Published in Anthropology News September/October 2017. 

Christina Warinner is a scientist at the Max Planck Institute in Germany working on what she describes as “the archaeology of the invisible.” She and her team are developing new research practices for an emerging area of scientific study called mircrobial archaeology—the study of ancient bacteria. Her current work compares the gut microbiomes from ancient humans to present-day humans to understand how over time disturbances in the human microbiome may have contributed to the development of diseases that exist today.