Four millennia of Iberian biomolecular prehistory illustrate the impact of prehistoric migrations at the far end of Eurasia

Abstract

SignificanceThe gene pool of modern Europeans was shaped through prehistoric migrations that reached the Western Mediterranean last. Obtaining biomolecular data has been challenging due to poor preservation related to adverse climatic conditions in this region. Here, we study the impact of prehistoric (Neolithic–Bronze Age) migrations in Iberia by analyzing genomic and dietary data, demonstrating that farming practices were introduced by a population genetically distinct from the first farmers in central and northern Europe. After recovering from a founder bottleneck, these first farmers mixed with local hunter-gatherers. Finally, post-Neolithic migrations had a much smaller impact on the Iberian gene pool than they had in other parts of Europe. Stable isotope analysis reveals a homogenous terrestrial diet throughout this period.

Human stature in the Near East and Europe ca. 10,000–1000 BC: its spatiotemporal development in a Bayesian errors-in-variables model

“…The lack of any signal for the immigration of smaller stature from Iberia into Western and Central Europe sheds significant doubt onto the commonly held view that the Bell Beaker culture originated in the Iberian Peninsula. Rather, it is well in line with a Corded Ware-based origin in NW Europe advocated earlier for archaeological (van der Waals 1984; Jeunesse 2014) and most recently for archaeogenetic reasons (Olalde et al 2018;Valdiosera et al 2018). Moreover, given the somatotrophic and probably growth hormone-related effect of unfermented milk (Wiley 2012) or an assumed direct relationship between genes determining tall stature and lactase persistence (Grasgruber et al 2014), the ability to consume raw milk beyond childhood could be another reason for increasing stature in Northern Europe.…”

Aggressive or funerary cannibalism? Skull‐cup and human bone manipulation in Cueva de El Toro (Early Neolithic, southern Iberia)

“…In southern Iberia, Early Neolithic funerary deposits include primary burials such as at Cueva de los Murciélagos (Valdiosera et al, ), Cueva de la Mujer (García‐Sánchez & Jiménez‐Brobeil, ), Cerro Virtud (Montero, Rihuete, & Ruiz et al, ), and Sima de La Maquila (Mengíbar, Muñoz, & González, ), along with secondary deposits found at different caves (Botella, Jiménez, et al, ; Botella et al, ; Carrasco et al, ; Díaz‐Zorita, Costa, & García‐Sanjuán, ; Martín‐Socas et al, ). These records point to a wide variability of archeological contexts where human remains played a role, and where primary and secondary depositions are documented along with cannibalism.…”

Mapping co-ancestry connections between the genome of a Medieval individual and modern Europeans

“…With a method combining deamination patterns and the fragment length distribution 25 , we obtained www.nature.com/scientificreports www.nature.com/scientificreports/ a similarly low contamination estimate (0.5%-2.5%). All these results testify to authentic ancient DNA molecules with a negligible proportion of modern DNA contamination, To our knowledge, only fifteen other ancient European genomes have been sequenced to a higher coverage: a Scandinavian Mesolithic individual (57.8x) 26 , a Mesolithic individual from Loschbour (22x) and a Neolithic individual from Stuttgart (19x) 4 , Hungarian Bronze Age and Neolithic individuals (21x and 22x, respectively) 24 , a Copper Age individual from Spain (13x) 27 , an Iron Age individual from Hinxton (11x) 28 , six Longobards (12.86-14.48x) 29 and two early Icelandic individuals (12.9x and 30.7x) 20 . With the current genomic coverage of the Medieval L'Esquerda individual, it was possible to generate accurate genotypes calls 30 that were subsequently merged with SNPs from the Human Origins panel.…”