Studying the African Neolithic Transition Through Genetics

Scientists from the Institut Pasteur set out to understand how the demographic changes associated with the Neolithic transition also influenced the efficacy of natural selection. By comparing the genome diversity of more than 300 individuals from groups of forest hunter-gatherers (pygmies) and farmers (Bantu-speaking peoples), from western and eastern Central Africa, they discovered that the reason pygmies did not suffer from excessive deleterious mutations was because of their genetic diversity and their admixture with the Bantu peoples.

Research into the diversity of the human genome and any rare or frequent mutations is vital in identifying mutations that increase susceptibility to "complex" diseases, such as infectious or autoimmune disorders. "The elimination of these mutations that are harmful for human health is largely conditioned by the evolutionary history of populations, especially their demographic fluctuations," explains Lluis Quintana, Head of the Human Evolutionary Genetics Unit and author of the study. Throughout their history, human populations have undergone significant and extremely varied changes in terms of numbers of individuals, giving rise to differences in the number and severity of mutations carried by these populations. The accumulation of disease-causing genetic variants, known as the "burden of deleterious mutations", varies from one population to another depending on its past. "The aim of our project is to understand how demographic events such as the rise and fall in numbers of individuals, as well as genetic admixtures, have had an impact on the efficacy of some evolutionary mechanisms such as purifying selection."

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People Deforested the Central African Tropical Rain Forest 2,600 Years ago

The forested expanses of Central Africa host the second largest block of tropical rainforest on Earth (after Amazonia), stretching over around 2 × 106 km2. They are the great green heart of Africa, and changes in vegetation cover are likely to have important but poorly understood influences on the climate of much of the continent (1). A remarkable feature is that this blanket of forest appears quite tenuous—under the arid climates of the ice ages, the forest appears to have retreated into isolated pockets surrounded by savanna grasslands. Even in the climatically stable Holocene, there appears to have been periods of substantial forest retreat. In particular, there is evidence for a period of major forest loss between 3,000 and 2,000 y ago [termed the Late Holocene rainforest crisis (LHRC) (2)]. Attributing the cause of this decline is complicated by the fact that this period coincided with major expansion of Neolithic and early Iron Age farmers southward from the Nigeria/Cameroon border regions into western Central Africa. Did the farmers take advantage of a forest retreat driven by climate drying, or were they the primary cause of the forest loss? In recent years, there has been a vigorous debate on the cause of the LHRC. Now, Garcin et al. (3) provide new data and an unexpected new insight, presenting strong evidence that there was no strong drying event, and therefore suggesting that it was direct deforestation that caused this retreat of the Central African rainforests.

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Better start rethinking the anthropocene, folks.

Modern Europeans are Descended From Anatolian Farmers, not Paleolithic Europeans

For most of the last 45,000 years Europe was inhabited solely by hunter-gatherers. About 8,500 years ago a new form of subsistence - farming - started to spread across the continent from modern-day Turkey, reaching central Europe by 7,500 years ago and Britain by 6,100 years ago. This new subsistence strategy led to profound changes in society, including greater population density, new diseases, and poorer health. Such was the impact of farming on how we live that scientists have debated for more than 100 years how it was spread across Europe. Many believed that farming was spread as an idea to European hunter-gatherers but without a major migration of farmers themselves.

This week, an international research team led by paleogeneticists of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) publishes a study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America showing that early farmers from across Europe have an almost unbroken trail of ancestry leading back to the Aegean. The scientists analyzed the DNA of early farmer skeletons from Greece and Turkey. According to the study, the Neolithic settlers from northern Greece and the Marmara Sea region of western Turkey reached central Europe via a Balkan route and the Iberian Peninsula via a Mediterranean route. These colonists brought sedentary life, agriculture, and domestic animals and plants to Europe. During their expansion they will have met hunter-gatherers who lived in Europe since the Ice Age, but the two groups mixed initially only to a very limited extent. "They exchanged cultural heritage and knowledge, but rarely spouses," commented anthropologist Joachim Burger, who lead the research. "Only after centuries did the number of partnerships increase."

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Neolithic People Purposefully Introduced Red Deer to the Scottish Islands

Colonization of the Scottish islands via long-distance Neolithic transport of red deer (Cervus elaphus)

Authors:

Stanton et al

Abstract:

Red deer (Cervus elaphus) have played a key role in human societies throughout history, with important cultural significance and as a source of food and materials. This relationship can be traced back to the earliest human cultures and continues to the present day. Humans are thought to be responsible for the movement of a considerable number of deer throughout history, although the majority of these movements are poorly described or understood. Studying such translocations allows us to better understand ancient human–wildlife interactions, and in the case of island colonizations, informs us about ancient human maritime practices. This study uses DNA sequences to characterise red deer genetic diversity across the Scottish islands (Inner and Outer Hebrides and Orkney) and mainland using ancient deer samples, and attempts to infer historical colonization events. We show that deer from the Outer Hebrides and Orkney are unlikely to have originated from mainland Scotland, implying that humans introduced red deer from a greater distance. Our results are also inconsistent with an origin from Ireland or Norway, suggesting long-distance maritime travel by Neolithic people to the outer Scottish Isles from an unknown source. Common haplotypes and low genetic differentiation between the Outer Hebrides and Orkney imply common ancestry and/or gene flow across these islands. Close genetic proximity between the Inner Hebrides and Ireland, however, corroborates previous studies identifying mainland Britain as a source for red deer introductions into Ireland. This study provides important information on the processes that led to the current distribution of the largest surviving indigenous land mammal in the British Isles.

Evidence of Fishing With Lure Hooks From Late Neolithic Serbia

Fishing with lure hooks at the Late Neolithic site of Vinča – Belo Brdo, Serbia

Authors:

Cristiani et al

Abstract:

The authors present an early evidence for the use of complex fishing techniques for obtaining variable fish resources in prehistoric south-east Europe as recovered at the Neolithic site of Vinča – Belo Brdo in Serbia. In particular, a group of bone artefacts have been analysed through the application of an integrated approach combining technological, use-wear, and residue analyses as well as the comparisons with ethnographic artefacts. The results of the functional analysis indicate that these artefacts were parts of lure hooks, i.e. composite hooks, probably used to catch large predatory fish. On methodological grounds, the discussion proposed in this paper could be relevant for other case studies worldwide where one finds prehistoric communities with evidence of fishing activities.

Celts Were NOT (!) the Ancient Irish?

A team of geneticists from Trinity College Dublin and archaeologists from Queen's University Belfast has sequenced the first genomes from ancient Irish humans, and the information buried within is already answering pivotal questions about the origins of Ireland's people and their culture.

The team sequenced the genome of an early farmer woman, who lived near Belfast some 5,200 years ago, and those of three men from a later period, around 4,000 years ago in the Bronze Age, after the introduction of metalworking. Their landmark results are published today in international journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA.

Ireland has intriguing genetics. It lies at the edge of many European genetic gradients with world maxima for the variants that code for lactose tolerance, the western European Y chromosome type, and several important genetic diseases including one of excessive iron retention, called haemochromatosis.

However, the origins of this heritage are unknown. The only way to discover our genetic past is to sequence genomes directly from ancient people, by embarking on a type of genetic time travel.

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Ma'anshan cave and the Origin of Bone Tool Technology in China

Ma'anshan cave and the origin of bone tool technology in China

Authors:

Zhang et al

Abstract:

Here we present the results of a techno-functional analysis of 17 bone tools recovered from strata 6, 5 and 3 of the Palaeolithic site of Ma'anshan Cave, Guizhou Province, southern China. Stratum 6, dated to c. 35 cal kyr BP, has yielded three sharp awls. From Stratum 5, dated to c. 34 cal kyr BP, come six probable spear points, awls and a cutting tool. Separated from these layers by a sterile horizon, Stratum 3, dated 23 cal kyr BP to 18 cal kyr BP, has yielded barbed points of two types. Bone tools were shaped by scraping, grinding, and in strata 5 and 3, finished by polishing. Ma'anshan Cave records the oldest formal bone tools from China, and amongst the oldest known evidence of indisputable barbed point manufacture outside Africa. Change in the hunting toolkit between strata 5 and 3 may indicate a shift in prey preference from medium to small size mammals and fish, which needs to be verified by supplementary analyses. The significance of this evidence is discussed in the context of what is known about the origin of bone tool technology in Africa and Eurasia.

Europeans are Really all Turkish, well, Anatolian

The introduction of agriculture into Europe about 8,500 years ago changed the way people lived right down to their DNA.

Until recently, scientists could try to understand the way humans adapted genetically to changes that occurred thousands of years ago only by looking at DNA variation in today's populations. But our modern genomes contain mere echoes of the past that can't be connected to specific events.

Now, an international team reports in Nature that researchers can see how natural selection happened by analyzing ancient human DNA.

"It allows us to put a time and date on selection and to directly associate selection with specific environmental changes, in this case the development of agriculture and the expansion of the first farmers into Europe," said Iain Mathieson, a research fellow in genetics at Harvard Medical School and first author of the study.

By taking advantage of better DNA extraction techniques and amassing what is to date the largest collection of genome-wide datasets from ancient human remains, the team was able to identify specific genes that changed during and after the transition from hunting and gathering to farming.

Many of the variants occurred on or near genes that have been associated with height, the ability to digest lactose in adulthood, fatty acid metabolism, vitamin D levels, light skin pigmentation and blue eye color. Two variants appear on genes that have been linked to higher risk of celiac disease but that may have been important in adapting to an early agricultural diet.

Other variants were located on immune-associated genes, which made sense because "the Neolithic period involved an increase in population density, with people living close to one another and to domesticated animals," said Wolfgang Haak, one of three senior authors of the study, a research fellow at the University of Adelaide and group leader in molecular anthropology at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

"Although that finding did not come fully as a surprise," he added, "it was great to see the selection happening in 'real time.'"

The work also supports the idea that Europe's first farmers came from ancient Anatolia, in what is now Turkey, and fills in more details about how ancient groups mixed and migrated.

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Basques are Closely Related to FIrst European Farmers

An international team led by researchers at Uppsala University reports a surprising discovery from the genomes of eight Iberian Stone-Age farmer remains. The analyses revealed that early Iberian farmers are the closest ancestors to modern-day Basques, in contrast previous hypotheses that linked Basques to earlier pre-farming groups.

The team could also demonstrate that farming was brought to Iberia by the same/similar groups that migrated to northern and central Europe and that the incoming farmers admixed with local, Iberian hunter-gather groups, a process that continued for at least 2 millennia.

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Tasting the Proto Pita Bread of the Pleistocene

A group of intrepid Israeli researchers recently went back to the dawn of the Stone Age to make lunch.

Using 12,500-year-old conical mortars carved into bedrock, they reconstructed how their ancient ancestors processed wild barley to produce groat meals, as well as a delicacy that might be termed "proto-pita" - small loaves of coal-baked, unleavened bread. In so doing, they re-enacted a critical moment in the rise of civilization: the emergence of wild-grain-based nutrition, some 2,000 to 3,000 years before our hunter-gatherer forebears would establish the sedentary farming communities which were the hallmark of the "Neolithic Revolution".

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Farming in Northern Europe: Resistance was Futile, but Archaeologically Documented

Ornaments Reveal Resistance of North European Cultures to the Spread of Farming

Authors:

Riguad et al

Abstract:

The transition to farming is the process by which human groups switched from hunting and gathering wild resources to food production. Understanding how and to what extent the spreading of farming communities from the Near East had an impact on indigenous foraging populations in Europe has been the subject of lively debates for decades. Ethnographic and archaeological studies have shown that population replacement and admixture, trade, and long distance diffusion of cultural traits lead to detectable changes in symbolic codes expressed by associations of ornaments on the human body. Here we use personal ornaments to document changes in cultural geography during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition. We submitted a binary matrix of 224 bead-types found at 212 European Mesolithic and 222 Early Neolithic stratigraphic units to a series of spatial and multivariate analyses. Our results reveal consistent diachronic and geographical trends in the use of personal ornaments during the Neolithisation. Adoption of novel bead-types combined with selective appropriation of old attires by incoming farmers is identified in Southern and Central Europe while cultural resistance leading to the nearly exclusive persistence of indigenous personal ornaments characterizes Northern Europe. We argue that this pattern reflects two distinct cultural trajectories with different potential for gene flow.

The Diet of the People of Neolithic Çatalhöyük, Turkey

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis at Neolithic Çatalhöyük: Evidence for human and animal diet and their relationship to households

Authors:

Pearson et al

Abstract:

The long-term excavation at Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic site in central Turkey, have uncovered over 100 houses, which have been associated with at least 400 human skeletons and one million recorded animal bones. This large assemblage has enabled an extensive programme of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis, which was designed to explore animal hunting and herding practices and how human diet varied according to age, sex, burial practice, location and over time. The isotope values for sheep and cattle show how both were herded in a range of locations which consisted of pure C3 and also mixed C3/C4 plant locations. We sampled animals from middens adjacent to the buildings where people were buried to provide house-by-house diet reconstruction. However, very few of the people buried in the houses demonstrate a clear dietary relationship to these associated middens. Similarly, people buried in the same house seem to have had different diets to one another. We argue that these data suggest diet at Neolithic Çatalhöyük was a carefully structured, long-lived and repetitious process and that houses may not have functioned as the simple domestic units that they are often assumed to be.

Evidence of Domestication of Emmer Wheat From Neolithic Iran

Using new morphological criteria to identify domesticated emmer wheat at the aceramic Neolithic site of Chogha Golan (Iran)

Authors:

Weide et al

Abstract:

Reconstructing the domestication process of cereals is a basic requirement for the understanding of the Early Neolithic in the Near East and how agriculture emerged. Although there is general agreement on the criteria of differentiating wild from domesticated cereals, their application to material from aceramic Neolithic sites is problematic for reasons of preservation and diversity of early transitional chaff remains. In the present study we established an identification key for the distinction of wild and domestic emmer wheat (Triticum turgidum subsp. dicoccoides/dicoccum). General morphological analyses as well as experimental charring and measurements on wild and domestic emmer from the Fertile Crescent were conducted to track the main features that distinguish the two forms. Wild emmer can be differentiated from domestic emmer using longitudinal sections through rachises. The scar morphology of wild emmer specimens with a rough upper abscission scar is distinct from domestic emmer. In addition, two of the measuring tracks distinguish between domestic emmer and its progenitor. These results were applied to archaeological specimens from the aceramic Neolithic site of Chogha Golan (Ilam Province, Iran), which was excavated in 2009 and 2010 by a team of the Tübingen Iranian Stone Age Research Project. The carbonized emmer remains dating to about 9,800 BP comprise domestic-type and wild-type rachises, which is typical for cereal assemblages from aceramic Neolithic deposits.

Well Preserved Bows From Neolithic Iberia

Characterizing prehistoric archery: technical and functional analyses of the Neolithic bows from La Draga (NE Iberian Peninsula)

Authors:

Pique et al

Abstract:

The discovery in 2012 of a complete yew bow (Taxus baccata) in the lakeside Neolithic site of La Draga, together with two more fragmented bows from previous field seasons, are the oldest evidence of archery among farming communities in Europe. This group of bows has allowed different aspects of prehistoric archery to be considered. Firstly with regard to the manufacturing processes of these weapons, which show great uniformity in terms of the raw material used, but some variety in shapes and sizes. Secondly about the socioeconomic significance of weapons in societies which no longer based their economy on hunting and gathering.

A Simulated European Neolithic Transition to Climate Extremes

On the sensitivity of the simulated European Neolithic transition to climate extremes

Authors:

Lemmen et al

Abstract:

Was the spread of agropastoralism from the Fertile Crescent throughout Europe influenced by extreme climate events, or was it independent of climate? We here generate idealized climate events using palaeoclimate records. In a mathematical model of regional sociocultural development, these events disturb the subsistence base of simulated forager and farmer societies. We evaluate the regional simulated transition timings and durations against a published large set of radiocarbon dates for western Eurasia; the model is able to realistically hindcast much of the inhomogeneous space-time evolution of regional Neolithic transitions. Our study shows that the consideration of climate events improves the simulation of typical lags between cultural complexes, but that the overall difference to a model without climate events is not significant. Climate events may not have been as important for early sociocultural dynamics as endogenous factors.

Practices and Impacts of Early Agrarian Societies

The world reshaped: practices and impacts of early agrarian societies

Authors:

Whitehouse et al

Abstract:

The contributions 2014 indicate that research into the study of early agriculture continues to remain a flourishing area of science. We discuss the contribution of the volume's papers and provide a review of how they add to our knowledge about the process to early agriculture, its development and impacts upon the Holocene landscape. The main focus of many of the papers is on the European Neolithic record, with several contributions focussing on research from other regions. Our understanding of the processes happening in Europe is deepening to a level where we have a relatively good understanding of events at a regional level and moving towards understanding at a continental level. This contrasts with other areas of the world where there is still considerable need for intensive primary data collection and where the narrative of agricultural subsistence practices varies considerably. In some regions, existing models of understanding may not be fully adequate and the process of “agriculture” in these areas was likely substantially different to how this occurred in Europe and the Near East. Indeed, it is clear that a more nuanced understanding of how we currently define ‘agriculture’ is necessary. This recognises the diversity of agricultural practises that are evident in different areas of the world, which may be quite removed to what might be recognisable as ‘agriculture’ in places such as Europe.

It is evident that the switch from hunter-gatherer subsistence to agro-pastoralism had a huge effect on the Earth system, impacting biodiversity, land cover and the global carbon cycle. Archaeologists have much to contribute towards our knowledge of these impacts and the development of the modern ‘cultural landscape’.

Europeans Remained Lactose Intolerant for 5,000 Years After Adopting Agriculture

By analysing DNA extracted from the petrous bones of skulls of ancient Europeans, scientists have identified that these peoples remained intolerant to lactose (natural sugar in the milk of mammals) for 5,000 years after they adopted agricultural practices and 4,000 years after the onset of cheese-making among Central European Neolithic farmers.

The findings published online in the scientific journal Nature Communications (21 Oct) also suggest that major technological transitions in Central Europe between the Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age were also associated with major changes in the genetics of these populations.

For the study, the international team of scientists examined nuclear ancient DNA extracted from thirteen individuals from burials from archaeological sites located in the Great Hungarian Plain, an area known to have been at the crossroads of major cultural transformations that shaped European prehistory. The skeletons sampled date from 5,700 BC (Early Neolithic) to 800 BC (Iron Age).

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Boom/Bust Demographic Patterns in Neolithic Europe

Reconstructing regional population fluctuations in the European Neolithic using radiocarbon dates: a new case-study using an improved method

Authors:

Timpson et al

Abstract:

In a previous study we presented a new method that used summed probability distributions (SPD) of radiocarbon dates as a proxy for population levels, and Monte-Carlo simulation to test the significance of the observed fluctuations in the context of uncertainty in the calibration curve and archaeological sampling. The method allowed us to identify periods of significant short-term population change, caveated with the fact that around 5% of these periods were false positives. In this study we present an improvement to the method by applying a criterion to remove these false positives from both the simulated and observed distributions, resulting in a substantial improvement to both its sensitivity and specificity. We also demonstrate that the method is extremely robust in the face of small sample sizes. Finally we apply this improved method to radiocarbon datasets from 12 European regions, covering the period 8000 to 4000 BP. As in our previous study, the results reveal a boom-bust pattern for most regions, with population levels rising rapidly after the local arrival of farming, followed by a crash to levels much lower than the peak. The prevalence of this phenomenon, combined with the dissimilarity and lack of synchronicity in the general shapes of the regional SPDs, supports the hypothesis of endogenous causes.

4500 Years ago Neolithic Finland was Consuming Diary Products

Farming, including raising cows and consuming dairy products, reached far northern Europe much earlier than thought, according to new research.

Agriculture first took hold about 11,000 years ago in resource-rich, mild climate lands stretching between the Eastern Mediterranean and Persian Gulf. Researchers agree farming and animal husbandry spread northwest through Europe from the Fertile Crescent. But they have long debated just how far north the practices reached before generally poor soil and a harsher climate would have made traditional Neolithic techniques untenable.

A new analysis of food residues in pottery from southern Finland, however, proves populations in the far north were processing and consuming dairy products 4,500 years ago.

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Unveiling the prehistoric landscape at Stonehenge

Unveiling the prehistoric landscape at Stonehenge through multi-receiver EMI

Authors:

De Smedt et al

Abstract:

Archaeological research at Stonehenge (UK) is increasingly aimed at understanding the dynamic of the wider archaeological landscape. Through the application of state-of-the-art geophysical techniques, unprecedented insight is being gathered into the buried archaeological features of the area. However, applied survey techniques have rarely targeted natural soil variation, and the detailed knowledge of the palaeotopography is consequently less complete. In addition, metallic topsoil debris, scattered over different parts of the Stonehenge landscape, often impacts the interpretation of geophysical datasets. The research presented here demonstrates how a single multi-receiver electromagnetic induction (EMI) survey, conducted over a 22 ha area within the Stonehenge landscape, offers detailed insight into natural and anthropogenic soil variation at Stonehenge. The soil variations that were detected through recording the electrical and magnetic soil variability, shed light on the genesis of the landscape, and allow for a better definition of potential palaeoenvironmental and archaeological sampling locations. Based on the multi-layered dataset, a procedure was developed to remove the influence of topsoil metal from the survey data, which enabled a more straightforward identification of the detected archaeology. The results provide a robust basis for further geoarchaeological research, while potential to differentiate between modern soil disturbances and the underlying sub-surface variations can help in solving conservation and management issues. Through expanding this approach over the wider area, we aim at a fuller understanding of the human–landscape interactions that have shaped the Stonehenge landscape.