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HEAS Team Leaders Pere Gelabert and Benjamin Vernot were recently interviewed for Nature Magazine for their work in sediment DNA. The two researchers are pushing the boundaries of what we can learn from ancient dirt. Benjamin Vernot built a 1.6‑million‑probe capture panel to enrich for nuclear DNA in sediments - targeting Neanderthals, Denisovans, early modern humans, and even unknown archaic lineages. Such sediments typically contain very small amounts of human DNA, and lots of DNA from other species, and so Vernot also devised new computational methods to handle these challenges. He has applied these methods to sediments at caves like Galería de las Estatuas, where Neandertals lived for nearly 50,000 years. In this work, Vernot identified two distinct Neanderthal populationsm, with one replacing the other about 100,000 years ago. On the other side, Pere Gelabert showed you can brute‑force nuclear DNA from cave dirt with shotgun sequencing, and analyzed human, bison and wolf DNA from a single 25,000 year old sediment sample from Satsurblia cave. As Gelabert puts it, without sediment DNA, many of these human‑history clues would be impossible to uncover. Read Full Article  

We are delighted to announce the results of the HEAS Seed Grants February 2026 round. The following projects by HEAS members will be funded:   Applicant Project Amount Granted Mario Gavranović, Olivia Cheronet, Gábor Sánta Ágnes Somogyvári Genetic and Isotope Tests of a Tumulus Culture Population in Southern Hungary: Newcomers or Locals? 4400 Doralice Klainscek, Pamela Fragnoli ,Johannes H. Sterba Looking at the Ground Raw Material Suitability in the Desert Landscape of NW Arabia 4920 Mareike Stahlschmidt, Laura van der Sluis, Peter Steier, Lyndelle Webster Radiocarbon dating of bones and charcoal preserved in resin impregnated sediment blocks 5000 Carla Gómez-Montes and Timothy Canessa Clarifying the Nature of Human-Animal Occupations in Chufín Cave with Chronological and Paleoproteomic Data 5000     https://www.heas.at/research/seed-grants/

The Early Upper Palaeolithic of Iberia remains an actively debated record of human occupation, yet quantitative approaches to lithic assemblage variability are still lacking, especially among large-scale datasets that span the entire period and region. In this study, we utilised a newly compiled dataset of Aurignacian assemblages to explore techno-typological variability and test its spatial and temporal dimensions. Our work has been able to show that variability has a spatial – rather than temporal – character to the effect that assemblage dissimilarities increase with spatial distance. Our findings thus challenge the application of the classic Aquitaine model of techno-typological change and suggest that temporal change in the Aurignacian may be more unstructured than otherwise deemed. This has wider implications for the detection and characterisation of the technocomplex at large, corroborating previous claims of mosaicism and an inconsistent representation of diagnostic traits.   https://www.heas.at/research/publications/unpacking-lithic-assemblage-variability-in-the-early-upper-palaeolithic-a-multivariate-approach-to-the-structure-of-the-iberian-aurignacian/

HEAS Member Michelle Hämmerle, a PhD candidate in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, won the Annual HEAS Photo competition for her picture of louse nits from the species Pediculus humanus americanus on the head of a 500-year old Inca mummy. Michelle was presented with a €100 book voucher at the Gräzlfest, the HEAS Annual Meeting, by the Head of HEAS, Tom Higham. Other pictures from the competition can be seen in the gallery below.         [gallery ids="5552,5553,5554,5555,5556,5557,5558,5559,5560,5561,5562,5563,5564"]

  Interest in science is high, as evidenced by well-attended children's universities, dedicated citizen scientists, and science fiction bestsellers. But how is new knowledge created, what are researchers working on, and why are diverse perspectives on unresolved questions more important today than ever before? The new podcast "What We Know" from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) takes listeners into the world of science. It contextualizes new knowledge, previously overlooked connections, and background information. Each season focuses on a major scientific topic. The very first season of the FWF podcast, which premieres on November 12, tackles a truly significant subject. It's about nothing less than us: humanity. What do we know about being human? A good question – and not so easy to answer. Therefore, in six episodes, hosts Francesca Grandolfo and Thomas Zauner visit researchers at their workplaces and gather as much knowledge as possible. The episodes span from the origin of life four billion years ago, through the history of civilization and the development of language and cognition, to artificial intelligence and the impact of humans on the environment in the Anthropocene. Speaking of the Anthropocene – does it even exist? Making science tangible In laboratories, institutes, and in the field, journalists Francesca and Thomas speak with researchers throughout Austria about their current work, about basic research, curiosity, and…

HEAS Team Leader Mario Gavranović was recently awarded an FWF grant for his project on Beyond the Burial where he will work with other HEAS Team Leaders Ron Pinhasi and Mathias Mehofer.   Beyond the burial: Contextualizing the first Late Bronze and Iron Age graves in central Bosnia Research context This project focuses on the intensive evaluation of the recently uncovered inhumation graves in a mountain region of the Balkans in the central part of Bosnia. In contrast to investigated settlements that indicate a dense occupation in the Late Bronze and Iron Age (1200–200 BC), intact burials were never documented in the area. Hence, our knowledge was based on sporadic, destroyed finds with no information about interred individuals, mortuary practices or graves. The situation fundamentally changed with our work in the Zenica Basin of the Bosna River and, in particular, with the excavation of the Kopilo cemetery that offers data for this interdisciplinary project. Research questions For the first time, there is an exceptional opportunity to gain a profound insight into the funerary customs of the prehistoric population in this part of the Balkans. Particularly, the fact that the local communities did not practice prevailing cremation at that time in Europe raises questions about their role in the framework of the transition from the Bronze to Iron Age between Central…