The advent of the polymerase chain reaction as a standard molecular ge
netic technique and the demonstration that nucleic acids are routinely
preserved in prehistoric material have led to a dramatic increase in
molecular approaches to archaeological problems. These genetic approac
hes to long-standing problems in prehistory hold considerable promise
to clarify issues of population origins, migrations, and settlement pa
tterns, as well as ancestor/descendant relationships. The evolving met
hods for manipulating and analyzing ancient DNA (aDNA) are reviewed he
re, as are more recent applications of these methods to anthropologica
lly relevant samples. In addition, new preliminary material is present
ed on mtDNA variation in Anasazi samples from the U.S. Southwest. The
initial samples analyzed indicate similarity to contemporary populatio
ns of the Greater Southwest, as evidenced by the modest frequency of a
9bp deletion in Region V of the mtDNA molecule,and the possible absen
ce of haplogroup D. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.