Historically, piecing together the puzzles of human cultural history has largely been the preserve of archaeology. However, recent advances in the retrieval ofancient samples of DNAfrom human remains has allowed researchers to peer into the past in unprecedented detail.

A newstudy published in BMC Geneticsnow addsPCRalongside pickaxes in the archaeological toolbox, by delving into the cultural past of ancient Peru. Mateusz Baca and colleagues from the University of Warsaw andUniversidad Católica de Santa Maria were able to isolate DNA from the remains of individuals buried in ceremonial burial mounds dating from the time prior to Europeancolonization of the Americas.

By using a combination ofsex–linkedandautosomalgenetic markers, the researchers were able to piece together a jigsaw of familial relations between individuals from this isolated Andean community living 4000m up, in the shadow of theCoropuna volcano. Until now, knowledge about how social groups were organized in this pastoral society of llama and alpaca herders was largely inferred from ethnographic and archaeological findings. However, by utilizing modern techniques of DNA extraction from fragments of bones and teeth found at the site, the team were able to confirm that this community were organized in a patriarchal society based around the traditional family unit of Native South Americans—theayllu.

Although such genetic studies are prone to similar problems to their traditional archaeological counterparts – this site for example had been subject to extensive looting – the isolated nature of this high-altitude community fortunately meant that samples were extraordinarily well-preserved, a boon that would certainly be shared by both disciplines.

This study adds to a number of excellent recent studies published inBMC遗传学at the interface of science and cultural history since the launch of the Human Population Genetics section under Section EditorGuido Barbujani. These include studies on the evolution of language among ethnic groups inThailandand thePhilippines, the genetic structure ofisolated modern-day ethnic groups, and the genetic impact of large scalehuman migrations into the Americas.

This new combination ofIndiana Jones-meets-CSIpromises to open a new window onto human cultural history as never before, even if a fluorescent band on anelectrophoretic gelwill never quite look as pretty on a museum shelf.