Unlocking the Past: How Archaeologists Are Rewriting Human History with Ancient DNA

by Martin Jones

In Unlocking the Past, Martin Jones, a leading expert at the forefront of bioarchaeology--the discipline that gave Michael Crichton the premise for Jurassic Park--explains how this pioneering science is rewriting human history and unlocking stories of the past that could never have been told before. For the first time, the building blocks of ancient life--DNA, proteins, and fats that have long been trapped in fossils and earth and rock--have become widely accessible to science. Working at the cutting edge of genetic and other molecular technologies, researchers have been probing the remains of these ancient biomolecules in human skeletons, sediments and fossilized plants, dinosaur bones, and insects trapped in amber. Their amazing discoveries have influenced the archaeological debate at almost every level and continue to reshape our understanding of the past.

Devising a molecular clock from a certain area of DNA, scientists were able to determine that all humans descend from one common female ancestor, dubbed "Mitochondrial Eve," who lived around 150,000 years ago. From molecules recovered from grinding stones and potsherds, they reconstructed ancient diets and posited when such practices as dairying and boiling water for cooking began. They have reconstituted the beer left in the burial chamber of pharaohs and know what the Iceman, the 5,000-year-old hunter found in the Alps in the early nineties, ate before his last journey. Conveying both the excitement of innovative research and the sometimes bruising rough-and-tumble of scientific debate, Jones has written a work of profound importance. Unlocking the Past is science at its most engaging.

Genres: Science, History, Archaeology, Nonfiction, Prehistory, Anthropology, World History

350 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2013

Reviews

[Elentarri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martin Jones provides an interesting and easily digested overview of the history and advances made in the field biomolecular archaeology. Not just bones and potsherds, but the macromolecules (various types of DNA, proteins, lipids) stuck to and inside archaeological finds, including the corpses themselves, any tools used, insects, plant phytoliths, residue in and around the organic remains, and the bits that used to get scrubbed off and discarded. Finding viable molecular remains on prehistoric and historic finds is not always easy. Jones uses many examples to explain how the analytic techniques work, how they advanced, and what their limitations are. The various methods of bioarchaeology have been used to elucidate the domestication of plants and animals (which was not always a straight forward affair), the types of food stuffs eaten and how it was prepared (cooked, fermented, raw, rotten), the movement of populations and individuals (humans and animals), the familial relatedness between members of burial finds, also forensic archaeology, and the ecology of specific areas, amongst others.

I read the revised and updated edition published in 2016. By now, I'm sure the book could do with another revision and update.

[Janet Eshenroder · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fascinating book. I will mention here that I started out in microbiology and spent much of my career in Cytopatholgy, which means I had courses in genetics and chemistry in college. Outside my field, I had an interest in anthropology, archeology, and evolution.
I’d like to say this author is very friendly to lay readers. The history and background he gives on modern day advances would be appreciated by readers with varying levels of background in the subject. It is hard for me to judge, if you haven’t been exposed to some of these concepts or studies, whether it might be slow going for some.
For me it was not a straight read-through simply because there was a lot to digest and explore. (Plus, I stopped several times in between chapters to read other books)
I remember news articles of several of the steps forward with new technology . I would have loved to continue the story into more recent times. (Will have to search out newer publications).
I like that human history is more complex than a simple branched tree. Martin Jones makes history look like the diversity I see around me, and gives a far more fascinating look at how we got to this point in human history.

[Sharon Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book leans more toward the academic than the popular science reader, but is still comprehensible and interesting for an informed layperson (me). Given the year the original book was written I expected the afterword updates to be more extensive. I'm still searching for good writing on the subject of molecular anthropology and ancient DNA.
I can't be the only geek interested in this!

[Jim Kratzok · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative but already becoming dated.

There is so much information in this book! Sadly, even with an update years after the original publication, the pace of change in this area has been so rapid that the book is falling behind again. But it has a lot of fascinating history of the development of the science we use to learn about all those early ancestors of our species and many others. If you're interested in how archeological sleuthing has developed over the years and what key things have been learned, then this book is a worthy read.

[Jrobertus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jones is an expert on bioarchaeology, the use of modern molecular sciences to investigate fossils and other ancient artifacts. In this book he gives a rather detailed explanation for how they work and what their limitations are. This kind of critical thinking is important today where all kinds of unsupported and flashy “news” gets spread with lightning speed. In addition to the facts, Jones uses the emerging data to examine questions of human migration patterns as well as the domestication of plants and animals. The use of DNA sequencing is the star but he also describes other macromolecules and techniques like GC/MS to investigate traces of foods in ancient pots. Overall this is an interesting book, but the level of detail may put off readers with a weak science background.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting topic - but I didn't realize that the main information was dated. Perhaps a second edition note, more extensive afterwards or a complete rewriting would have been good.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great introduction to how archeologists are using modern physics, chemistry and genetics in understand pre-history (and sometimes early history). It's fascinating stuff. The era of Indiana Jones is essentially over. (Although in the fourth movie he makes a comment about crystal skulls have "interesting tooling marks", a factual reference to the debunking of the crystal skulls. Microscopic examination showed modern steel tools were used in their creation.)

[dads kindle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting Reading

A person needs some knowledge of DNA and the research that is involved with it to really understand this book. It was way over my head but I did get an idea of what is being discovered from the ancient past.

[Laura]

Very interesting, especially the discussion of trace DNA.