Vesuvian Sky
10-10-2013, 08:22 PM
I complain alot of how sometimes we make too many conclusions based on modern population samples. Well, here are two new papers that tell us quite a bit based on mtDNA aDNA from prehistoric archaeological horizons dating to the Mesolithic all the way to the Bronze Age:
Guido Brandt, Wolfgang Haak et al., Ancient DNA Reveals Key Stages in the Formation of Central European Mitochondrial Genetic Diversity
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6155/257.abstract
The processes that shaped modern European mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation remain unclear. The initial peopling by Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers ~42,000 years ago and the immigration of Neolithic farmers into Europe ~8000 years ago appear to have played important roles but do not explain present-day mtDNA diversity. We generated mtDNA profiles of 364 individuals from prehistoric cultures in Central Europe to perform a chronological study, spanning the Early Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age (5500 to 1550 calibrated years before the common era). We used this transect through time to identify four marked shifts in genetic composition during the Neolithic period, revealing a key role for Late Neolithic cultures in shaping modern Central European genetic diversity.
Ruth Bollongino et al., 2000 Years of Parallel Societies in Stone Age Central Europe
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2013/10/09/science.1245049
Debate on the ancestry of Europeans centers on the interplay between Mesolithic foragers and Neolithic farmers. Foragers are generally believed to have disappeared shortly after the arrival of agriculture. To investigate the relation between foragers and farmers, we examined Mesolithic and Neolithic samples from the Blätterhöhle site. Mesolithic mitochondrial DNA sequences were typical of European foragers, whereas the Neolithic sample included additional lineages that are associated with early farmers. However, isotope analyses separate the Neolithic sample into two groups: one with an agriculturalist diet and one with a forager and freshwater fish diet, the latter carrying mitochondrial DNA sequences typical of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. This indicates that the descendants of Mesolithic people maintained a foraging lifestyle in Central Europe for more than 2000 years after the arrival of farming societies.
Looks like Neolithic genes played a role in shaping European gene pools even until the later Neoltihic periods.
AND, that Mesolithic genes were quite persistent even into the Neolithic.
As expected.:cool:
Guido Brandt, Wolfgang Haak et al., Ancient DNA Reveals Key Stages in the Formation of Central European Mitochondrial Genetic Diversity
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6155/257.abstract
The processes that shaped modern European mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation remain unclear. The initial peopling by Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers ~42,000 years ago and the immigration of Neolithic farmers into Europe ~8000 years ago appear to have played important roles but do not explain present-day mtDNA diversity. We generated mtDNA profiles of 364 individuals from prehistoric cultures in Central Europe to perform a chronological study, spanning the Early Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age (5500 to 1550 calibrated years before the common era). We used this transect through time to identify four marked shifts in genetic composition during the Neolithic period, revealing a key role for Late Neolithic cultures in shaping modern Central European genetic diversity.
Ruth Bollongino et al., 2000 Years of Parallel Societies in Stone Age Central Europe
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2013/10/09/science.1245049
Debate on the ancestry of Europeans centers on the interplay between Mesolithic foragers and Neolithic farmers. Foragers are generally believed to have disappeared shortly after the arrival of agriculture. To investigate the relation between foragers and farmers, we examined Mesolithic and Neolithic samples from the Blätterhöhle site. Mesolithic mitochondrial DNA sequences were typical of European foragers, whereas the Neolithic sample included additional lineages that are associated with early farmers. However, isotope analyses separate the Neolithic sample into two groups: one with an agriculturalist diet and one with a forager and freshwater fish diet, the latter carrying mitochondrial DNA sequences typical of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. This indicates that the descendants of Mesolithic people maintained a foraging lifestyle in Central Europe for more than 2000 years after the arrival of farming societies.
Looks like Neolithic genes played a role in shaping European gene pools even until the later Neoltihic periods.
AND, that Mesolithic genes were quite persistent even into the Neolithic.
As expected.:cool: