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.
Sheep were among the first domesticated animals, but their demographic history is little understood. Here we analyzed nuclear polymorphism and mitochondrial data (mtDNA) from ancient central and west ...Anatolian sheep dating from Epipaleolithic to late Neolithic, comparatively with modern-day breeds and central Asian Neolithic/Bronze Age sheep (OBI). Analyzing ancient nuclear data, we found that Anatolian Neolithic sheep (ANS) are genetically closest to present-day European breeds relative to Asian breeds, a conclusion supported by mtDNA haplogroup frequencies. In contrast, OBI showed higher genetic affinity to present-day Asian breeds. These results suggest that the east-west genetic structure observed in present-day breeds had already emerged by 6000 BCE, hinting at multiple sheep domestication episodes or early wild introgression in southwest Asia. Furthermore, we found that ANS are genetically distinct from all modern breeds. Our results suggest that European and Anatolian domestic sheep gene pools have been strongly remolded since the Neolithic.
Zusammenfassung-Zwischen Bergen und Tälern. Das Dze dzvebi Plateau als Zwischenstation spätchalkolithischer und früh bronzezeitlicher Gesellschaften im Kleinen Kaukasus Die Frage, wie sich ...Gesellschaften seit dem 5. Jahrtausend v. u. Z. die ressourcenreichen montanen Landschaftsräume des Südkaukasus angeeignet haben und in welchen zeitlichen Rhythmen diese Erschließung geschah, ist mit der regionalen Mobilität sowie den sozialen wie auch wirtschaftlichen Aushandlungen der involvierten Gemeinschaften verknüpft. Gebirgsnahe bzw. gebirgsumschlossene Plätze wie das große Siedlungsplateau von Dzedzvebi bei Kazreti in Südostgeorgien spielten dabei wohl als intermediäre Orte des Austausches eine wichtige Rolle innerhalb der südkaukasischen Gebirgskorridore. Diese Rolle wird vor dem Hintergrund der seit 2007 durchgeführten archäologischen Untersuchungen und ihrer zahlreichen Ergebnisse beleuchtet, die im Talraum von Kazreti eng mit der Erzausbeute und der Verarbeitung von Metallen, allen voran des Goldes von Sakdrissi, verbunden war. Die Etablierung der Dauersiedlung auf dem Dzedzvebi-Plateau lässt jene sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Entwicklungen erkennen, die im Südkaukasus zu einer Besiedlung und Integration von Gebirgskorridoren führten, die Täler und Hochplateaus mit den kulturellen Aktivitäten der Kura-Araxes-zeitlichen Gemeinschaften im Südkaukasus in der Zeit um 3000 v. u. Z. verbanden.
The question of how societies have appropriated the resource-rich montane landscapes of the South Caucasus since the 5th millenniumBCE and in which temporal rhythms this development took place is linked with regional mobility as well as the social and economicnegotiation of the participating communities. Intermontane settlement areas like the large Dzedzvebi Plateau near Kazreti in south-east Georgia probably played an important role as intermediate centres of exchange within the South Caucasian mountain corridors.That role is illuminated here, based on the findings of archaeological investigations that started in 2007. In the valley area of Kazreti, thisfunction was closely linked with the exploitation of ore and the processing of metals, especially the gold of Sakdrisi. The establishmentof permanent settlements on the Dzedzvebi Plateau exemplifies the social and economic developments that led to the settlement andintegration of mountain corridors, connecting valleys and plateaus to the cultural activities of Kura-Araxes-period communities in theSouth Caucasus in the period around 3000 BCE.
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