Preliminary Test on DNA Extracted from Bones and Teeth Excavated at the Tell Damiyah Site, Jordan

Mayyas, Abdulraouf S.; Al-Eitan, Laith N.

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8003823.

Vol. 51 (2023), pp. 92–97 •

912 KB

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Preliminary Test on DNA Extracted from Bones and Teeth Excavated at the Tell Damiyah Site, Jordan

Abdulraouf S. Mayyas,¹ Laith N. Al-Eitan ²

¹ Department of Conservation Science, Queen Rania Faculty of Tourism and Heritage,
The Hashemite University, P.O. Box 330127, Zarqa 13133, Jordan

² Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Faculty of Science and Arts,
Jordan University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3030, Irbid 22110, Jordan

(a_s_mayyas@hotmail.com)

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Abstract

This preliminary investigation aimed to assess the DNA found in human bones and teeth recovered from the archaeological site of Tell Damiyah. The primary objective was to gather data that could contribute to the ongoing archaeological research focused on understanding the migration patterns of ancient societies in the Central Jordan Valley of southern Levant and their interactions with the surrounding regions. The bone and teeth samples, obtained from the Byzantine and Ottoman contexts at Tell Damiyah, were subjected to DNA extraction and analysis. The results revealed that only two teeth samples from the Byzantine period contained viable DNA suitable for extraction. This was due to the suboptimal preservation of DNA in the remaining samples. Consequently, the DNA data obtained from this study were included in the human DNA database of cultural heritage sites in Jordan, enabling comparison and interpretation with future DNA data obtained from comparable samples. As a result, it is recommended to conduct further DNA investigations on bone and teeth samples, particularly those obtained from recently excavated contexts at Tell Damiyah or other related and comparable sites.

Keywords

DNA; bones; teeth; Tell Damiyah; Jordan.

Cite as

Mayyas, A. S.; L. N. Al-Eitan. 2023.
Preliminary Test on DNA Extracted from Bones and Teeth Excavated at the Tell Damiyah Site, Jordan. Arqueología Iberoamericana 51: 92–97.

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Other Persistent Identifiers

PURL: purl.org/aia/5111. ARK: ark:/49934/298.

Guaranteed preservation

Archived in the Internet Archive.

Received: May 8, 2023. Modified: May 19, 2023.
Accepted: May 23, 2023. Published: June 7, 2023.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to greatly acknowledge both Lucas Petit and Zeidan Kafafi for their collaboration represented by lending us bone and teeth samples for this study.

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