scholarly journals Ancient DNA sheds light on the genetic origins of early Iron Age Philistines

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. eaax0061 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Feldman ◽  
Daniel M. Master ◽  
Raffaela A. Bianco ◽  
Marta Burri ◽  
Philipp W. Stockhammer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Port City ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Genetic Origins ◽  
Genome Wide Data ◽  
Genetic Signal ◽  
Migration Event

The ancient Mediterranean port city of Ashkelon, identified as “Philistine” during the Iron Age, underwent a marked cultural change between the Late Bronze and the early Iron Age. It has been long debated whether this change was driven by a substantial movement of people, possibly linked to a larger migration of the so-called “Sea Peoples.” Here, we report genome-wide data of 10 Bronze and Iron Age individuals from Ashkelon. We find that the early Iron Age population was genetically distinct due to a European-related admixture. This genetic signal is no longer detectible in the later Iron Age population. Our results support that a migration event occurred during the Bronze to Iron Age transition in Ashkelon but did not leave a long-lasting genetic signature.

scholarly journals Ancient genomic time transect from the Central Asian Steppe unravels the history of the Scythians

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (13) ◽  
pp. eabe4414
Author(s):  
Guido Alberto Gnecchi-Ruscone ◽  
Elmira Khussainova ◽  
Nurzhibek Kahbatkyzy ◽  
Lyazzat Musralina ◽  
Maria A. Spyrou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Gene Pools ◽  
Social Rules ◽  
Eurasian Steppe ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Genome Wide Data ◽  
History Of ◽  
First Millennium

The Scythians were a multitude of horse-warrior nomad cultures dwelling in the Eurasian steppe during the first millennium BCE. Because of the lack of first-hand written records, little is known about the origins and relations among the different cultures. To address these questions, we produced genome-wide data for 111 ancient individuals retrieved from 39 archaeological sites from the first millennia BCE and CE across the Central Asian Steppe. We uncovered major admixture events in the Late Bronze Age forming the genetic substratum for two main Iron Age gene-pools emerging around the Altai and the Urals respectively. Their demise was mirrored by new genetic turnovers, linked to the spread of the eastern nomad empires in the first centuries CE. Compared to the high genetic heterogeneity of the past, the homogenization of the present-day Kazakhs gene pool is notable, likely a result of 400 years of strict exogamous social rules.

scholarly journals Ancient DNA reveals a multistep spread of the first herders into sub-Saharan Africa

Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 365 (6448) ◽  
pp. eaaw6275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary E. Prendergast ◽  
Mark Lipson ◽  
Elizabeth A. Sawchuk ◽  
Iñigo Olalde ◽  
Christine A. Ogola ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Multiphase Model ◽  
Later Stone Age ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Genome Wide Data ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Pastoral Neolithic

How food production first entered eastern Africa ~5000 years ago and the extent to which people moved with livestock is unclear. We present genome-wide data from 41 individuals associated with Later Stone Age, Pastoral Neolithic (PN), and Iron Age contexts in what are now Kenya and Tanzania to examine the genetic impacts of the spreads of herding and farming. Our results support a multiphase model in which admixture between northeastern African–related peoples and eastern African foragers formed multiple pastoralist groups, including a genetically homogeneous PN cluster. Additional admixture with northeastern and western African–related groups occurred by the Iron Age. These findings support several movements of food producers while rejecting models of minimal admixture with foragers and of genetic differentiation between makers of distinct PN artifacts.

scholarly journals The genomic history of the Iberian Peninsula over the past 8000 years

Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 363 (6432) ◽  
pp. 1230-1234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iñigo Olalde ◽  
Swapan Mallick ◽  
Nick Patterson ◽  
Nadin Rohland ◽  
Vanessa Villalba-Mouco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iberian Peninsula ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Y Chromosomes ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Genome Wide Data ◽  
History Of ◽  
Genetic Substructure

We assembled genome-wide data from 271 ancient Iberians, of whom 176 are from the largely unsampled period after 2000 BCE, thereby providing a high-resolution time transect of the Iberian Peninsula. We document high genetic substructure between northwestern and southeastern hunter-gatherers before the spread of farming. We reveal sporadic contacts between Iberia and North Africa by ~2500 BCE and, by ~2000 BCE, the replacement of 40% of Iberia’s ancestry and nearly 100% of its Y-chromosomes by people with Steppe ancestry. We show that, in the Iron Age, Steppe ancestry had spread not only into Indo-European–speaking regions but also into non-Indo-European–speaking ones, and we reveal that present-day Basques are best described as a typical Iron Age population without the admixture events that later affected the rest of Iberia. Additionally, we document how, beginning at least in the Roman period, the ancestry of the peninsula was transformed by gene flow from North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean.

scholarly journals Towards a new history and geography of human genes informed by ancient DNA

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Pickrell ◽  
David Reich
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Population Replacement ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Geographic Locations ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Human Genes ◽  
Genome Wide Data ◽  
History Of

Genetic information contains a record of the history of our species, and technological advances have transformed our ability to access this record. Many studies have used genome-wide data from populations today to learn about the peopling of the globe and subsequent adaptation to local conditions. Implicit in this research is the assumption that the geographic locations of people today are informative about the geographic locations of their ancestors in the distant past. However, it is now clear that long-range migration, admixture and population replacement have been the rule rather than the exception in human history. In light of this, we argue that it is time to critically re-evaluate current views of the peopling of the globe and the importance of natural selection in determining the geographic distribution of phenotypes. We specifically highlight the transformative potential of ancient DNA. By accessing the genetic make-up of populations living at archaeologically-known times and places, ancient DNA makes it possible to directly track migrations and responses to natural selection.

scholarly journals Genetic substructure and complex demographic history of South African Bantu speakers

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dhriti Sengupta ◽  
◽  
Ananyo Choudhury ◽  
Cesar Fortes-Lima ◽  
Shaun Aron ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Population Structure ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Association Studies ◽  
Demographic History ◽  
Genome Wide Association Studies ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Scale Population ◽  
Genome Wide Data ◽  
Genetic Substructure

AbstractSouth Eastern Bantu-speaking (SEB) groups constitute more than 80% of the population in South Africa. Despite clear linguistic and geographic diversity, the genetic differences between these groups have not been systematically investigated. Based on genome-wide data of over 5000 individuals, representing eight major SEB groups, we provide strong evidence for fine-scale population structure that broadly aligns with geographic distribution and is also congruent with linguistic phylogeny (separation of Nguni, Sotho-Tswana and Tsonga speakers). Although differential Khoe-San admixture plays a key role, the structure persists after Khoe-San ancestry-masking. The timing of admixture, levels of sex-biased gene flow and population size dynamics also highlight differences in the demographic histories of individual groups. The comparisons with five Iron Age farmer genomes further support genetic continuity over ~400 years in certain regions of the country. Simulated trait genome-wide association studies further show that the observed population structure could have major implications for biomedical genomics research in South Africa.

scholarly journals Pisum & Ervilia Tetovac: Made in Early Iron Age Leskovac, Part two: Extraction of the ancient DNA from charred seeds from the site of Hissar in South Serbia

2011 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 227-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zivko Jovanovic ◽  
Nemanja Stanisavljevic ◽  
Aleksandra Nikolic ◽  
Aleksandar Medovic ◽  
Aleksandar Mikic ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Made In

scholarly journals Eight thousand years of natural selection in Europe

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain Mathieson ◽  
Iosif Lazaridis ◽  
Nadin Rohland ◽  
Swapan Mallick ◽  
Nick Patterson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Genetic Material ◽  
Indirect Evidence ◽  
Petrous Bone ◽  
Neolithic Culture ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Genome Wide Data ◽  
Signatures Of Selection ◽  
Reported Data ◽  
Genome Wide Scan

The arrival of farming in Europe around 8,500 years ago necessitated adaptation to new environments, pathogens, diets, and social organizations. While indirect evidence of adaptation can be detected in patterns of genetic variation in present-day people, ancient DNA makes it possible to witness selection directly by analyzing samples from populations before, during and after adaptation events. Here we report the first genome-wide scan for selection using ancient DNA, capitalizing on the largest genome-wide dataset yet assembled: 230 West Eurasians dating to between 6500 and 1000 BCE, including 163 with newly reported data. The new samples include the first genome-wide data from the Anatolian Neolithic culture, who we show were members of the population that was the source of Europe's first farmers, and whose genetic material we extracted by focusing on the DNA-rich petrous bone. We identify genome-wide significant signatures of selection at loci associated with diet, pigmentation and immunity, and two independent episodes of selection on height.

A comparative study of ancient DNA isolated from charred pea (Pisum sativum L.) seeds from an Early Iron Age settlement in southeast Serbia: inference for pea domestication

2014 ◽  
Vol 61 (8) ◽  
pp. 1533-1544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petr Smýkal ◽  
Živko Jovanović ◽  
Nemanja Stanisavljević ◽  
Bojan Zlatković ◽  
Branko Ćupina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pisum Sativum ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Pisum Sativum L

Multiple Ramparts

Antiquity ◽  
1943 ◽  
Vol 17 (66) ◽  
pp. 67-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin A. Gresham
Keyword(s):  
Structural Change ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
The Many

One of the many notable results of the Maiden Castle excavations was the formulation of the ‘Sling-stone theory’ to account for the building of multiple ramparts round Early Iron Age camps. The excavations revealed that the Iron Age A2 camp, at first on the eastern knoll only, but later extended to include the whole hill, was surrounded by a single rampart, and that this, at some period in the 1st century B.C., was suddenly reinforced and encircled by two outer ramparts, thus producing the massive defence works to be seen today. The nature of the construction of the new defences led the excavators to the conclusion that they were the work of a ‘foreign dynasty’ of, invaders of the fort, and not of the A2 inhabitants. It was found, however, that this ‘sudden structural change’ was not associated with a similar sudden cultural change, as might have been expected. There was a change, represented by the introduction of the first traces of Iron Age B pottery, but this was slight at first and only gained in importance with the passage of time. The A2 pottery remained but became more and more influenced by the B forms until the latter gradually became ‘dominant and characteristic’.

scholarly journals The Genomic Formation of South and Central Asia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vagheesh M. Narasimhan ◽  
Nick Patterson ◽  
Priya Moorjani ◽  
Iosif Lazaridis ◽  
Mark Lipson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Asia ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
South Asian ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
South Asians ◽  
Asian Populations ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Steppe Communities ◽  
Genome Wide Data

AbstractThe genetic formation of Central and South Asian populations has been unclear because of an absence of ancient DNA. To address this gap, we generated genome-wide data from 362 ancient individuals, including the first from eastern Iran, Turan (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan), Bronze Age Kazakhstan, and South Asia. Our data reveal a complex set of genetic sources that ultimately combined to form the ancestry of South Asians today. We document a southward spread of genetic ancestry from the Eurasian Steppe, correlating with the archaeologically known expansion of pastoralist sites from the Steppe to Turan in the Middle Bronze Age (2300-1500 BCE). These Steppe communities mixed genetically with peoples of the Bactria Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) whom they encountered in Turan (primarily descendants of earlier agriculturalists of Iran), but there is no evidence that the main BMAC population contributed genetically to later South Asians. Instead, Steppe communities integrated farther south throughout the 2nd millennium BCE, and we show that they mixed with a more southern population that we document at multiple sites as outlier individuals exhibiting a distinctive mixture of ancestry related to Iranian agriculturalists and South Asian hunter-gathers. We call this group Indus Periphery because they were found at sites in cultural contact with the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) and along its northern fringe, and also because they were genetically similar to post-IVC groups in the Swat Valley of Pakistan. By co-analyzing ancient DNA and genomic data from diverse present-day South Asians, we show that Indus Periphery-related people are the single most important source of ancestry in South Asia—consistent with the idea that the Indus Periphery individuals are providing us with the first direct look at the ancestry of peoples of the IVC—and we develop a model for the formation of present-day South Asians in terms of the temporally and geographically proximate sources of Indus Periphery-related, Steppe, and local South Asian hunter-gatherer-related ancestry. Our results show how ancestry from the Steppe genetically linked Europe and South Asia in the Bronze Age, and identifies the populations that almost certainly were responsible for spreading Indo-European languages across much of Eurasia.One Sentence SummaryGenome wide ancient DNA from 357 individuals from Central and South Asia sheds new light on the spread of Indo-European languages and parallels between the genetic history of two sub-continents, Europe and South Asia.

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