In European and many African, Middle Eastern and southern Asian populations, lactase persistence (LP) is the most strongly selected monogenic trait to have evolved over the past 10,000 years
. ...Although the selection of LP and the consumption of prehistoric milk must be linked, considerable uncertainty remains concerning their spatiotemporal configuration and specific interactions
. Here we provide detailed distributions of milk exploitation across Europe over the past 9,000 years using around 7,000 pottery fat residues from more than 550 archaeological sites. European milk use was widespread from the Neolithic period onwards but varied spatially and temporally in intensity. Notably, LP selection varying with levels of prehistoric milk exploitation is no better at explaining LP allele frequency trajectories than uniform selection since the Neolithic period. In the UK Biobank
cohort of 500,000 contemporary Europeans, LP genotype was only weakly associated with milk consumption and did not show consistent associations with improved fitness or health indicators. This suggests that other reasons for the beneficial effects of LP should be considered for its rapid frequency increase. We propose that lactase non-persistent individuals consumed milk when it became available but, under conditions of famine and/or increased pathogen exposure, this was disadvantageous, driving LP selection in prehistoric Europe. Comparison of model likelihoods indicates that population fluctuations, settlement density and wild animal exploitation-proxies for these drivers-provide better explanations of LP selection than the extent of milk exploitation. These findings offer new perspectives on prehistoric milk exploitation and LP evolution.
Im folgenden Artikel werden die Grabungsergebnisse des Gräberfeldes Battaune aus den Jahren 1974 und 1975 zusammenfassend vorgestellt. Bei dem Bestattungsplatz handelte es sich um eine ...spätbronzezeitliche Nekropole der Lausitzer Kultur. Soweit es trotz fehlender anthropologischer
Bestimmungen des Leichenbrandes sowie der geringen Anzahl der Gräber möglich war, wurden einige Aspekte der Bestattungssitten analysiert. Abschließend wurde das sogenannte „Grab eines Schmiedes“ mit Gussformen, Kannelurenstein und Dechsel einer gesonderten Betrachtung unterzogen, um die besondere Bedeutung dieser untypischen Beigabenkombination in der Lausitzer Kultur zu erfassen.
The cemetery of Battaune was excavated in 1974 and 1975 and in this article its results are
summarized. The burial site dates to the Lusatian Culture (Late Bronze Age ). Although anthropological
analyses of the cremations are lacking and although only a small number of graves were excavated, some
aspects of the burial customs could be analysed. Finally the so-called “burial of a smith”, which contained casting moulds, stones with cannelures and a neolithic adze, is discussed in detail in order to understand the importance of this atypical combination of burial objects of the Lusatian Culture.
