How are statistics and data science transforming advances in genetic sequencing into new insights about how people lived, formed families, and organised their societies thousands of years ago?

Our guests are Dr Adam “Ben” Rohrlach, an Australian statistician at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, and Dr Simon “Jono” Tuke, Senior Lecturer in the School of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Adelaide. From their early collaboration during Ben’s PhD to their ongoing work today, they’ve combined mathematical rigour with archaeological and genetic research to help uncover patterns in ancient human life that would otherwise remain hidden.

Together, they’ve applied cutting-edge statistical methods to support major discoveries – including their contribution to the 2017 Eureka Prize–winning research confirming the connection between Aboriginal Australians and their ancestral lands.

In this conversation, we revisit that work and dive into their latest research, using ancient DNA to reconstruct family networks in a European society from over 1,300 years ago. It’s a fascinating look at how collaboration across disciplines – and the power of statistics – can bring us closer to understanding the lives of people from the distant past.

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• • Nature study for the 2016 study of the Aboriginal Australian hair samples:
    https://doi.org/10.1038/nature21416
  • Nature study for the Avar:
    https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08418-5
  • Significance Magazine article presenting the Avar paper and the method aimed at statisticians and data scientists:
    https://doi.org/10.1093/jrssig/qmag027
  • GENETICS study introducing ERGMs (network regression):
    https://doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyag053