This paper examines the dietary habits and mobility of an Early Bronze Age (3000–2000 BCE) population from Bakla Tepe (West Anatolia in the İzmir region). The research utilises the results of stable ...isotope analyses of carbon (δ
13
C), nitrogen (δ
15
N), and sulphur (δ
34
S) from human bone collagen in conjunction with published archaeological data. Intra-population issues of dietary habits such as possible social divisions (e.g. between sexes, ages, and socio-economic status) were addressed. The sample population from Bakla Tepe consists of 19 adults and no subadults. In total, there are 8 males (42.1%) and 11 females (57.9%). There are two distinct and separate period cemeteries; from the Early Bronze Age I period, 7 individuals were sampled, with 12 individuals sampled from the Early Bronze Age II/III period. The results show that during the 3rd millennium BCE, dietary habits were generally homogeneous and became more so in the latter part of the millennium. Diets were predominantly terrestrial C
3
based. There is one individual whose δ
34
S value suggests that she moved to the settlement from a location further inland and another whose δ
34
S value suggests that she may have moved to the settlement from nearer the coast.
The archaeological documentation of the development of sedentary farming societies in Anatolia is not yet mirrored by a genetic understanding of the human populations involved, in contrast to the ...spread of farming in Europe 1–3. Sedentary farming communities emerged in parts of the Fertile Crescent during the tenth millennium and early ninth millennium calibrated (cal) BC and had appeared in central Anatolia by 8300 cal BC 4. Farming spread into west Anatolia by the early seventh millennium cal BC and quasi-synchronously into Europe, although the timing and process of this movement remain unclear. Using genome sequence data that we generated from nine central Anatolian Neolithic individuals, we studied the transition period from early Aceramic (Pre-Pottery) to the later Pottery Neolithic, when farming expanded west of the Fertile Crescent. We find that genetic diversity in the earliest farmers was conspicuously low, on a par with European foraging groups. With the advent of the Pottery Neolithic, genetic variation within societies reached levels later found in early European farmers. Our results confirm that the earliest Neolithic central Anatolians belonged to the same gene pool as the first Neolithic migrants spreading into Europe. Further, genetic affinities between later Anatolian farmers and fourth to third millennium BC Chalcolithic south Europeans suggest an additional wave of Anatolian migrants, after the initial Neolithic spread but before the Yamnaya-related migrations. We propose that the earliest farming societies demographically resembled foragers and that only after regional gene flow and rising heterogeneity did the farming population expansions into Europe occur.
•Pre-pottery farmers had low genetic diversity, akin to Mesolithic hunter-gatherers•Genetic diversity levels are higher in the subsequent Pottery Neolithic•Central Anatolian farmers belonged to the same gene pool as early European farmers•Copper Age genetic affinities suggest a second wave of Anatolian gene flow
Kılınç et al. study ancient genomes from the earliest farmers of central Anatolia, one of the first areas where farming appears outside the Fertile Crescent. Genetic diversity increases as the Neolithic develops, indicating rising mobility. Similarities between Anatolian and European farmers suggest two gene flow events from Anatolia into Europe.
We present palaeogenomes of three morphologically unidentified Anatolian equids dating to the first millennium BCE, sequenced to a coverage of 0.6–6.4×. Mitochondrial DNA haplotypes of the Anatolian ...individuals clustered with those of Equus hydruntinus (or Equus hemionus hydruntinus), the extinct European wild ass, secular name ‘hydruntine’. Further, the Anatolian wild ass whole genome profiles fell outside the genomic diversity of other extant and past Asiatic wild ass (E. hemionus) lineages. These observations suggest that the three Anatolian wild asses represent hydruntines, making them the latest recorded survivors of this lineage, about a millennium later than the latest observations in the zooarchaeological record. Our mitogenomic and genomic analyses indicate that E. h. hydruntinus was a clade belonging to ancient and present‐day E. hemionus lineages that radiated possibly between 0.6 and 0.8 Mya. We also find evidence consistent with recent gene flow between hydruntines and Middle Eastern wild asses. Analyses of genome‐wide heterozygosity and runs of homozygosity suggest that the Anatolian wild ass population may have lost genetic diversity by the mid‐first millennium BCE, a possible sign of its eventual demise.
Conditions in the early stages of life shape body size and proportions. This study includes individuals who came from different socio-economic conditions and worked in physically demanding jobs in ...childhood. By determining the body sizes of these individuals and evaluating the proportional relationships between several groups, the goal was to understand the effect levels of socio-economic levels and working conditions on the body. For this purpose, an anthropometric study was conducted on 623 males and females between the ages of 20 and 45 living in Samsun, Turkey. The study sample consisted of four different groups. It was divided into two main groups of high and low socio-economic level, and the low socio-economic group was divided into two subgroups of heavy-worker and nonheavy-worker. The results demonstrated that socio-economic differences in the size and proportions of the individuals were statistically significant (p<0.05). The high socio-economic group had the highest values in all measures. External factors affected the lower limbs more than the upper limbs. The measurement most affected by these factors was leg length. Longer legs characterized the high socio-economic group, while longer arms characterized both low socio-economic groups. The relative differences observed can be said to derive from the distal limbs. This finding was valid for both sexes. The average values were close to each other in the low socio-economic group, for which the aim was to comprehend the effects of heavy working conditions. However, differences in proportional relationships were more significant. In this context, it was seen that heavy labour also affected growth, in addition to the well-known factors encountered during the growth period, such as nutrition, health, and illness. The observed changes were more significant in males than in females. Thus, it can be said that males were more affected by physiological and physical conditions.
Objective
The inhabitants of several sites in the Upper Tigris Valley, such as Hakemi Use, domesticated animals and cereals during the Pottery Neolithic period, while the inhabitants in this valley ...were hunter–gatherers in the Pre‐Pottery Neolithic period, consuming freshwater and terrestrial food resources. However, there is considerable uncertainty surrounding whether or not changes in dietary food composition accompanied the shift in food production away from foraging. In order to reveal the impact of the development of agriculture on the human diet over the Pre‐Pottery and Pottery Neolithic periods in this region, we analyzed the isotopic compositions of amino acids from the farmers at the Hakemi Use Pottery Neolithic site, and compared them with those from the Pre‐Pottery hunter–gatherers in the close region.
Materials and Methods
Herein, we report the nitrogen isotopic compositions of amino acids, as well as both carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions of bulk collagen, from human and faunal remains collected from Hakemi Use.
Results
Whereas freshwater resources were consumed by hunter–gatherers in this region during the Pre‐Pottery period, the δ15N values of glutamic acid (δ15NGlu) and phenylalanine (δ15NPhe) suggest that freshwater food resources were rarely consumed by inhabitants following the development of agriculture.
Discussion
Despite living in similar settings by the Tigris as its inhabitants during the Pre‐Pottery period, the farmers of the Pottery Neolithic period depended less on freshwater resources for their diets relative to the hunter–gatherers of the Pre‐Pottery Neolithic period.
•Late Chalcolithic-Early Bronze Age population from İkiztepe.•Stable isotope analyses of carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N) and sulphur (δ34S) from human and animal bone collagen.•Dietary habits of the ...population were terrestrial C3 based.•No marine or freshwater input despite the proximity to the Black Sea and estuary of the Kızılırmak River.•Slightly higher protein input in diet of males compared to females.
This paper examines the dietary habits of a Late Chalcolithic-Early Bronze Age (ca. 3200–2800 BCE) population from İkiztepe. Intra-population issues of dietary habits such as possible social divisions (e.g. between sexes, ages, and socio-economic status) were addressed.
The research utilises the results of stable isotope analyses of carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N) and sulphur (δ34S) from human and animal bone collagen in conjunction with published archaeological data. Analysis of sulphur was conducted to investigate possible marine and freshwater resource consumption. The sample population from İkiztepe consists of 38 adults: 19 males and 19 females. A total of 20 (12 males and 8 females) adult individuals were sampled for the δ34S analysis.
For sulphur (δ34S) the range in the sampled adult population is from 6.8‰ to 11.5‰. The respective means for δ13C and δ15N are −20 ± 0.3‰ and 8.9 ± 0.5‰. There is a greater range in the values of δ13C (1.4‰ compared to 0.9‰) and δ15N (2.6‰ compared to 1.9‰) for females, and males predominantly have δ15N values above 9.3‰.
The dietary habits of the population were terrestrial C3 based and lacked significant marine or freshwater input despite the proximity of the settlement to the Black Sea and estuary of the Kızılırmak River. Furthermore, males had a slightly greater protein input than females in their diet. Animal management strategies and the exploitation of secondary products are also suggested.
The social organization of the first fully sedentary societies that emerged during the Neolithic period in Southwest Asia remains enigmatic,1 mainly because material culture studies provide limited ...insight into this issue. However, because Neolithic Anatolian communities often buried their dead beneath domestic buildings,2 household composition and social structure can be studied through these human remains. Here, we describe genetic relatedness among co-burials associated with domestic buildings in Neolithic Anatolia using 59 ancient genomes, including 22 new genomes from Aşıklı Höyük and Çatalhöyük. We infer pedigree relationships by simultaneously analyzing multiple types of information, including autosomal and X chromosome kinship coefficients, maternal markers, and radiocarbon dating. In two early Neolithic villages dating to the 9th and 8th millennia BCE, Aşıklı Höyük and Boncuklu, we discover that siblings and parent-offspring pairings were frequent within domestic structures, which provides the first direct indication of close genetic relationships among co-burials. In contrast, in the 7th millennium BCE sites of Çatalhöyük and Barcın, where we study subadults interred within and around houses, we find close genetic relatives to be rare. Hence, genetic relatedness may not have played a major role in the choice of burial location at these latter two sites, at least for subadults. This supports the hypothesis that in Çatalhöyük,3–5 and possibly in some other Neolithic communities, domestic structures may have served as burial location for social units incorporating biologically unrelated individuals. Our results underscore the diversity of kin structures in Neolithic communities during this important phase of sociocultural development.
•Genetic kinship estimated from co-buried individuals’ genomes in Neolithic Anatolia•Close relatives are common among co-burials in Aşıklı and Boncuklu•Many unrelated infants found buried in the same building in Çatalhöyük and Barcın•Neolithic societies in Southwest Asia may have held diverse concepts of kinship
Yaka et al. use ancient genomes from Neolithic Anatolia and present evidence for diverse concepts of social kinship in Neolithic societies. In some communities, like Çatalhöyük, many genetically unrelated infants were buried together inside the same buildings, whereas in other sites, people buried together were frequently close biological kin.
Examining diagenetic parameters such as the organic carbonate contents and the crystallinity of bone apatite quantify the post-mortem alteration of bone. Burial conditions are one of the factors that ...can influence the diagenesis process. We studied the changes to the organic and mineral components and crystallinity of human bone remains from five Medieval sites in Turkey: Hakemi Use, Komana, İznik, Oluz Höyük and Tasmasor using Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and principal component analysis (PCA).
Analysis of spectral band ratios related to organic and mineral components of bone demonstrated differences in the molecular content in the skeletal remains from the five sites. In order to examine the degree of carbonation of a phosphate matrix, curve-fitting procedures were applied to the carbonate band. We found that the infrared crystallinity index appears to not be sensitive to carbonate content at room temperature for the bone remains studied here. The recrystallization process in bone remains behaved differently among the archaeological sites. The results demonstrate that the burial environments differently affect the organic and mineral components of archaeological bone remains.
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•ATR-FTIR spectroscopy was used to evaluate the diagenesis of human bone remains from five different sites in Turkey.•The parameters, related to relative bone composition and crystallinity index were estimated based on infrared spectra.•Principal component analyses (PCA) was used to discriminate bone remains depending on spectral parameters.•Variability of structural alteration is related to changes in burial environment.
It has been hypothesized that the Neolithic transition towards an agricultural and pastoralist economy facilitated the emergence of human-adapted pathogens. Here, we recovered eight Salmonella ...enterica subsp. enterica genomes from human skeletons of transitional foragers, pastoralists and agropastoralists in western Eurasia that were up to 6,500 yr old. Despite the high genetic diversity of S. enterica, all ancient bacterial genomes clustered in a single previously uncharacterized branch that contains S. enterica adapted to multiple mammalian species. All ancient bacterial genomes from prehistoric (agro-)pastoralists fall within a part of this branch that also includes the human-specific S. enterica Paratyphi C, illustrating the evolution of a human pathogen over a period of 5,000 yr. Bacterial genomic comparisons suggest that the earlier ancient strains were not host specific, differed in pathogenic potential and experienced convergent pseudogenization that accompanied their downstream host adaptation. These observations support the concept that the emergence of human-adapted S. enterica is linked to human cultural transformations.
The question of the presence of organized violence in the Neolithic settlements in Middle East has been debated. This paper presents possible examples of organized violence from the Neolithic period, ...representing early examples of settlements in Anatolia, to the Early Bronze Age, which provides the early instances of central authority. Most injuries detected among Neolithic populations in Anatolia have been associated with daily activities. Although individual examples of interpersonal violence exist among Neolithic and Chalcolithic populations in Anatolia, but they are far from representing organized violence. On the other hand the Early Bronze Age populations present clear evidence of perimortem wounds, mass burials, high frequency of cranial fractures, walls surrounding cities, and metal weapons in Anatolia. This suggests an increased evidence of organized violence in EBA Anatolia. Based on bioarchaeological data, it is concluded that violence in these settlements resulted from one or more ecological and social factors. However, each settlement might have peculiar reason for fighting.
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