| 1. |
- Allentoft, Morten E., et al.
(författare)
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100 ancient genomes show repeated population turnovers in Neolithic Denmark
- 2024
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Ingår i: Nature. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 625, s. 329-337
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Major migration events in Holocene Eurasia have been characterized genetically at broad regional scales1–4. However, insights into the population dynamics in the contact zones are hampered by a lack of ancient genomic data sampled at high spatiotemporal resolution5–7. Here, to address this, we analysed shotgun-sequenced genomes from 100 skeletons spanning 7,300 years of the Mesolithic period, Neolithic period and Early Bronze Age in Denmark and integrated these with proxies for diet (13C and 15N content), mobility (87Sr/86Sr ratio) and vegetation cover (pollen). We observe that Danish Mesolithic individuals of the Maglemose, Kongemose and Ertebølle cultures form a distinct genetic cluster related to other Western European hunter-gatherers. Despite shifts in material culture they displayed genetic homogeneity from around 10,500 to 5,900 calibrated years before present, when Neolithic farmers with Anatolian-derived ancestry arrived. Although the Neolithic transition was delayed by more than a millennium relative to Central Europe, it was very abrupt and resulted in a population turnover with limited genetic contribution from local hunter-gatherers. The succeeding Neolithic population, associated with the Funnel Beaker culture, persisted for only about 1,000 years before immigrants with eastern Steppe-derived ancestry arrived. This second and equally rapid population replacement gave rise to the Single Grave culture with an ancestry profile more similar to present-day Danes. In our multiproxy dataset, these major demographic events are manifested as parallel shifts in genotype, phenotype, diet and land use.
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| 2. |
- Allentoft, Morten E., et al.
(författare)
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Population genomics of post-glacial western Eurasia
- 2024
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Ingår i: Nature. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 625:7994, s. 301-311
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Western Eurasia witnessed several large-scale human migrations during the Holocene1–5. Here, to investigate the cross-continental effects of these migrations, we shotgun-sequenced 317 genomes—mainly from the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods—from across northern and western Eurasia. These were imputed alongside published data to obtain diploid genotypes from more than 1,600 ancient humans. Our analyses revealed a ‘great divide’ genomic boundary extending from the Black Sea to the Baltic. Mesolithic hunter-gatherers were highly genetically differentiated east and west of this zone, and the effect of the neolithization was equally disparate. Large-scale ancestry shifts occurred in the west as farming was introduced, including near-total replacement of hunter-gatherers in many areas, whereas no substantial ancestry shifts happened east of the zone during the same period. Similarly, relatedness decreased in the west from the Neolithic transition onwards, whereas, east of the Urals, relatedness remained high until around 4,000 bp, consistent with the persistence of localized groups of hunter-gatherers. The boundary dissolved when Yamnaya-related ancestry spread across western Eurasia around 5,000 bp, resulting in a second major turnover that reached most parts of Europe within a 1,000-year span. The genetic origin and fate of the Yamnaya have remained elusive, but we show that hunter-gatherers from the Middle Don region contributed ancestry to them. Yamnaya groups later admixed with individuals associated with the Globular Amphora culture before expanding into Europe. Similar turnovers occurred in western Siberia, where we report new genomic data from a ‘Neolithic steppe’ cline spanning the Siberian forest steppe to Lake Baikal. These prehistoric migrations had profound and lasting effects on the genetic diversity of Eurasian populations.
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| 3. |
- Gron, Kurt J., et al.
(författare)
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Archaeological cereals as an isotope record of long-term soil health and anthropogenic amendment in southern Scandinavia
- 2021
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Ingår i: Quaternary Science Reviews. - : Elsevier BV. - 0277-3791. ; 253
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Maintaining soil health is integral to agricultural production, and the archaeological record contains multiple lines of palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental proxy evidence that can contribute to the understanding and analysis of long-term trajectories of change that are key for contextualizing 21st century global environmental challenges. Soil is a capital resource and its nutrient balance is modified by agricultural activities, making it necessary to ensure soil productivity is maintained and managed through human choices and actions. Since prehistory this has always been the case; soil is a non-renewable resource within a human lifetime. Here, we present and interpret carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of charred cereals from southern Scandinavia. Anthropogenic effects on soils are evident from the initiation of farming 6000 years ago, as is amendment to counteract its effects. The earliest cereals were planted on pristine soils, and by the late Neolithic, agriculture extensified. By the Iron Age it was necessary to significantly amend depleted soils to maintain crop yields. We propose that these data provide a record of soil water retention, net precipitation and amendment. From the start of the Neolithic there is a concurrent decrease in both Δ13C and δ15N, mitigated only by the replacement of soil organic content in the form of manure in the Iron Age. The cereal isotopes provide a record of trajectories of agricultural sustainability and anthropogenic adaptation for nearly the entire history of farming in the region.
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| 4. |
- Egfjord, Anne Friis Holm, et al.
(författare)
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Genomic Steppe ancestry in skeletons from the Neolithic Single Grave Culture in Denmark
- 2021
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Ingår i: PLoS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 16
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Gjerrild burial provides the largest and best-preserved assemblage of human skeletal material presently known from the Single Grave Culture (SGC) in Denmark. For generations it has been debated among archaeologists if the appearance of this archaeological complex represents a continuation of the previous Neolithic communities, or was facilitated by incoming migrants. We sampled and analysed five skeletons from the Gjerrild cist, buried over a period of c. 300 years, 2600/2500–2200 cal BCE. Despite poor DNA preservation, we managed to sequence the genome (>1X) of one individual and the partial genomes (0.007X and 0.02X) of another two individuals. Our genetic data document a female (Gjerrild 1) and two males (Gjerrild 5 + 8), harbouring typical Neolithic K2a and HV0 mtDNA haplogroups, but also a rare basal variant of the R1b1 Y-chromosomal haplogroup. Genome-wide analyses demonstrate that these people had a significant Yamnaya-derived (i.e. steppe) ancestry component and a close genetic resemblance to the Corded Ware (and related) groups that were present in large parts of Northern and Central Europe at the time. Assuming that the Gjerrild skeletons are genetically representative of the population of the SGC in broader terms, the transition from the local Neolithic Funnel Beaker Culture (TRB) to SGC is not characterized by demographic continuity. Rather, the emergence of SGC in Denmark was part of the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age population expansion that swept across the European continent in the 3rd millennium BCE, resulting in various degrees of genetic replacement and admixture processes with previous Neolithic populations.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Robson, Harry K, et al.
(författare)
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Organic residue analysis of Early Neolithic ‘bog pots’ from Denmark demonstrates the processing of wild and domestic foodstuffs
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Archaeological Science Reports. - : Elsevier BV. - 2352-409X .- 1095-9238. ; 36
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ceramic containers, intentionally deposited into wetlands, offer detailed insights into Early Neolithic culinary practices. Additionally, they are key for ascertaining the Neolithisation process in Denmark since they appear to form a typo-chronological sequence. Here, we use a combination of organic residue analysis (ORA) of pottery alongside Bayesian chronological modelling of the radiocarbon dates obtained on these vessels to explore the initial stages of votive deposition in wetlands, a practice that stretches from the Mesolithic to the onset of Christianity in Northern Europe. We consider 34 Early-Middle Neolithic (c. 3900–2350 cal BC) ‘bog pots’ from Denmark, of which 20 have ORA data, and 26 have been dated directly. Carbonised surface residues and absorbed lipids from powdered sherds were analysed using a combination of bulk carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and GC-combustion-isotope ratio MS (GC-C-IRMS). The molecular and isotopic compositions of the analysed samples revealed the presence of aquatic, ruminant carcass and dairy fats as well as plant waxes with the majority containing mixtures thereof. Dairy fats were present from the onset of the Funnel Beaker culture, whilst aquatic foods, prevalent at the close of the preceding Mesolithic period, continued to be processed in pottery for the following thousand years.
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