦣🤯💥We are pleased to share our new paper about ancient RNA expression profiles from the Woolly Mammoth, now published in Cell @cellpress.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
If you want to know more, read the 🧵 below:
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
If you want to know more, read the 🧵 below:
Reposted by Hannah Moots
Amazing to have a byline with @cbo.bsky.social - read our take on Watson’s ultimate legacy in the Boston Globe. Will be in Sunday’s print edition.
"What James Watson got wrong about DNA"
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...
What James Watson got wrong about DNA - The Boston Globe
The science he helped pioneer consistently undermines his view that genes determine everything about us.
www.bostonglobe.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Amazing to have a byline with @cbo.bsky.social - read our take on Watson’s ultimate legacy in the Boston Globe. Will be in Sunday’s print edition.