scholarly journals Extensive farming in Estonia started through a sex-biased migration from the Steppe

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lehti Saag ◽  
Liivi Varul ◽  
Christiana Lyn Scheib ◽  
Jesper Stenderup ◽  
Morten E. Allentoft ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Sequence Data ◽  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
Whole Genome Sequence ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
X Chromosomes ◽  
Steppe Belt ◽  
Extensive Farming ◽  
Early Farmers

AbstractFarming-based economies appear relatively late in Northeast Europe and the extent to which they involve genetic ancestry change is still poorly understood. Here we present the analyses of low coverage whole genome sequence data from five hunter-gatherers and five farmers of Estonia dated to 4,500 to 6,300 years before present. We find evidence of significant differences between the two groups in the composition of autosomal as well as mtDNA, X and Y chromosome ancestries. We find that Estonian hunter-gatherers of Comb Ceramic Culture are closest to Eastern hunter-gatherers. The Estonian first farmers of Corded Ware Culture show high similarity in their autosomes with Steppe Belt Late Neolithic/Bronze Age individuals, Caucasus hunter-gatherers and Iranian farmers while their X chromosomes are most closely related with the European Early Farmers of Anatolian descent. These findings suggest that the shift to intensive cultivation and animal husbandry in Estonia was triggered by the arrival of new people with predominantly Steppe ancestry, but whose ancestors had undergone sex-specific admixture with early farmers with Anatolian ancestry.

scholarly journals Genetic ancestry changes in Stone to Bronze Age transition in the East European plain

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lehti Saag ◽  
Sergey V. Vasilyev ◽  
Liivi Varul ◽  
Natalia V. Kosorukova ◽  
Dmitri V. Gerasimov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Sequence Data ◽  
Source Area ◽  
East European Plain ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
East European ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Clear Change

AbstractTransition from the Stone to the Bronze Age in Central and Western Europe was a period of major population movements originating from the Ponto-Caspian Steppe. Here, we report new genome-wide sequence data from 28 individuals from the territory north of this source area – from the under-studied Western part of present-day Russia, including Stone Age hunter-gatherers (10,800–4,250 cal BC) and Bronze Age farmers from the Corded Ware complex called Fatyanovo Culture (2,900–2,050 cal BC). We show that Eastern hunter-gatherer ancestry was present in Northwestern Russia already from around 10,000 BC. Furthermore, we see a clear change in ancestry with the arrival of farming – the Fatyanovo Culture individuals were genetically similar to other Corded Ware cultures, carrying a mixture of Steppe and European early farmer ancestry and thus likely originating from a fast migration towards the northeast from somewhere in the vicinity of modern-day Ukraine, which is the closest area where these ancestries coexisted from around 3,000 BC.

scholarly journals The genetic structure of the world’s first farmers

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iosif Lazaridis ◽  
Dani Nadel ◽  
Gary Rollefson ◽  
Deborah C. Merrett ◽  
Nadin Rohland ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Near East ◽  
Zagros Mountains ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
Eurasian Steppe ◽  
Neanderthal Admixture ◽  
Eurasian Lineage ◽  
Early Farmers ◽  
The Impact

We report genome-wide ancient DNA from 44 ancient Near Easterners ranging in time between ~12,000-1,400 BCE, from Natufian hunter-gatherers to Bronze Age farmers. We show that the earliest populations of the Near East derived around half their ancestry from a ‘Basal Eurasian’ lineage that had little if any Neanderthal admixture and that separated from other non-African lineages prior to their separation from each other. The first farmers of the southern Levant (Israel and Jordan) and Zagros Mountains (Iran) were strongly genetically differentiated, and each descended from local hunter-gatherers. By the time of the Bronze Age, these two populations and Anatolian-related farmers had mixed with each other and with the hunter-gatherers of Europe to drastically reduce genetic differentiation. The impact of the Near Eastern farmers extended beyond the Near East: farmers related to those of Anatolia spread westward into Europe; farmers related to those of the Levant spread southward into East Africa; farmers related to those from Iran spread northward into the Eurasian steppe; and people related to both the early farmers of Iran and to the pastoralists of the Eurasian steppe spread eastward into South Asia.

scholarly journals Comparing maxillary first molar crown shape using elliptical Fourier analysis in the Late Neolithic cave burials of Belgium

2021 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Brandon Cory Bryan ◽  
Frank L’Engle Williams
Keyword(s):  
Fourier Analysis ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Principal Components ◽  
Geographic Distance ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Maxillary Molars ◽  
Elliptical Fourier Analysis ◽  
Crown Shape ◽  
Early Farmers

Abstract The Belgian Meuse karstic basin holds more than 200 Late Neolithic collective burials. Four of the largest include Hastière Caverne M, Hastière Trou Garçon C, Sclaigneaux and Bois Madame. The remains from these caves are commingled and fragmentary. However, in situ maxillary molars are well preserved permitting an investigation of molar crown shape within and across sites. Crown outlines from the burials are compared using elliptical Fourier analysis to capture shape distinctions in the relatively numerous first maxillary molars (n = 27). Elliptical Fourier analysis is designed to compare deviations between each shape outline and an idealized ellipse, recorded as amplitudes of the harmonics which are reduced to principal components (PC) scores. We expect individuals from each site will be more similar to one another than to other internments in PC scores, and that the sites will be distributed along PC axes according to differences in chronology and geographic location. Principal components analysis reveals that individuals tend to cluster together based on cave burial as well as time period. Geographic distance only differentiates the final/late Neolithic cave burials. The earliest of the sites, Hastière Caverne M, is distinctive and includes multiple outliers. Hastière Trou Garçon C from earlier in the Late Neolithic does not cluster with Hastière Caverne M as expected. Instead, this cave burial groups with Sclaigneaux, the most geographically distant site but chronologically the closest to Hastière Trou Garçon C. Although the limited sample sizes for each site must be considered, it appears that early farmers of the Belgian Meuse basin exhibited intricate human population dynamics which may have included small, semi-isolated groups early in the Late Neolithic and larger communities with greater contact toward the onset of the northern European Bronze Age.

scholarly journals Massive migration from the steppe is a source for Indo-European languages in Europe

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Haak ◽  
Iosif Lazaridis ◽  
Nick Patterson ◽  
Nadin Rohland ◽  
Swapan Mallick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Dna Analysis ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Early Farmers

We generated genome-wide data from 69 Europeans who lived between 8,000-3,000 years ago by enriching ancient DNA libraries for a target set of almost four hundred thousand polymorphisms. Enrichment of these positions decreases the sequencing required for genome-wide ancient DNA analysis by a median of around 250-fold, allowing us to study an order of magnitude more individuals than previous studies and to obtain new insights about the past. We show that the populations of western and far eastern Europe followed opposite trajectories between 8,000-5,000 years ago. At the beginning of the Neolithic period in Europe, ~8,000-7,000 years ago, closely related groups of early farmers appeared in Germany, Hungary, and Spain, different from indigenous hunter-gatherers, whereas Russia was inhabited by a distinctive population of hunter-gatherers with high affinity to a ~24,000 year old Siberian6. By ~6,000-5,000 years ago, a resurgence of hunter-gatherer ancestry had occurred throughout much of Europe, but in Russia, the Yamnaya steppe herders of this time were descended not only from the preceding eastern European hunter-gatherers, but from a population of Near Eastern ancestry. Western and Eastern Europe came into contact ~4,500 years ago, as the Late Neolithic Corded Ware people from Germany traced ~3/4 of their ancestry to the Yamnaya, documenting a massive migration into the heartland of Europe from its eastern periphery. This steppe ancestry persisted in all sampled central Europeans until at least ~3,000 years ago, and is ubiquitous in present-day Europeans. These results provide support for the theory of a steppe origin of at least some of the Indo-European languages of Europe.

scholarly journals Sequential analyses of bovid tooth enamel and dentine collagen (δ18O, δ13C, δ15N): new insights into animal husbandry between the Late Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age at Tana del Barletta (Ligurian Prealps)

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
L. F. Morandi ◽  
D. Frémondeau ◽  
G. Müldner ◽  
R. Maggi
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Carbon Isotopes ◽  
Tooth Enamel ◽  
Animal Husbandry ◽  
Late Prehistoric ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Stable Oxygen ◽  
Nw Italy ◽  
Animal Diet

AbstractTana del Barletta is an upland cave used from the Late Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age, located in the vicinity of the coast in Liguria (NW Italy). The excavation revealed the presence of a faunal assemblage dominated by caprine and cattle remains. In order to gain new data on late prehistoric farming strategies (e.g. seasonal mobility, coastal grazing, animal diet), intra-tooth series of stable oxygen and carbon isotopes have been obtained from cattle and sheep/goat tooth enamel, along with intra-tooth series of nitrogen and carbon isotopes from cattle dentine collagen. Due to the prevalence of maxillary teeth, a modern calf has also been analysed to assess intra-individual isotopic differences between the maxillary and mandibular dentition. Modern data on oxygen isotope values of meteoric water from different altitudes around the area of the site were used as a reference for interpretation. The results indicate that the water ingested by the herd was mostly characterised by particularly low δ18O values, highlighting the importance of the uplands for the late prehistoric farmers of the region. However, the input of water sourced from lower elevations, especially during the winter months, cannot be dismissed. In addition, the nitrogen isotopic composition of cattle collagen rules out the ingestion of salt-tolerant vegetation or seaweed, suggesting that grazing did not occur directly on the coastal plain.

scholarly journals Ancient X chromosomes reveal contrasting sex bias in Neolithic and Bronze Age Eurasian migrations

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (10) ◽  
pp. 2657-2662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Goldberg ◽  
Torsten Günther ◽  
Noah A. Rosenberg ◽  
Mattias Jakobsson
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Sex Bias ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
X Chromosomes ◽  
Male Migration ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
The People ◽  
Spread Of Agriculture

Dramatic events in human prehistory, such as the spread of agriculture to Europe from Anatolia and the late Neolithic/Bronze Age migration from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, can be investigated using patterns of genetic variation among the people who lived in those times. In particular, studies of differing female and male demographic histories on the basis of ancient genomes can provide information about complexities of social structures and cultural interactions in prehistoric populations. We use a mechanistic admixture model to compare the sex-specifically–inherited X chromosome with the autosomes in 20 early Neolithic and 16 late Neolithic/Bronze Age human remains. Contrary to previous hypotheses suggested by the patrilocality of many agricultural populations, we find no evidence of sex-biased admixture during the migration that spread farming across Europe during the early Neolithic. For later migrations from the Pontic Steppe during the late Neolithic/Bronze Age, however, we estimate a dramatic male bias, with approximately five to 14 migrating males for every migrating female. We find evidence of ongoing, primarily male, migration from the steppe to central Europe over a period of multiple generations, with a level of sex bias that excludes a pulse migration during a single generation. The contrasting patterns of sex-specific migration during these two migrations suggest a view of differing cultural histories in which the Neolithic transition was driven by mass migration of both males and females in roughly equal numbers, perhaps whole families, whereas the later Bronze Age migration and cultural shift were instead driven by male migration, potentially connected to new technology and conquest.

scholarly journals Middle and Late Holocene hunter-gatherers in East Central Europe: changing paradigms of the ‘non-Neolithic’ way of life

2007 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 89-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Nowak
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Mesolithic ◽  
Middle And Late Holocene

According to traditional views, the main reason for ‘demesolithisation’ in East Central Europe was the spread of the Neolithic oecumene, particularly from c. 4000 BC. Simultaneously, the disintegrated Late Mesolithic world gradually underwent typological unification, and finally reached the stage that is sometimes described as pre-Neolithic. However, we definitely have to bear in mind that as a matter of fact we deal only with the ‘history’ of archaeological artefacts that are treated as typical attributes of hunter-gatherers. The analyses of chronological, technological, settlement, economic, and social data referring to foragers of East Central Europe demonstrate that the quantitative decrease and changes of their archaeological attributes in the fifth, fourth, and third millennia were not connected with a profound reorientation of their spatial and ideological existence. It was rather a continuation of previous patterns, even though territories settled by farming societies were steadily growing in size. The final disappearance of Central European hunter-gatherers – but only in a strictly typological dimension – took place in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age.

scholarly journals Genetic ancestry changes in Stone to Bronze Age transition in the East European plain

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. eabd6535
Author(s):  
Lehti Saag ◽  
Sergey V. Vasilyev ◽  
Liivi Varul ◽  
Natalia V. Kosorukova ◽  
Dmitri V. Gerasimov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Sequence Data ◽  
East European Plain ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Population Movements ◽  
East European ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Northwestern Russia

The transition from Stone to Bronze Age in Central and Western Europe was a period of major population movements originating from the Ponto-Caspian Steppe. Here, we report new genome-wide sequence data from 30 individuals north of this area, from the understudied western part of present-day Russia, including 3 Stone Age hunter-gatherers (10,800 to 4250 cal BCE) and 26 Bronze Age farmers from the Corded Ware complex Fatyanovo Culture (2900 to 2050 cal BCE). We show that Eastern hunter-gatherer ancestry was present in northwestern Russia already from around 10,000 BCE. Furthermore, we see a change in ancestry with the arrival of farming—Fatyanovo Culture individuals were genetically similar to other Corded Ware cultures, carrying a mixture of Steppe and European early farmer ancestry. Thus, they likely originate from a fast migration toward the northeast from somewhere near modern-day Ukraine—the closest area where these ancestries coexisted from around 3000 BCE.

scholarly journals Familial migration of the Neolithic contrasts massive male migration during Bronze Age in Europe inferred from ancient X chromosomes

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Goldberg ◽  
Torsten Günther ◽  
Noah A. Rosenberg ◽  
Mattias Jakobsson
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Early Neolithic ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Cultural Shift ◽  
X Chromosomes ◽  
Male Migration ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
The People ◽  
Spread Of Agriculture

AbstractDramatic events in human prehistory, such as the spread of agriculture to Europe from Anatolia and the Late Neolithic/Bronze Age (LNBA) migration from the Pontic-Caspian steppe, can be investigated using patterns of genetic variation among the people that lived in those times. In particular, studies of differing female and male demographic histories on the basis of ancient genomes can provide information about complexities of social structures and cultural interactions in prehistoric populations. We use a mechanistic admixture model to compare the sex-specifically-inherited X chromosome to the autosomes in 20 early Neolithic and 16 LNBA human remains. Contrary to previous hypotheses suggested by the patrilocality of many agricultural populations, we find no evidence of sex-biased admixture during the migration that spread farming across Europe during the early Neolithic. For later migrations from the Pontic steppe during the LNBA, however, we estimate a dramatic male bias, with ~5-14 migrating males for every migrating female. We find evidence of ongoing, primarily male, migration from the steppe to central Europe over a period of multiple generations, with a level of sex bias that excludes a pulse migration during a single generation. The contrasting patterns of sex-specific migration during these two migrations suggest a view of differing cultural histories in which the Neolithic transition was driven by mass migration of both males and females in roughly equal numbers, perhaps whole families, whereas the later Bronze Age migration and cultural shift were instead driven by male migration, potentially connected to new technology and conquest.

Quixwood Moor near Grantshouse: the recovery of an All-Over Corded Beaker dating to the transition of the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-115
Author(s):  
Bob Will ◽  
Beverley Ballin Smith ◽  
Susan Ramsay
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Late Neolithic
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