Population genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia.

The Bronze Age of Eurasia (around 3000-1000 BC) was a period of major cultural changes. However, there is debate about whether these changes resulted from the circulation of ideas or from human migrations, potentially also facilitating the spread of languages and certain phenotypic traits. We investigated this by using new, improved methods to sequence low-coverage genomes from 101 ancient humans from across Eurasia. We show that the Bronze Age was a highly dynamic period involving large-scale population migrations and replacements, responsible for shaping major parts of present-day demographic structure in both Europe and Asia. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesized spread of Indo-European languages during the Early Bronze Age. We also demonstrate that light skin pigmentation in Europeans was already present at high frequency in the Bronze Age, but not lactose tolerance, indicating a more recent onset of positive selection on lactose tolerance than previously thought.

Community differentiation and kinship among Europe's first farmers.

Community differentiation is a fundamental topic of the social sciences, and its prehistoric origins in Europe are typically assumed to lie among the complex, densely populated societies that developed millennia after their Neolithic predecessors. Here we present the earliest, statistically significant evidence for such differentiation among the first farmers of Neolithic Europe. By using strontium isotopic data from more than 300 early Neolithic human skeletons, we find significantly less variance in geographic signatures among males than we find among females, and less variance among burials with ground stone adzes than burials without such adzes. From this, in context with other available evidence, we infer differential land use in early Neolithic central Europe within a patrilocal kinship system.

Paleoamerican diet, migration and morphology in Brazil: archaeological complexity of the earliest Americans.

During the early Holocene two main paleoamerican cultures thrived in Brazil: the Tradição Nordeste in the semi-desertic Sertão and the Tradição Itaparica in the high plains of the Planalto Central. Here we report on paleodietary singals of a Paleoamerican found in a third Brazilian ecological setting--a riverine shellmound, or sambaqui, located in the Atlantic forest. Most sambaquis are found along the coast. The peoples associated with them subsisted on marine resources. We are reporting a different situation from the oldest recorded riverine sambaqui, called Capelinha. Capelinha is a relatively small sambaqui established along a river 60 km from the Atlantic Ocean coast. It contained the well-preserved remains of a Paleoamerican known as Luzio dated to 9,945±235 years ago; the oldest sambaqui dweller so far. Luzio's bones were remarkably well preserved and allowed for stable isotopic analysis of diet. Although artifacts found at this riverine site show connections with the Atlantic coast, we show that he represents a population that was dependent on inland resources as opposed to marine coastal resources. After comparing Luzio's paleodietary data with that of other extant and prehistoric groups, we discuss where his group could have come from, if terrestrial diet persisted in riverine sambaquis and how Luzio fits within the discussion of the replacement of paleamerican by amerindian morphology. This study adds to the evidence that shows a greater complexity in the prehistory of the colonization of and the adaptations to the New World.

Stable strontium isotopic ratios from archaeological organic remains from the Thorsberg peat bog.

Stable strontium isotope ratios in archaeological finds have frequently been used to determine their place of origin, in order to reconstruct migration and trade. Peat bogs offer favourable burial conditions for the preservation of organic remains such as woollen textiles and leather by a natural tanning process. However, these finds are impregnated by peat substances including contaminant strontium which is likely to mask the original (87)Sr/(86)Sr isotopic ratio of the specimens. In this paper, we present a pilot study analysing stable strontium isotopic ratios from Iron Age textile and leather finds from the Thorsberg peat bog, focusing on a sample processing method which permits the quantitative removal of contaminating strontium from the specimens.

Stable isotopes and dietary adaptations in humans and animals at pre-pottery Neolithic Nevalli Cori, southeast Anatolia.

Human and animal bones from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site of Nevali Cori (southeast Anatolia) were analyzed with regard to stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in bone collagen, and stable carbon and oxygen isotopes in bone carbonate. The reconstruction of the vertebrate food web at this site revealed that humans may have faced difficulties with meat procurement, since their stable-isotope ratios reflect a largely herbivorous diet. This is in contrast with the preceding Pre-Pottery Neolithic A contexts and late Neolithic sites in the Fertile Crescent, where humans are located at the top of the food chain. Conceivably, Nevali Cori represents a community in the transition from a hunting and gathering subsistence to an economy with agriculture and animal husbandry, since domesticated einkorn and sheep, pigs, and probably also goats are in evidence at the site. In the second half of the 9th millennium calibrated (cal.) BC, however, the contribution of stock on the hoof to the human diet still seems modest. Animals kept under cultural control obviously had a dietary spectrum different from their free-ranging relatives. We conclude that these animals had been deliberately nourished by their owners, whereby the overall low delta(15)N-signatures in both humans and livestock might result from the consumption of protein-rich pulses.

[Human subsistence strategy in Neolithic times: an isotopic analysis of Bavarian skeletal findings]. / Menschliche Subsistenzstrategien im Neolithikum: Eine Isotopenanalyse bayerischer Skelettfunde.

Originating from the Near East, the Neolithic lifestyle will reach Southeast Europe in its fully developed form in the course of the 7th millennium cal. BC. In the region of today's Bavaria this lifestyle can be evidenced from the middle of the 6th millennium cal. BC onwards. Stable isotope analyses of carbon and nitrogen in bone collagen, and of carbon and oxygen in the bone's structural carbonate of human skeletons from burial sites dated to the Linear Pottery Culture, the middle Neolithic, the Corded Ware and the Bell Beaker Culture revealed differences in the dietary behaviour between 5500 until 3000 BC, and between 3000 until 2000 BC, respectively. In late Neolithic times, meat procurement appears improved and the dietary spectrum as such broadened, evidencing a more secured and increasingly flexible subsistence strategy. Oxygen isotope ratios of the structural carbonate proved to be reliable climatic indicators and may be helpful in the dating of archaeological sites.