Abstract
The site of Münsingen-Rain (Canton of Bern, Switzerland, 420-180 BCE) is a landmark context for the study of the European Late Iron Age due to its rich archaeological record and clear horizontal stratigraphy. Previous morphological studies suggested the presence of two main family groups among the buried individuals. To date, a test of such hypothesis has been discouraged by the results of classical PCR-based ancient DNA (aDNA) analyses, which pointed to a poor preservation of human DNA. We applied Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) methods to investigate the endogenous human DNA quality of the skeletal remains in Münsingen-Rain. For this, we selected 27 individuals (represented by 5 teeth and 22 petrous bones) from burials representing different chronological phases. First results of the shotgun sequencing show in most cases (23/27: 85.2%) a good preservation of the human aDNA, with an average human endogenous content of 7.8%. The mean nuclear coverage ranges from 0.0023 X to 0.0563 X. Damage pattern of the aDNA fragments and the length of the reads support the authenticity of the ancient human endogenous DNA. We estimated low contamination by comparison with mitochondrial DNA. Thus, NGS-based methods returned results previously unattainable using classical PCR-based methods. Planned genomic analyses (e.g. nuclear enrichment) will allow us to estimate the genetic relatedness among these individuals and compare it with the site´s archaeological, anthropological, and isotopic patterns. By combining these datasets, we aim to gather new insights into the social organization of individuals from the cemetery in Münsingen-Rain.