The Museum of East Dorset is collaborating with the Francis Crick Institute in a nationwide research project. Funded by the Wellcome Foundation, the project seeks to establish the whole-genome history and evolution in a thousand ancient people from Great Britain, for medical research.
It will also give the museum information and fresh insight into people from the past.
DNA will be analysed from the skeletal remains of people who lived thousands of years ago in and around Tarrant Hinton. Remains of these individuals were found during excavations conducted by Wimborne Archaeological Group between 1968 and 1984.
The area was occupied from the Bronze Age, through the Iron Age and into Romano-British times, up to AD 388.
Tiny samples have been taken from 17 burials for a DNA analysis.
It is expected that the aDNA analysis may take up to 12 months to complete. Museum director Chezzie Hollow said that the museum will await the results with great interest and share any significant findings with the public.