Abstract
The genetic impact associated to the Neolithic spread in Europe has been widely debated over the last 20 years. Within this context, ancient DNA studies have provided a more reliable picture by directly analyzing the protagonist populations at different regions in Europe. However, the lack of available data from the original Near Eastern farmers has limited the achieved conclusions, preventing the formulation of continental models of Neolithic expansion. Here we address this issue by presenting mitochondrial DNA data of the original Near-Eastern Neolithic communities with the aim of providing the adequate background for the interpretation of Neolithic genetic data from European samples. Sixty-three skeletons from the Pre Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) sites of Tell Halula, Tell Ramad and Dja'de El Mughara dating between 8,700–6,600 cal. B.C. were analyzed, and 15 validated mitochondrial DNA profiles were recovered. In order to estimate the demographic contribution of the first farmers to both Central European and Western Mediterranean Neolithic cultures, haplotype and haplogroup diversities in the PPNB sample were compared using phylogeographic and population genetic analyses to available ancient DNA data from human remains belonging to the Linearbandkeramik-Alföldi Vonaldiszes Kerámia and Cardial/Epicardial cultures. We also searched for possible signatures of the original Neolithic expansion over the modern Near Eastern and South European genetic pools, and tried to infer possible routes of expansion by comparing the obtained results to a database of 60 modern populations from both regions. Comparisons performed among the 3 ancient datasets allowed us to identify K and N-derived mitochondrial DNA haplogroups as potential markers of the Neolithic expansion, whose genetic signature would have reached both the Iberian coasts and the Central European plain. Moreover, the observed genetic affinities between the PPNB samples and the modern populations of Cyprus and Crete seem to suggest that the Neolithic was first introduced into Europe through pioneer seafaring colonization.
Highlights
The term ‘‘Neolithic’’ refers to the profound cultural and technical changes that accompanied the transition from a huntergatherer subsistence economy to an agro-pastoral producing system [1]
Mitochondrial DNA – a type of maternally inherited DNA located in the cell cytoplasm- from the first Near Eastern Neolithic populations was recovered and compared to available data from other Neolithic populations in Europe and to modern populations from South Eastern Europe and the Near East
The obtained results show that substantial human migrations were involved in the Neolithic spread and suggest that the first Neolithic farmers entered Europe following a maritime route through Cyprus and the Aegean Islands
Summary
The term ‘‘Neolithic’’ refers to the profound cultural and technical changes that accompanied the transition from a huntergatherer subsistence economy to an agro-pastoral producing system [1]. The first Neolithic societies originated 12 to 10 thousand years ago in a region of the Near East traditionally known as the ‘‘Fertile Crescent’’ [2]. From this region the Neolithic technology rapidly expanded to Anatolia reaching the rest of Europe in less than 3,000 years by following two main routes linked to different archaeological cultural complexes. The Danubian route, associated to the Linearbandkeramic (LBK) cultural complex, brought the Neolithic to the central European plains and from there to the British Islands and Scandinavia (Funnel Beaker Cultural Complex) while the Mediterranean one, associated to the Cardial-Impressa cultural complex, spread it along the Mediterranean coast up to the Atlantic facade of Iberia [3]
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