Genomes From Verteba Cave Suggest Diversity Within The Trypillians In Ukraine

The transition to agriculture occurred relatively late in Eastern Europe, leading researchers to debate whether it was a gradual, interactive process or a colonization event. In the forest and forest-steppe regions of Ukraine, farming appeared during the fifth millennium BCE, associated with the Cucuteni-Trypillian Archaeological Complex (CTCC, 4800-3000 BCE). Across Europe, the Neolithization process was highly variable across space and over time. Here, we investigate the population dynamics of early agriculturalists from the eastern forest-steppe region based on analyses of 20 ancient genomes from the Verteba Cave site (3789-980 BCE). The results reveal that the CTCC individuals’ ancestry is related to both western hunter gatherers and Near Eastern farmers, lacks local ancestry associated with Ukrainian Neolithic hunter gatherers and has steppe ancestry. An Early Bronze Age individual has an ancestry profile related to the Yamnaya expansions but with 20% ancestry related to the other Trypillian individuals, which suggests admixture between the Trypillians and the incoming populations carrying steppe-related ancestry. A Late Bronze Age individual dated to 980-948 BCE has a genetic profile indicating affinity to Beaker-related populations, detected close to 1,000 years after the end of the Bell Beaker phenomenon during the Third millennium BCE.

Shared traditions and shard conservatism: pottery making at the Chalcolithic site of Radovanu (Romania)

This work investigates the technology of pottery production at the Chalcolithic site of Radovanu-La Muscalu (first half of the fifth millennium BCE), in southern Romania. The excavation of this settlement yielded a rich and well-contextualised archaeological assemblage that represents the last phases of development of Boian material culture, a Chalcolithic phenomenon that spread throughout the lower Danube area at the end of the sixth millennium BCE and the first half of fifth millennium BCE. To carry out this investigation, a total of forty-nine ceramic samples, representative of the different pottery types and chronological horizons attested at this site, together with geological samples collected around Radovanu, were selected. These were analysed using a multi-pronged scientific approach including ceramic petrography, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. This interdisciplinary study elucidates different aspects of the local pottery production and indicates that ceramics at Radovanu were manufactured according to a conservative tradition that consistently made use of grog tempering throughout all phases in which this settlement was inhabited. The results also show that at Radovanu, regional technological traits coexisted with elements that were widely applied in the Balkan region at that time, such as graphite-painted decoration. This investigation together with the identification of potential non-local productions well illustrates the complex interrelationships between the Boian phenomenon and the neighbouring material cultures in the Balkans.

The Chalcolithic of Eastern Anatolia

This article presents data on the Chalcolithic of eastern Anatolia. After the end of the sixth millennium BCE and throughout the whole of the fifth, the cultural developments in the region are decidedly more difficult to establish because of a very serious dearth of information. The only site that might possibly document an occupation which could better clarify this phase is Tilkitepe. It appears likely that Tilkitepe Level II is a mixture of materials from lower and upper levels. Level I—the most recent—offers interesting material for the study of what might have been the cultural developments in this part of Anatolia in the fifth millennium BCE.