Abstract
“You have to know the past to understand the present.”
Carl Edward Sagan (1934-1996)
Paleogenetic studies of mummified and skeletal human remains from different geographic origins and time periods provide insights into the history of past human populations. The reconstruction of past diets and the analysis of ancient human microbiomes including pathogens in mummified human remains offer insights into the lifestyle and disease of ancient societies. These investigations are possible thanks to the application of new high-throughput DNA sequencing techniques and targeted DNA enrichment that allow us to reconstruct genomic data from extinct human and microbial populations. Our research on the famous 5,300-year-old mummy Iceman resulted in the last years in the reconstruction of his human genome, the genome of his stomach pathogen Helicobacter pylori, and the characterization of his last meal. Thereby gained experience allowed us to recently reconstruct the diet from paleofeces of prehistoric miners in Hallstatt and by comparing ancient with modern human gut microbiomes we gathered first indications for a possible shift in the gut community composition of modern Westernized populations due to quite recent dietary and lifestyle changes.