Ancient DNA, Strontium isotopes, and osteological analyses shed light on social and kinship organization of the Later Stone Age

Abstract

In 2005 four outstanding multiple burials were discovered near Eulau, Germany. The 4,600-year-old graves contained groups of adults and children buried facing each other. Skeletal and artifactual evidence and the simultaneous interment of the individuals suggest the supposed families fell victim to a violent event. In a multidisciplinary approach, archaeological, anthropological, geochemical (radiogenic isotopes), and molecular genetic (ancient DNA) methods were applied to these unique burials. Using autosomal, mitochondrial, and Y-chromosomal markers, we identified genetic kinship among the individuals. A direct child-parent relationship was detected in one burial, providing the oldest molecular genetic evidence of a nuclear family. Strontium isotope analyses point to different origins for males and children versus females. By this approach, we gain insight into a Late Stone Age society, which appears to have been exogamous and patrilocal, and in which genetic kinship seems to be a focal point of social organization.burial rites ͉ Neolithic ͉ violence ͉ Corded Ware Culture ͉ exogamy

Separating the post-Glacial coancestry of European and Asian Y chromosomes within haplogroup R1a

“…54 Ancient DNA evidence from a 4600-year-old multiple burial unearthed near Eulau, Germany and attributed to the Central European CW culture, identified the remains of three males carrying the SRY10831.2 mutation and sharing the same YSTR haplotype, implying a single family lineage. 55 Although haplogroup affiliation cannot be inferred with certainty from STR data alone, a composite 15-locus YSTR haplotype representing the ancient lineage suggests its potential R1a1a*(xM458) membership due to four alleles (DYS391¼11, DYS439¼10, DYS389B¼17 and DYS458¼15) shared with the median R1a1a*(xM458) haplotype (Supplementary Tables S4 and S7). Interestingly, from the list of regional median haplotypes, the ancient haplotype is most similar to the German R1a1a*(xM458) type.…”

HVS-I polymorphism screening of ancient human mitochondrial DNA provides evidence for N9a discontinuity and East Asian haplogroups in the Neolithic Hungary

“…Population demographic simulations also referred to other significant population exchange/movements, as the mtDNA- Haplogroup prediction of ancient samples are given with letters in bold after their names. mitCRS, rCRS; Derenburg, Derenburg 1 specimen from Germany; 6 Stone Age Eulau, Eulau sequence from the Later Stone Age Corded Ware Culture, Germany; 31 Guinea, recent New Guinea sequence; 32 North Indian, recent North Indian sequence; 33 Philippines, recent Philippine sequence; 34 Siberian, Siberian specimen; 5 Iberian, Iberian specimen. 7 (b) In this dendrogram for European Neolithic mtDNA sequences, the overlapping regions between nt16055 and nt16378 were considered for alignment.…”

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

“…This is predominately based on a high number of lineages attributed to the 'Neolithic package' and low frequencies of hunter-gatherers lineages, which clearly distinguish the cluster of farmers not only from hunter-gatherers of Central/North [28 -30,41] and southwestern Europe [32, 47,48], but also from Neolithic Iberian populations [44,45,47,48,50] and Central European cultures of the third/second millennia BC [39,49,51]. To exclude biases induced by potential maternal kinship within the prehistoric datasets, we also performed PCA and MDS with reduced datasets, excluding haplotypes with identical HVS-I and II sequences from the same site.…”