Genetic Discontinuity Between Local Hunter-Gatherers and Central Europe's First Farmers

Science ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 326 (5949) ◽  
pp. 137-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Bramanti ◽  
M. G. Thomas ◽  
W. Haak ◽  
M. Unterlaender ◽  
P. Jores ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Genetic Discontinuity ◽  
Local Hunter

scholarly journals Effect of population structure and migration when investigating genetic continuity using ancient DNA

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
NM Silva ◽  
S Kreutzer ◽  
C Papageorgopoulou ◽  
M Currat
Keyword(s):  
Population Structure ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Isolated Populations ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
History Of ◽  
Genetic Continuity ◽  
Population Continuity ◽  
Local Hunter ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Genetic Pool

AbstractRecent advances in sequencing techniques provide means to access direct genetic snapshots from the past with ancient DNA data (aDNA) from diverse periods of human prehistory. Comparing samples taken in the same region but at different time periods may indicate if there is continuity in the peopling history of that area or if a large genetic input, such as an immigration wave, has occurred. Here we propose a new modeling approach for investigating population continuity using aDNA, including two fundamental elements in human evolution that were absent from previous methods: population structure and migration. The method also considers the extensive temporal and geographic heterogeneity commonly found in aDNA datasets. We compare our spatially-explicit approach to the previous non-spatial method and show that it is more conservative and thus suitable for testing population continuity, especially when small, isolated populations, such as prehistoric ones, are considered. Moreover, our approach also allows investigating partial population continuity and we apply it to a real dataset of ancient mitochondrial DNA. We estimate that 91% of the current genetic pool in central Europe entered the area with immigrant Neolithic farmers, but a genetic contribution of local hunter-gatherers as large as 83% cannot be entirely ruled out.

Isotopic Evidence for Early Maize Cultivation in New York State

1977 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 238-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Vogel ◽  
Nikolaas J. Van Der Merwe
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York State ◽  
Arid Environments ◽  
Plant Food ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
York State ◽  
Maize Cultivation ◽  
Archaeological Materials ◽  
Type C ◽  
Local Hunter

Plants metabolize carbon dioxide photosynthetically either through a 3-carbon (Calvin) or 4-carbon pathway. Most plants are of the C-3 type; C-4 plants are primarily grasses adapted to hot, arid environments. Since C-4 plants have a higher 13C/12C ratio than C-3 plants, animals and humans with a significant C-4 plant food-intake will have higher 13C/12C ratios as well. Maize is a C-4 plant, hence maize cultivators living in predominantly C-3 plant environments should show significant isotopic differences from local hunter-gatherers in their skeletal remains; the importance of maize in their diet should also be measurable. The practicability of this method is demonstrated for New York State archaeological materials and wider implications are mentioned.

scholarly journals The Genomic History Of Southeastern Europe

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain Mathieson ◽  
Songül Alpaslan Roodenberg ◽  
Cosimo Posth ◽  
Anna Szécsényi-Nagy ◽  
Nadin Rohland ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Structure ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Southeastern Europe ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
The North ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
History Of ◽  
East And West ◽  
Local Hunter

AbstractFarming was first introduced to southeastern Europe in the mid-7thmillennium BCE – brought by migrants from Anatolia who settled in the region before spreading throughout Europe. To clarify the dynamics of the interaction between the first farmers and indigenous hunter-gatherers where they first met, we analyze genome-wide ancient DNA data from 223 individuals who lived in southeastern Europe and surrounding regions between 12,000 and 500 BCE. We document previously uncharacterized genetic structure, showing a West-East cline of ancestry in hunter-gatherers, and show that some Aegean farmers had ancestry from a different lineage than the northwestern Anatolian lineage that formed the overwhelming ancestry of other European farmers. We show that the first farmers of northern and western Europe passed through southeastern Europe with limited admixture with local hunter-gatherers, but that some groups mixed extensively, with relatively sex-balanced admixture compared to the male-biased hunter-gatherer admixture that prevailed later in the North and West. Southeastern Europe continued to be a nexus between East and West after farming arrived, with intermittent genetic contact from the Steppe up to 2,000 years before the migration that replaced much of northern Europe’s population.

scholarly journals The Prairie Caddo Model and the J.B. White Site

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross C. Fields
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Department Of Transportation ◽  
East Texas ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
The People ◽  
Texas Department ◽  
Central Texas ◽  
Blackland Prairie ◽  
Local Hunter

This article summarizes an hypothesis—called the Prairie Caddo model—presented in a research module published in 2006 to help explain some obvious connections in material culture between Caddo sites in east Texas and sites in central Texas. Harry J. Shafer prepared this module, entitled People of the Prairie: A Possible Connection to the Davis Site Caddo, as an outgrowth in part of excavations that Prewitt and Associates, Inc., performed at the J. B. White site in 2002 for the Texas Department of Transportation. Following the summary of the hypothesis is a synopsis of the results of the excavations at J. B. White and an assessment of the utility of that model for interpreting those results. The excavation data are not consistent with the idea that the people who lived on the Blackland Prairie at the east edge of central Texas between A.D. 1000 and 1300 were Caddo groups who served as a supporting population for the ceremonial center at the George C. Davis site, as the Prairie Caddo model would suggest. Rather, they appear to have been local hunter-gatherers who interacted regularly with the east Texas Caddo. This interaction included providing the Caddo with arrow points and knives, which apparently were highly prized by elites who lived, died, and were buried at the Davis site.

scholarly journals Archaeogenomic analysis of the first steps of Neolithization in Anatolia and the Aegean

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1867) ◽  
pp. 20172064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gülşah Merve Kılınç ◽  
Dilek Koptekin ◽  
Çiğdem Atakuman ◽  
Arev Pelin Sümer ◽  
Handan Melike Dönertaş ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Possibilities ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Cultural Dynamics ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Neolithic Transition ◽  
Plant Cultivation ◽  
Neolithic Culture ◽  
Gradual Development ◽  
North Aegean ◽  
Local Hunter

The Neolithic transition in west Eurasia occurred in two main steps: the gradual development of sedentism and plant cultivation in the Near East and the subsequent spread of Neolithic cultures into the Aegean and across Europe after 7000 cal BCE. Here, we use published ancient genomes to investigate gene flow events in west Eurasia during the Neolithic transition. We confirm that the Early Neolithic central Anatolians in the ninth millennium BCE were probably descendants of local hunter–gatherers, rather than immigrants from the Levant or Iran. We further study the emergence of post-7000 cal BCE north Aegean Neolithic communities. Although Aegean farmers have frequently been assumed to be colonists originating from either central Anatolia or from the Levant, our findings raise alternative possibilities: north Aegean Neolithic populations may have been the product of multiple westward migrations, including south Anatolian emigrants, or they may have been descendants of local Aegean Mesolithic groups who adopted farming. These scenarios are consistent with the diversity of material cultures among Aegean Neolithic communities and the inheritance of local forager know-how. The demographic and cultural dynamics behind the earliest spread of Neolithic culture in the Aegean could therefore be distinct from the subsequent Neolithization of mainland Europe.

Hunter-gatherers subsistence and impact on fauna in the Islands of Four Mountains, Eastern Aleutians, Alaska, over 3000 yr

2019 ◽  
Vol 91 (03) ◽  
pp. 983-1002
Author(s):  
Olga A. Krylovich ◽  
Dmitry D. Vasyukov ◽  
Bulat F. Khasanov ◽  
Virginia Hatfield ◽  
Dixie West ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Aleutian Islands ◽  
Resource Exploitation ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Dietary Niche ◽  
Local Hunter ◽  
Storm Petrel

AbstractThis first zooarchaeological analysis for the Islands of Four Mountains (IFM), Aleutian Islands, Alaska, provides data about local hunter-gatherer resource exploitation over three thousand yr. The majority of zooarchaeological material represents faunal resources that were harvested within several kilometers of villages. Our analysis shows that IFM subsistence system was shaped by the small size of these islands, which is mostly true for all of the Aleutian Islands. The archaeological middens indicate that Aleuts readily exploited new resources when they became available, expanding their dietary niche. Despite human harvesting, most faunal populations remained stable; however, Aleuts overexploited the storm-petrel colony on Carlisle Island.

scholarly journals Bronze Age population dynamics and the rise of dairy pastoralism on the eastern Eurasian steppe

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (48) ◽  
pp. E11248-E11255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Choongwon Jeong ◽  
Shevan Wilkin ◽  
Tsend Amgalantugs ◽  
Abigail S. Bouwman ◽  
William Timothy Treal Taylor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Goat Milk ◽  
Mass Spectrometry Analysis ◽  
Molecular Evidence ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Spectrometry Analysis ◽  
Proteomic Data ◽  
Sayan Region ◽  
Local Hunter

Recent paleogenomic studies have shown that migrations of Western steppe herders (WSH) beginning in the Eneolithic (ca. 3300–2700 BCE) profoundly transformed the genes and cultures of Europe and central Asia. Compared with Europe, however, the eastern extent of this WSH expansion is not well defined. Here we present genomic and proteomic data from 22 directly dated Late Bronze Age burials putatively associated with early pastoralism in northern Mongolia (ca. 1380–975 BCE). Genome-wide analysis reveals that they are largely descended from a population represented by Early Bronze Age hunter-gatherers in the Baikal region, with only a limited contribution (∼7%) of WSH ancestry. At the same time, however, mass spectrometry analysis of dental calculus provides direct protein evidence of bovine, sheep, and goat milk consumption in seven of nine individuals. No individuals showed molecular evidence of lactase persistence, and only one individual exhibited evidence of >10% WSH ancestry, despite the presence of WSH populations in the nearby Altai-Sayan region for more than a millennium. Unlike the spread of Neolithic farming in Europe and the expansion of Bronze Age pastoralism on the Western steppe, our results indicate that ruminant dairy pastoralism was adopted on the Eastern steppe by local hunter-gatherers through a process of cultural transmission and minimal genetic exchange with outside groups.

scholarly journals Isotopic evidence for residential mobility of farming communities during the transition to agriculture in Britain

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 150522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samantha Neil ◽  
Jane Evans ◽  
Janet Montgomery ◽  
Chris Scarre
Keyword(s):  
Residential Mobility ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
Transition To Agriculture ◽  
Early Farming ◽  
Local Hunter ◽  
Early Farmers

Development of agriculture is often assumed to be accompanied by a decline in residential mobility, and sedentism is frequently proposed to provide the basis for economic intensification, population growth and increasing social complexity. In Britain, however, the nature of the agricultural transition ( ca 4000 BC) and its effect on residence patterns has been intensely debated. Some authors attribute the transition to the arrival of populations who practised a system of sedentary intensive mixed farming similar to that of the very earliest agricultural regimes in central Europe, ca 5500 BC, with cultivation of crops in fixed plots and livestock keeping close to permanently occupied farmsteads. Others argue that local hunter–gatherers within Britain adopted selected elements of a farming economy and retained a mobile way of life. We use strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of tooth enamel from an Early Neolithic burial population in Gloucestershire, England, to evaluate the residence patterns of early farmers. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that early farming communities in Britain were residentially mobile and were not fully sedentary. Results highlight the diverse nature of settlement strategies associated with early farming in Europe and are of wider significance to understanding the effect of the transition to agriculture on residence patterns.

Cremation Burials of Stone Age Hunter-Gatherers on the European Plain

2021 ◽  
pp. 15-45
Author(s):  
Karolina Bugajska
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Independent Origin ◽  
Southern Scandinavia ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Western European ◽  
Local Hunter ◽  
Late Mesolithic

Cremation burials of Stone Age hunter-gatherers were found at 21 sites across the European Plain (including southern Scandinavia). In total, there are 54 graves and deposits containing bones of at least 89 individuals. Sites with Mesolithic cremations are unevenly spread over the European Plain and there are some regions where this type of burial was more common, such as the Seine Valley and the Low Countries, southern Scandinavia or north-eastern Poland. In all of these regions, the oldest burials are dated to the Early Mesolithic, which indicates a parallel and independent origin of this custom. Moreover, each region or even cemetery has its own features of the cremation rite. In both the Western European Plain and southern Scandinavia, most burials are dated to the Middle Mesolithic and there are only a few examples linked to the Late Mesolithic. North-eastern Poland, including the Dudka cemetery, is probably the only region where cremation was practised on a wider scale in the Late Mesolithic and para-Neolithic. The share of cremations among all burial types differs between regions and cemeteries. It was probably a dominant practice in the Middle Mesolithic in the Netherlands. In other cases, cremation probably involved a large part of the local hunter-gatherer society, for instance at the Dudka cemetery in Masuria or in the Middle Mesolithic of Vedbæk Fiord (Zealand), whereas at the cemeteries in Skateholm it amounted to only a few percent, suggesting that it was practised in the case of the deceased of particular status or in unusual circumstances only.

The neolithisation of the Scheldt basin in western Belgium

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philippe Crombé ◽  
Bart Vanmontfort
Keyword(s):  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
The Other ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Population Groups ◽  
Loess Area ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Swifterbant Culture ◽  
Local Hunter ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
Scheldt Basin

This chapter focuses on the neolithization process in two different landscape zones of the Scheldt basin extending over western Belgium: first, the northern coversand lowland bordering the Atlantic coast; and second, the southern loess area of Middle Belgium. Although the neolithization of both areas seems to have had a different course, there is evidence of continuous and increasing contact and interaction between population groups occupying each region. In the loess hill land, neolithization can be distinguished in two phases, separated by an archaeological hiatus of several centuries. The first phase is related to the arrival of the Linearbandkeramik (LBK) and the Groupe de Blicquy (BQY), while the second is connected with the Michelsberg culture (MK) occupation of the area. Unfortunately, it is difficult to determine the place of local hunter-gatherers in this process. In the sandy lowland, on the other hand, Mesolithic hunter-gatherers culturally belonging to the Swifterbant culture seem to have survived much longer, probably until the end of the fifth millennium cal bc.

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