Ancient DNA tells tales of Europeans' migrant history

[muriel_volestrangler]

In one of the new papers, Reich and a cast of dozens of collaborators chart the spread of an ancient culture known by its stylized bell-shaped pots, the so-called Bell Beaker phenomenon. This culture first spread between Iberia and central Europe beginning about 4,700 years ago. By analyzing DNA from several hundred samples of human bones, Reich's team shows that only the ideas—not the people who originated them—made the move initially. That's because the genes of the Iberian population remain distinct from those of the central Europeans who adopted the characteristic pots and other artifacts.

But the story changes when the Bell Beaker culture expanded to Britain after 4,500 years ago. Then, it was brought by migrants who almost completely supplanted the island's existing inhabitants—the mysterious people who had built Stonehenge—within a few hundred years. "There was a sudden change in the population of Britain," says Reich. "It was an almost complete replacement."
...
Reich's second new Nature paper, on the genomic history of southeastern Europe, reveals an additional migration as farming spread across Europe, based on data from 255 individuals who lived between 14,000 and 2,500 years ago. It also adds a fascinating new nugget—the first compelling evidence that the genetic mixing of populations in Europe was biased toward one sex.

Hunter-gatherer genes remaining in northern Europeans after the influx of migrating farmers came more from males than females, Reich's team found. "Archaeological evidence shows that when farmers first spread into northern Europe, they stopped at a latitude where their crops didn't grow well," he says. "As a result, there were persistent boundaries between the farmers and the hunter-gatherers for a couple of thousand years." This gave the hunter-gatherers and farmers a long time to interact. According to Reich, one speculative scenario is that during this long, drawn-out interaction, there was a social or power dynamic in which farmer women tended to be integrated into hunter-gatherer communities.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-02-ancient-dna-tales-humans-migrant.html#jCp

[left-of-center2012]

1. Interesting - thanks

"farmer women tended to be integrated into hunter-gatherer communities"

Maybe hunter-gatherers raided farms and stole women?

[Igel]

2. That was my first thought, to be honest.

On the other hand, if the men had a higher death rate and there was a surfeit of unmarried women, that could also qualify.

[Canoe52]

3. Interesting, thanks for posting!