Archaeogenomics as a journey into the past through DNA.
23.05.2024Prof. Dr. Preston Miracle from Cambridge University, UK, visited together with prof. Dr. Vlatka Čubric-Curik and prof. Dr. Ino Curik from the Faculty of Agronomy of the University of Zagreb our faculty.
Prof. Dr. Preston Miracle from Cambridge University, UK, visited together with prof. Dr. Vlatka Čubric-Curik and prof. Dr. Ino Curik from the Faculty of Agronomy of the University of Zagreb our faculty. It was the first visit of prof. Preston Miracle in Nitra and Slovakia at all. The reason for this rare visit was a meeting focused on the research of the origin of contemporary cattle breeds in Europe. Prof. Miracle is a palaeontologist and zooarchaeologist, who works on the historical evolution of species and together with prof. Čubric-Curik are developing the scientific field of livestock archaeogenomics. In cooperation with the director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Nitra doc. PhDr. Matej Ruttkay, CSc. and archaeozoologist Mgr. Zora Bielichová, we discussed the possibilities of Slovakia's involvement in the unique research on the historical development of cattle breeds using genomic tools. In this respect, it will be important to secure skeletal remains of bovines from archaeological excavations in Slovakia from different historical periods, DNA extraction and using precise statistical methods to refine the past and the origin of cattle. Our aim is to establish a long-term partnership that will aim at a multidisciplinary approach and the development of current knowledge in the field of genomics, as genomics can help to refine the dating of artifacts and to understand the historical development and human influence. In turn, such results may help to find answers to the reasons for the loss of genetic diversity or to show where to look for sources to restore it.