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AbstractThousands of Roma were killed in Ukraine by the Nazis and auxiliary police on the spot. There are more than 50,000 Roma in today’s Ukraine, represented by second and third generation decendants of the genocide survivors. The discussion on Roma identity cannot be isolated from the memory of the genocide, which makes the struggle over the past a reflexive landmark that mobilizes the Roma movement. About twenty Roma genocide memorials have been erected in Ukraine during last decade, and in 2016 the national memorial of the Roma genocide was opened in Babi Yar. However, scholars do not have a clear picture of memory narratives and memory practices of the Roma genocide in Ukraine. A comprehensive analysis of the contemporary situation is not possible without an examination of the history and memory of the Roma genocide before 1991.

On sait peu de choses sur le peuplement du Sahara pendant l'optimum climatique de l'Holocène, lorsque le désert a été remplacé par un environnement fertile. Afin d'étudier le rôle du dernier Sahara Vert dans le peuplement de l'Afrique, nous séquençons en profondeur toute la partie non répétitive du chromosome Y chez 104 mâles sélectionnés comme représentatifs des haplogroupes qui se trouvent actuellement au nord et au sud du Sahara. Nous identifions 5 966 mutations, dont nous extrayons 142 marqueurs informatifs puis génotypés chez environ 8 000 sujets issus de 145 populations africaines, eurasiennes et afro-américaines. Nous constatons que l'âge de coalescence des haplogroupes transsahariens remonte au dernier Sahara vert, tandis que la plupart des clades d'Afrique du Nord ou d'Afrique subsaharienne se sont étendus localement au cours de la phase aride ultérieure. Nos résultats suggèrent que le Sahara Vert a favorisé les mouvements humains et les expansions démographiques, peut-être liés à l'adoption du pastoralisme. En comparant nos résultats avec les données précédemment rapportées sur l'ensemble du génome, nous trouvons également des preuves d'une contribution subsaharienne biaisée en fonction du sexe aux Africains du Nord, suggérant que des événements historiques tels que la traite négrière transsaharienne ont principalement contribué au pool d'ADNmt et de gènes autosomiques, alors que le pool de gènes paternels d'Afrique du Nord a été principalement façonné par des événements plus anciens. Poco se sabe sobre el poblamiento del Sahara durante el óptimo climático del Holoceno, cuando el desierto fue sustituido por un entorno fértil. Con el fin de investigar el papel del último Sáhara Verde en el poblamiento de África, secuenciamos profundamente toda la porción no repetitiva del cromosoma Y en 104 machos seleccionados como representativos de los haplogrupos que se encuentran actualmente al norte y al sur del Sáhara. Identificamos 5.966 mutaciones, de las que extraemos 142 marcadores informativos genotipados en unos 8.000 sujetos de 145 poblaciones africanas, euroasiáticas y afroamericanas. Encontramos que la edad de coalescencia de los haplogrupos transaharianos se remonta al último Sáhara Verde, mientras que la mayoría de los clados del norte de África o subsaharianos se expandieron localmente en la fase árida posterior. Nuestros hallazgos sugieren que el Sáhara Verde promovió movimientos humanos y expansiones demográficas, posiblemente relacionadas con la adopción del pastoreo. Al comparar nuestros resultados con los datos de todo el genoma informados anteriormente, también encontramos evidencia de una contribución subsahariana sesgada por sexo a los africanos del norte, lo que sugiere que eventos históricos como la trata de esclavos transahariana contribuyeron principalmente al ADNmt y al acervo genético autosómico, mientras que el acervo genético paterno del norte de África fue formado principalmente por eventos más antiguos. Little is known about the peopling of the Sahara during the Holocene climatic optimum, when the desert was replaced by a fertile environment. In order to investigate the role of the last Green Sahara in the peopling of Africa, we deep-sequence the whole non-repetitive portion of the Y chromosome in 104 males selected as representative of haplogroups which are currently found to the north and to the south of the Sahara. We identify 5,966 mutations, from which we extract 142 informative markers then genotyped in about 8,000 subjects from 145 African, Eurasian and African American populations. We find that the coalescence age of the trans-Saharan haplogroups dates back to the last Green Sahara, while most northern African or sub-Saharan clades expanded locally in the subsequent arid phase. Our findings suggest that the Green Sahara promoted human movements and demographic expansions, possibly linked to the adoption of pastoralism. Comparing our results with previously reported genome-wide data, we also find evidence for a sex-biased sub-Saharan contribution to northern Africans, suggesting that historical events such as the trans-Saharan slave trade mainly contributed to the mtDNA and autosomal gene pool, whereas the northern African paternal gene pool was mainly shaped by more ancient events. لا يُعرف سوى القليل عن سكان الصحراء خلال العصر الهولوسيني المناخي الأمثل، عندما تم استبدال الصحراء ببيئة خصبة. من أجل التحقيق في دور آخر صحراء خضراء في سكان أفريقيا، نقوم بتعميق الجزء الكامل غير المتكرر من الكروموسوم Y في 104 ذكور تم اختيارهم كممثلين للمجموعات الفردانية التي توجد حاليًا في شمال وجنوب الصحراء. نحدد 5,966 طفرة، نستخرج منها 142 علامة إعلامية ثم نُصنّف جينيًا في حوالي 8,000 مشارك من 145 مجموعة من السكان الأفارقة والأوراسيين والأمريكيين الأفارقة. نجد أن عصر التلاحم للمجموعات الفردانية العابرة للصحراء يعود إلى آخر صحراء خضراء، في حين أن معظم الفروع الخضراء في شمال إفريقيا أو جنوب الصحراء الكبرى توسعت محليًا في المرحلة القاحلة اللاحقة. تشير النتائج التي توصلنا إليها إلى أن الصحراء الخضراء عززت الحركات البشرية والتوسعات الديموغرافية، والتي قد تكون مرتبطة بتبني الرعي. بمقارنة نتائجنا بالبيانات التي تم الإبلاغ عنها سابقًا على مستوى الجينوم، نجد أيضًا دليلًا على مساهمة جنوب الصحراء المتحيزة جنسيًا لشمال إفريقيا، مما يشير إلى أن الأحداث التاريخية مثل تجارة الرقيق عبر الصحراء الكبرى ساهمت بشكل أساسي في الحمض النووي متعدد الجينات ومجموعة الجينات الجسدية، في حين أن مجموعة الجينات الأبوية في شمال إفريقيا تشكلت بشكل أساسي من خلال الأحداث القديمة.

Recently rediscovered photographs of the remains of thirteen individuals buried in the Sado Valley Mesolithic shell middens of Poças de S. Bento and Arapouco, excavated in 1960 and 1962, show the potential of revisiting excavation archives with new methods. The analysis, which applies the principles of archaeothanatology and is enriched by experimental taphonomic research, confirmed details concerning the treatment of the dead body and provided new insights into the use of burial spaces. Some bodies may have been mummified prior to burial, a phenomenon possibly linked to their curation and transport, highlighting the significance of both the body and the burial place in Mesolithic south-western Portugal.

A neural language model trained on a text corpus can be used to induce distributed representations of words, such that similar words end up with similar representations. If the corpus is multilingual, the same model can be used to learn distributed representations of languages, such that similar languages end up with similar representations. We show that this holds even when the multilingual corpus has been translated into English, by picking up the faint signal left by the source languages. However, just as it is a thorny problem to separate semantic from syntactic similarity in word representations, it is not obvious what type of similarity is captured by language representations. We investigate correlations and causal relationships between language representations learned from translations on one hand, and genetic, geographical, and several levels of structural similarity between languages on the other. Of these, structural similarity is found to correlate most strongly with language representation similarity, whereas genetic relationships—a convenient benchmark used for evaluation in previous work—appears to be a confounding factor. Apart from implications about translation effects, we see this more generally as a case where NLP and linguistic typology can interact and benefit one another.

The life of international archaeologist Olov Janse (1892–1985) demonstrates the complexity of personal identify formation. Janse worked in Europe, Scandinavia, South East Asia and North America, sp ...

AbstractInvasive alien species (IAS) threaten human livelihoods and biodiversity globally. Increasing globalization facilitates IAS arrival, and environmental changes, including climate change, facilitate IAS establishment. Here we provide the first global, spatial analysis of the terrestrial threat from IAS in light of twenty-first century globalization and environmental change, and evaluate national capacities to prevent and manage species invasions. We find that one-sixth of the global land surface is highly vulnerable to invasion, including substantial areas in developing economies and biodiversity hotspots. The dominant invasion vectors differ between high-income countries (imports, particularly of plants and pets) and low-income countries (air travel). Uniting data on the causes of introduction and establishment can improve early-warning and eradication schemes. Most countries have limited capacity to act against invasions. In particular, we reveal a clear need for proactive invasion strategies in areas with high poverty levels, high biodiversity and low historical levels of invasion.