Ancient genomes reveal structural shifts after the arrival of Steppe-related ancestry in the Italian Peninsula Highlights d 22 genomes from Northeastern and Central Italy dated between 3200 and 1500 BCE d Arrival of Steppe-related ancestry in the central Italian Peninsula by 1600 BCE d Close patrilineal kinship patterns within commingled Chalcolithic cave burials d Roman Imperial period had a stronger effect on phenotype shifts than the Bronze Age

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Drawing on the results of new multi-method research in Grotta Regina Margherita-the largest known Middle Bronze Age mortuary cave in west-central Italy (ca. 1650-1450 B.C.)-this article helps to replace the generic idea of "collective burial" with a more precise understanding of how the bodies of the deceased were transformed into potent social, symbolic, and sensuous resources housed in caves. It contextualizes this process within a nuanced understanding of settlement and subsistence practices, in which relatively short-lived and small-scale agricultural communities extended inland to the edge of the Apennine Mountains, ritually demarcating mortuary assemblages in caves in the process.