Sedimentary ancient DNA expands bioarchaeological evidence and interpretation at Roman Harelbeke

Shotgun sedimentary ancient DNA from disused Roman wells at Harelbeke (ca. 160–300 CE) reproduces established consumption signals and adds underrepresented environmental taxa, strengthening settlement ecology reconstructions.

• Why it matters: Conventional bioarchaeology can miss broad biological signals from small samples and often relies on individual introduced taxa, limiting community-level interpretations of Roman influence.
• What they did: The study used shotgun sedaDNA metagenomics and target capture on Roman well sediments, integrating recovered community profiles with existing bioarchaeological datasets and applying analytical-effort modeling.
• The result: SedaDNA reproduced most established signals (including cultivated plants and domestic animals), mitochondrial target capture improved selected faunal detections and enabled phylogenetic placement of Sus scrofa, and modeling suggests batch workflows can deliver broad profiles with lower cost and time than established methods.

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