Demography and the Origins of Writing: Ancient DNA as a Tool for Investigating Cultural Systems

The emergence of writing marks a critical turning point in the development of civilizations and is the defining boundary between prehistory and the historical period. Despite the undeniable importance of writing, the reason behind its origins remains the subject of scholarly debate. Among the leading theories is the notion that writing emerged in response to growing population sizes. Technological advances in the field of ancient DNA (aDNA) has elucidated many long-standing questions that archaeology alone has been unable to answer. This thesis investigates the relationship between the adoption of writing and demographic shifts by leveraging publicly available aDNA data. Specifically, we investigate two of the most important and earliest centers of writing, China and Mesopotamia, and quantify changes in population size through analysis of Runs of Homozygosity (ROH). Overall, the present work highlights the power of computational methods applied to aDNA in understanding how developments in cultural systems are reflected in human genetic variability.