Palaeogenomics uses DNA from museum specimens and ancient remains to trace where living crops and species came from. Potatoes were domesticated in southern Peru and the Andes roughly 7,000 to 10,000 years ago, and the Andes still hold more than 4,000 native varieties. Researchers found that modern European potatoes trace back to a mix of Chilean and Andean historical specimens, later crossed with wild relatives, and one of those specimens was collected by Charles Darwin on Chiloé Island. The same method has rewritten history. Herbarium samples from the 19th century showed that the strain behind the Irish Famine of 1840 was not the US-1 strain that dominated until the 1970s, but a different South American lineage. Such work helps trace food security risks and guides conservation of threatened species, such as cinchona, the fever tree.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.