Annotation of a Scholarly Article

Stephanie Texeira

Bouwman, Abigail S., Keri A. Brown, A. John N.W. Prag, and Terence A. Brown. "Kinship between burials from Grave Circle B at Mycenae revealed by ancient DNA typing.(Report)." Journal of Archaeological Science 35.9 (Sept 2008): 2580(5). Academic OneFile. Gale. Bristol Community College. 19 Nov. 2008

This article illustrates the finding of similarities in the mitochondrial DNA sequences of individuals in Mycenaean Grave Circle B. By testing the mitochondrial DNA the researchers were able to find similarities amongst some of the remains and classify them, with one set even discovered to be brother and sister through the identification of the UK mitochondrial haplogroup,. This mitochondrial DNA research in addition to facial reconstructions allowed for these classifications. They also used the positions of the burials to determine the status of these remains and determined that the “sister” must have been an important figure, due to her position in the grave circle. The article is recently published (September of 2008) and was published in the “Journal of Archaeological Science”, a highly credible source. Dr. Abigail Bouwman belongs to the Faculty of Life Sciences Department at the University of Manchester, Keri A. Brown and John Prag both belong to the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology research team, nothing could be found of Terence A. Brown’s credentials , but he too assisted on the research team in Mycenae. It is a thorough summary of the finds in Mycenae, the research and effort put into the difficult ancient DNA testing and facial reconstruction, and the efforts of the team to give us a clearer understanding.