How interdisciplinary is interdisciplinarity? Revisiting the impact of a DNA research for the archaeology of human remains

Abstract

With this paper I propose a reflection on the way interdisciplinarity is framed in reference to the study of archaeological human remains. It is often taken for granted that interdisciplinarity is valuable for archaeology – but why should it be? By taking the case study of the way ancient genomics research is rewriting the ‘Neolithic Revolution’ narratives I show how the use of scientific methodologies influences and biases the kind of work that gets done and the questions that are asked.