Corrigendum: Leaf surfaces and neolithization - the case of Arundo donax L.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.999252.].

Isotopic and DNA analyses reveal multiscale PPNB mobility and migration across Southeastern Anatolia and the Southern Levant.

Growing reliance on animal and plant domestication in the Near East and beyond during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) (the ninth to eighth millennium BC) has often been associated with a "revolutionary" social transformation from mobility toward more sedentary lifestyles. We are able to yield nuanced insights into the process of the Neolithization in the Near East based on a bioarchaeological approach integrating isotopic and archaeogenetic analyses on the bone remains recovered from Nevali Çori, a site occupied from the early PPNB in Turkey where some of the earliest evidence of animal and plant domestication emerged, and from Ba'ja, a typical late PPNB site in Jordan. In addition, we present the archaeological sequence of Nevali Çori together with newly generated radiocarbon dates. Our results are based on strontium (87Sr/86Sr), carbon, and oxygen (δ18O and δ13Ccarb) isotopic analyses conducted on 28 human and 29 animal individuals from the site of Nevali Çori. 87Sr/86Sr results indicate mobility and connection with the contemporaneous surrounding sites during the earlier PPNB prior to an apparent decline in this mobility at a time of growing reliance on domesticates. Genome-wide data from six human individuals from Nevali Çori and Ba'ja demonstrate a diverse gene pool at Nevali Çori that supports connectedness within the Fertile Crescent during the earlier phases of Neolithization and evidence of consanguineous union in the PPNB Ba'ja and the Iron Age Nevali Çori.

Leaf surfaces and neolithization - the case of Arundo donax L.

Arundo donax L. (Arundinoideae subfamily, Poaceae family) is a sub-tropical and temperate climate reed that grows in arid and semi-arid environmental conditions, from eastern China to the Mediterranean basin, suggesting potential adaptations at the epicuticular level. A thorough physical-chemical examination of the adaxial and abaxial surfaces of A. donax leaf was performed herein in an attempt to track such chemophenetic adaptations. This sort of approach is of the utmost importance for the current debate about the hypothetical invasiveness of this species in the Mediterranean basin versus its natural colonization along the Plio-Pleistocene period. We concluded that the leaf surfaces contain, apart from stomata, prickles, and long, thin trichomes, and silicon-rich tetralobate phytolits. Chemically, the dominating elements in the leaf ashes are oxygen and potassium; minor amounts of calcium, silicon, magnesium, phosphorous, sulphur, and chlorine were also detected. In both surfaces the epicuticular waxes (whose density is higher in the adaxial surface than in the abaxial surface) form randomly orientated platelets, with irregular shape and variable size, and aggregated rodlets with variable diameter around the stomata. In the case of green mature leaves, the dominating organic compounds of the epicuticular waxes of both surfaces are triterpenoids. Both surfaces feature identical hydrophobic behaviour, and exhibit the same total transmittance, total reflectance, and absorption of incident light. The above findings suggest easy growth of the plant, remarkable epidermic robustness of the leaf, and control of water loss. These chemophenetic characteristics and human influence support a neolithization process of this species along the Mediterranean basin.

Nutrition and Health in Human Evolution-Past to Present.

Anyone who wants to understand the biological nature of humans and their special characteristics must look far back into evolutionary history. Today's way of life is drastically different from that of our ancestors. For almost 99% of human history, gathering and hunting have been the basis of nutrition. It was not until about 12,000 years ago that humans began domesticating plants and animals. Bioarchaeologically and biochemically, this can be traced back to our earliest roots. Modern living conditions and the quality of human life are better today than ever before. However, neither physically nor psychosocially have we made this adjustment and we are paying a high health price for it. The studies presented allow us to reconstruct food supply, lifestyles, and dietary habits: from the earliest primates, through hunter-gatherers of the Paleolithic, farming communities since the beginning of the Anthropocene, to the Industrial Age and the present. The comprehensive data pool allows extraction of all findings of medical relevance. Our recent lifestyle and diet are essentially determined by our culture rather than by our millions of years of ancestry. Culture is permanently in a dominant position compared to natural evolution. Thereby culture does not form a contrast to nature but represents its result. There is no doubt that we are biologically adapted to culture, but it is questionable how much culture humans can cope with.

Population Genetics and Signatures of Selection in Early Neolithic European Farmers.

Human expansion in the course of the Neolithic transition in western Eurasia has been one of the major topics in ancient DNA research in the last 10 years. Multiple studies have shown that the spread of agriculture and animal husbandry from the Near East across Europe was accompanied by large-scale human expansions. Moreover, changes in subsistence and migration associated with the Neolithic transition have been hypothesized to involve genetic adaptation. Here, we present high quality genome-wide data from the Linear Pottery Culture site Derenburg-Meerenstieg II (DER) (N = 32 individuals) in Central Germany. Population genetic analyses show that the DER individuals carried predominantly Anatolian Neolithic-like ancestry and a very limited degree of local hunter-gatherer admixture, similar to other early European farmers. Increasing the Linear Pottery culture cohort size to ∼100 individuals allowed us to perform various frequency- and haplotype-based analyses to investigate signatures of selection associated with changes following the adoption of the Neolithic lifestyle. In addition, we developed a new method called Admixture-informed Maximum-likelihood Estimation for Selection Scans that allowed us test for selection signatures in an admixture-aware fashion. Focusing on the intersection of results from these selection scans, we identified various loci associated with immune function (JAK1, HLA-DQB1) and metabolism (LMF1, LEPR, SORBS1), as well as skin color (SLC24A5, CD82) and folate synthesis (MTHFR, NBPF3). Our findings shed light on the evolutionary pressures, such as infectious disease and changing diet, that were faced by the early farmers of Western Eurasia.

Populations dynamics in Northern Eurasian forests: a long-term perspective from Northeast Asia.

The 'Northern Eurasian Greenbelt' (NEG) is the northern forest zone stretching from the Japanese Archipelago to Northern Europe. The NEG has created highly productive biomes for humanity to exploit since the end of the Pleistocene. This research explores how the ecological conditions in northern Eurasia contributed to and affected human migrations and cultural trajectories by synthesizing the complimentary viewpoints of environmental archaeology, Geographic Information Science (GIS), genetics and linguistics. First, the environmental archaeology perspective raises the possibility that the NEG functioned as a vessel fostering people to develop diverse cultures and engage in extensive cross-cultural exchanges. Second, geographical analysis of genomic data on mitochondrial DNA using GIS reveals the high probability that population dynamics in the southeastern NEG promoted the peopling of the Americas at the end of the Pleistocene. Finally, a linguistic examination of environmental- and landscape-related vocabulary of the proto-Turkic language groups enables the outline of their original cultural landscape and natural conditions, demonstrating significant cultural spheres, i.e. from southern Siberia to eastern Inner Mongolia during Neolithization. All of these results combine to suggest that the ecological complex in the southern edge of the NEG in northeast Asia played a significant role in peopling across the continents during prehistory.

Testing complex networks of interaction at the onset of the Near Eastern Neolithic using modelling of obsidian exchange.

In this paper, we explore the conditions that led to the origins and development of the Near Eastern Neolithic using mathematical modelling of obsidian exchange. The analysis presented expands on previous research, which established that the down-the-line model could not explain long-distance obsidian distribution across the Near East during this period. Drawing from outcomes of new simulations and their comparison with archaeological data, we provide results that illuminate the presence of complex networks of interaction among the earliest farming societies. We explore a network prototype of obsidian exchange with distant links which replicates the long-distance movement of ideas, goods and people during the Early Neolithic. Our results support the idea that during the first (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A) and second (Pre-Pottery Neolithic B) phases of the Early Neolithic, the complexity of obsidian exchange networks gradually increased. We propose then a refined model (the optimized distant link model) whereby long-distance exchange was largely operated by certain interconnected villages, resulting in the appearance of a relatively homogeneous Neolithic cultural sphere. We hypothesize that the appearance of complex interaction and exchange networks reduced risks of isolation caused by restricted mobility as groups settled and argue that these networks partially triggered and were crucial for the success of the Neolithic Revolution. Communities became highly dynamic through the sharing of experiences and objects, while the networks that developed acted as a repository of innovations, limiting the risk of involution.

Tracing the genetic origin of Europe's first farmers reveals insights into their social organization.

Farming was established in Central Europe by the Linearbandkeramik culture (LBK), a well-investigated archaeological horizon, which emerged in the Carpathian Basin, in today's Hungary. However, the genetic background of the LBK genesis is yet unclear. Here we present 9 Y chromosomal and 84 mitochondrial DNA profiles from Mesolithic, Neolithic Starcevo and LBK sites (seventh/sixth millennia BC) from the Carpathian Basin and southeastern Europe. We detect genetic continuity of both maternal and paternal elements during the initial spread of agriculture, and confirm the substantial genetic impact of early southeastern European and Carpathian Basin farming cultures on Central European populations of the sixth-fourth millennia BC. Comprehensive Y chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA population genetic analyses demonstrate a clear affinity of the early farmers to the modern Near East and Caucasus, tracing the expansion from that region through southeastern Europe and the Carpathian Basin into Central Europe. However, our results also reveal contrasting patterns for male and female genetic diversity in the European Neolithic, suggesting a system of patrilineal descent and patrilocal residential rules among the early farmers.

The Aegean in the Early 7th Millennium BC: Maritime Networks and Colonization.

The process of Near Eastern neolithization and its westward expansion from the core zone in the Levant and upper Mesopotamia has been broadly discussed in recent decades, and many models have been developed to describe the spread of early farming in terms of its timing, structure, geography and sociocultural impact. Until now, based on recent intensive investigations in northwestern and western Anatolia, the discussion has mainly centred on the importance of Anatolian inland routes for the westward spread of neolithization. This contribution focuses on the potential impact of east Mediterranean and Aegean maritime networks on the spread of the Neolithic lifestyle to the western edge of the Anatolian subcontinent in the earliest phases of sedentism. Employing the longue durée model and the concept of 'social memory', we will discuss the arrival of new groups via established maritime routes. The existence of maritime networks prior to the spread of farming is already indicated by the high mobility of Epipalaeolithic/Mesolithic groups exploring the Aegean and east Mediterranean seas, and reaching, for example, the Cyclades and Cyprus. Successful navigation by these early mobile groups across the open sea is attested by the distribution of Melian obsidian. The potential existence of an additional Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) obsidian network that operated between Cappadocia/Cilicia and Cyprus further hints at the importance of maritime coastal trade. Since both the coastal and the high seas networks were apparently already well established in this early period, we may further assume appropriate knowledge of geographic routes, navigational technology and other aspects of successful seafaring. This Mesolithic/PPN maritime know-how package appears to have been used by later groups, in the early 7th millennium calBC, exploring the centre of the Anatolian Aegean coast, and in time establishing some of the first permanent settlements in that region. In the present paper, we link this background of newcomers to the western edge of Anatolia with new excavation results from Çukuriçi Höyük, which we have analysed in terms of subsistence strategies, materiality, technology and symbolism. Additionally, further detailed studies of nutrition and obsidian procurement shed light on the distinct maritime affinity of the early settlers in our case study, something that, in our view, can hardly be attributed to inland farming societies. We propose a maritime colonization in the 7th millennium via routes from the eastern Mediterranean to the eastern Aegean, based on previously developed sea networks. The pronounced maritime affinity of these farming and herding societies allows us to identify traces of earlier PPN concepts still embedded in the social-cultural memories of the newcomers and incorporated in a new local and regional Neolithic identity.

Unravelling the complexity of domestication: a case study using morphometrics and ancient DNA analyses of archaeological pigs from Romania.

Current evidence suggests that pigs were first domesticated in Eastern Anatolia during the ninth millennium cal BC before dispersing into Europe with Early Neolithic farmers from the beginning of the seventh millennium. Recent ancient DNA (aDNA) research also indicates the incorporation of European wild boar into domestic stock during the Neolithization process. In order to establish the timing of the arrival of domestic pigs into Europe, and to test hypotheses regarding the role European wild boar played in the domestication process, we combined a geometric morphometric analysis (allowing us to combine tooth size and shape) of 449 Romanian ancient teeth with aDNA analysis. Our results firstly substantiate claims that the first domestic pigs in Romania possessed the same mtDNA signatures found in Neolithic pigs in west and central Anatolia. Second, we identified a significant proportion of individuals with large molars whose tooth shape matched that of archaeological (likely) domestic pigs. These large 'domestic shape' specimens were present from the outset of the Romanian Neolithic (6100-5500 cal BC) through to later prehistory, suggesting a long history of admixture between introduced domestic pigs and local wild boar. Finally, we confirmed a turnover in mitochondrial lineages found in domestic pigs, possibly coincident with human migration into Anatolia and the Levant that occurred in later prehistory.