Designing a Next-Generation Approach to Archaeogenetics, Social Organization and Identity: Report on the CfAS/CCSA Design Workshop in Oeversee, Germany, 23–27 March 2026

Abstract

The design workshop From Close Kinship to Population Interactions in the Deep Past: Integrating Biological and Cultural Indicators of Social Identities in a Multiscalar Framework (March 2026, Oeversee, Germany) brought together international scholars to develop a next-generation approach to the use of archaeogenetic data for investigating ancient social organization and identity. Workshop participants spent a week exploring ways to more effectively integrate archaeogenetic, cultural and environmental data into more nuanced reconstructions of kinship and population turnovers in the archaeological record. By the end of the workshop, participants had made concrete progress on two synthetic review articles and had outlined future plans for a follow-up workshop and a research grant proposal.