Researchers Hannes Schroeder and Mikkel Johansen Nørtoft from the Section of Evolutionary Genomics at Copenhagen University are on a mission to file all ancient genomes ever published and make them accessible through an interactive online resource. By mapping every single ancient genome in time and space their Ancient Genome Atlas provides an interactive overview of the field of ancient human genomics, allowing the user to follow human migrations and gene flow in “real-time”. A website with a very first prototype was already in place when we were hired to help taking the project to the next level.

The Atlas to date features over 2000 ancient human genomes spanning the last 50000 years. Each genome is represented by a colored dot with the color being determined by the individual’s genetic ancestry. Our main focus was to create a beautiful yet systematic visual framework for the complex color scheme while moving away from a website to a single tool experience.

The Atlas provides detailed information for each find such as location, radiocarbon date and cultural context along with references to the original literature in combination with archaeological culture and language areas. It will be continuously updated with additional data moving towards global coverage of ancient genome finds. A custom Umbraco admin interface was set up for easy uploading and handling of the tool’s datapoints, colors and written information.

Down the road the team aims to create an interface that allows scientists to contribute with their own data, thus increasing the impact of their own studies while helping to keep the atlas up to date.