Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers.

Modern humans have populated Europe for more than 45,000 years1,2. Our knowledge of the genetic relatedness and structure of ancient hunter-gatherers is however limited, owing to the scarceness and poor molecular preservation of human remains from that period3. Here we analyse 356 ancient hunter-gatherer genomes, including new genomic data for 116 individuals from 14 countries in western and central Eurasia, spanning between 35,000 and 5,000 years ago. We identify a genetic ancestry profile in individuals associated with Upper Palaeolithic Gravettian assemblages from western Europe that is distinct from contemporaneous groups related to this archaeological culture in central and southern Europe4, but resembles that of preceding individuals associated with the Aurignacian culture. This ancestry profile survived during the Last Glacial Maximum (25,000 to 19,000 years ago) in human populations from southwestern Europe associated with the Solutrean culture, and with the following Magdalenian culture that re-expanded northeastward after the Last Glacial Maximum. Conversely, we reveal a genetic turnover in southern Europe suggesting a local replacement of human groups around the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, accompanied by a north-to-south dispersal of populations associated with the Epigravettian culture. From at least 14,000 years ago, an ancestry related to this culture spread from the south across the rest of Europe, largely replacing the Magdalenian-associated gene pool. After a period of limited admixture that spanned the beginning of the Mesolithic, we find genetic interactions between western and eastern European hunter-gatherers, who were also characterized by marked differences in phenotypically relevant variants.

Genome-wide analysis of a collective grave from Mentesh Tepe provides insight into the population structure of early neolithic population in the South Caucasus.

Despite the localisation of the southern Caucasus at the outskirt of the Fertile Crescent, the Neolithisation process started there only at the beginning of the sixth millennium with the Shomutepe-Shulaveri culture of yet unclear origins. We present here genomic data for three new individuals from Mentesh Tepe in Azerbaijan, dating back to the beginnings of the Shomutepe-Shulaveri culture. We evidence that two juveniles, buried embracing each other, were brothers. We show that the Mentesh Tepe Neolithic population is the product of a recent gene flow between the Anatolian farmer-related population and the Caucasus/Iranian population, demonstrating that population admixture was at the core of the development of agriculture in the South Caucasus. By comparing Bronze Age individuals from the South Caucasus with Neolithic individuals from the same region, including Mentesh Tepe, we evidence that gene flows between Pontic Steppe populations and Mentesh Tepe-related groups contributed to the makeup of the Late Bronze Age and modern Caucasian populations. Our results show that the high cultural diversity during the Neolithic period of the South Caucasus deserves close genetic analysis.

Dietary inferences through stable isotope analysis at the Neolithic and Bronze Age in the southern Caucasus (sixth to first millenium BC, Azerbaijan): From environmental adaptation to social impacts.

OBJECTIVES: Subsistence strategies are of great interest for understanding how prehistoric societies adapted to their environment. This is particularly the case for the southern Caucasus where relationships have been shown with the northern Caucasus and Mesopotamia since the Neolithic and where societies are alternately described as sedentary and mobile. This article aims, for the first time, to characterize human diets and their evolution using biochemical markers, from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age (sixth-first millenium BC), at Mentesh Tepe, a site in the middle Kura valley in Azerbaijan. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The data set belongs to 40 humans, 32 domestic and wild animals, and 42 charred seeds discovered in situ and perfectly dated. Stable isotope analyses were performed, including (a) δ13 Cco and δ15 N for animal and human bone collagens and for seeds, and (b) δ13 Cap for human bone apatite. RESULTS: Almost all the data (25/31) suggest an increased contribution of cereals, lentils, and freshwater fish during the Neolithic, whereas afterwards, until the Late Bronze Age, all individuals consumed more animal proteins from their livestock. None of the biological criteria (age at death and sex) and burial types (mass/single graves) were found to be related to a specific diet over time. Comparisons with other isotopic data from contemporary sites in Georgia argue in favor of a wide variety of dietary sources in the vicinity of the Kura valley and for highly mobile populations. Clear evidence of millet consumption has only been found for the Late Bronze Age.