Tautalus
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This study seeks to answer some questions such as "what was the average distance moved per generation by pioneering farmers? Was it different along the central European and Mediterranean routes? What was the proportion of early farmers that interbred with HGs? Was it different along both routes?"
It is based on a single marker, the mtDNA haplogroup K.
Abstract
The Neolithic (i.e., farming and stockbreeding) spread from the Near East across Europe since about 9000 years before the common era (BCE) until about 4000 yr BCE. It followed two main routes, namely a sea route along the northern Mediterranean coast and an inland one across the Balkans and central Europe. It is known that the dispersive behavior of farmers depended on geography, with longer movements along the Mediterranean coast than along the inland route. In sharp contrast, here we show that for both routes the percentage of farmers who interbred with hunter-gatherers and/or acculturated one of them was strikingly the same (about 3.6%). Therefore, whereas the dispersive behavior depended on the proximity to the Mediterranean sea, the interaction behavior (incorporation of hunter-gatherers) did not depend on geographical constraints but only on the transition in the subsistence economy (from hunting and gathering to farming) and its associated way of life. These conclusions are reached by analyzing the clines of haplogroup K, which was virtually absent in hunter-gatherers and the most frequent mitochondrial haplogroup in early farmers. Similarly, the most frequent Y-chromosome Neolithic haplogroup (G2a) displays an inland cline that agrees with the percentage of interbreeding reported above.
The two routes of Neolithic spread in Europe.
Arrival times of Neolithic farmers in several regions according to the radiocarbon dates of sites indicated on the map above and simulations (lines) for the inland route (red, jumps of 50 km per generation) and the sea route (blue, jumps of 70 km per generation).
From the article :
It is based on a single marker, the mtDNA haplogroup K.
Abstract
The Neolithic (i.e., farming and stockbreeding) spread from the Near East across Europe since about 9000 years before the common era (BCE) until about 4000 yr BCE. It followed two main routes, namely a sea route along the northern Mediterranean coast and an inland one across the Balkans and central Europe. It is known that the dispersive behavior of farmers depended on geography, with longer movements along the Mediterranean coast than along the inland route. In sharp contrast, here we show that for both routes the percentage of farmers who interbred with hunter-gatherers and/or acculturated one of them was strikingly the same (about 3.6%). Therefore, whereas the dispersive behavior depended on the proximity to the Mediterranean sea, the interaction behavior (incorporation of hunter-gatherers) did not depend on geographical constraints but only on the transition in the subsistence economy (from hunting and gathering to farming) and its associated way of life. These conclusions are reached by analyzing the clines of haplogroup K, which was virtually absent in hunter-gatherers and the most frequent mitochondrial haplogroup in early farmers. Similarly, the most frequent Y-chromosome Neolithic haplogroup (G2a) displays an inland cline that agrees with the percentage of interbreeding reported above.
Interbreeding between farmers and hunter-gatherers along the inland and Mediterranean routes of Neolithic spread in Europe - Nature Communications
The Neolithic transition spread across Europe via a coastal, southern route and an inland, central route. Here, the authors use haplogroup clines and space-time simulations to show that interbreeding between farmers and hunter-gatherers was the same along both routes.www.nature.com
The two routes of Neolithic spread in Europe.
Arrival times of Neolithic farmers in several regions according to the radiocarbon dates of sites indicated on the map above and simulations (lines) for the inland route (red, jumps of 50 km per generation) and the sea route (blue, jumps of 70 km per generation).
From the article :
“…the interactive behavior between farmers and HGs (interbreeding and/or acculturation) did not depend on geographical constraints (at the continental scale) because for both routes the percentage of farmers involved in this interaction was remarkably the same, namely ~3.6% or, more precisely, between 1.2% and 8.3%.”
“Our results provide a very simple explanation of the well-known higher HG ancestry along the Mediterranean route than along the inland one. The sea route has ~6000 km along the coast (Fig. 3b), and along it early farmers moved ~70 km per generation on average (Fig. 1b), which implies ~6000/70 = 86 admixture events (one per generation). In contrast, along a straight line on the inland route, there were only ~3000/50 = 60 admixture events (Figs. 3a and 1b). So, given that the same percentage of farmers interbred with HGs in each admixture event along both routes (i.e., that the values of in Fig. 3a, b are essentially the same), more HGs per farmer had been incorporated when the Neolithic wave of advance reached the end of the sea route that when it reached the end of the inland route. This explains that the proportion of HG ancestry was higher at the end of the sea route (Iberia) than at the end of the inland route (northern France), see e.g., Fig. 4a in ref. This reasoning also explains three additional observations: (i) the HG ancestry proportion is generally higher in western European early farmers than in eastern ones; (ii) at the end of the sea route the percentage of haplogroup K is lower than at the end of the inland route (error bars in Fig. 3); and (iii) at the end of the sea route the percentage of HG haplogroups is higher than at the end of the inland route (Supplementary Data 7).”
“Our results provide a very simple explanation of the well-known higher HG ancestry along the Mediterranean route than along the inland one. The sea route has ~6000 km along the coast (Fig. 3b), and along it early farmers moved ~70 km per generation on average (Fig. 1b), which implies ~6000/70 = 86 admixture events (one per generation). In contrast, along a straight line on the inland route, there were only ~3000/50 = 60 admixture events (Figs. 3a and 1b). So, given that the same percentage of farmers interbred with HGs in each admixture event along both routes (i.e., that the values of in Fig. 3a, b are essentially the same), more HGs per farmer had been incorporated when the Neolithic wave of advance reached the end of the sea route that when it reached the end of the inland route. This explains that the proportion of HG ancestry was higher at the end of the sea route (Iberia) than at the end of the inland route (northern France), see e.g., Fig. 4a in ref. This reasoning also explains three additional observations: (i) the HG ancestry proportion is generally higher in western European early farmers than in eastern ones; (ii) at the end of the sea route the percentage of haplogroup K is lower than at the end of the inland route (error bars in Fig. 3); and (iii) at the end of the sea route the percentage of HG haplogroups is higher than at the end of the inland route (Supplementary Data 7).”
