Genetic origins of the Minoans and Mycenaeans

Abstract

The origins of the Bronze Age Minoan and Mycenaean cultures have puzzled archaeologists for more than a century. We assembled genome-wide data from nineteen ancient individuals, including Minoans from Crete, Mycenaeans from mainland Greece, and their eastern neighbours from southwestern Anatolia. We show that Minoans and Mycenaeans were genetically similar, having at least three quarters of their ancestry from the first Neolithic farmers of western Anatolia and the Aegean 1 , 2 , and most of the remainder from ancient populations like those of the Caucasus 3 and Iran 4 , 5 . However, the Mycenaeans differed from Minoans in deriving additional ancestry from an ultimate source related to the hunter-gatherers of eastern Europe and Siberia 6 – 8 , introduced via a proximal source related to either the inhabitants of either the Eurasian steppe 1 , 6 , 9 or Armenia 4 , 9 . Modern Greeks resemble the Mycenaeans, but with some additional dilution of the early Neolithic ancestry. Our results support the idea of continuity but not isolation in the history of populations of the Aegean, before and after the time of its earliest civilizations.

The genomic history of southeastern Europe

“…26) from Diros Cave and one from Franchthi Cave – are not consistent with descending from the same source population as other European farmers. D -statistics (Supplementary Information Table 2) show that in fact, these “Peloponnese Neolithic” individuals dated to ~4000 BCE are shifted away from WHG and towards CHG, relative to Anatolian and Balkan Neolithic individuals.…”

“…We see the same pattern in a single Neolithic individual from Krepost in present-day Bulgaria (I0679_d, 5718-5626 BCE). An even more dramatic shift towards CHG has been observed in individuals associated with the Bronze Age Minoan and Mycenaean cultures, 26 suggesting gene flow into the region from populations with CHG-rich ancestry throughout the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. Possible sources are related to the Neolithic population from the central Anatolian site of Tepecik Çiftlik, 21 or the Aegean site of Kumtepe, 11 who are also shifted towards CHG relative to NW Anatolian Neolithic samples, as are later Copper and Bronze Age Anatolians.…”

“…Possible sources are related to the Neolithic population from the central Anatolian site of Tepecik Çiftlik, 21 or the Aegean site of Kumtepe, 11 who are also shifted towards CHG relative to NW Anatolian Neolithic samples, as are later Copper and Bronze Age Anatolians. 10,26 …”

“…While we find sporadic steppe-related ancestry in Balkan Copper and Bronze Age individuals, this ancestry is rare until the late Bronze Age. Moreover, while Bronze Age Anatolian individuals have CHG-related ancestry, 26 they have neither the EHG-related ancestry characteristic of all steppe populations sampled to date, 19 nor the WHG-related ancestry that is ubiquitous in Neolithic southeastern Europe (Extended Data Figure 2&3, Supplementary Data Table 2). An alternative hypothesis is that the ultimate homeland of Proto-Indo-European languages was in the Caucasus or in Iran.…”

Ancient pathogen genomics as an emerging tool for infectious disease research

“…More recently, in solutionbased capture approaches have gained popularity owing to their capacity for greater sample throughput without compromising capture effi ciency [81][82][83] ; every sample library can be captured indi vidually, thus providing, in principle, an equal probe density per specimen. This technique has contributed to the increased number of specimens from which human genome wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data could be retrieved 84,85 , even from climate zones that pose challenges to aDNA preservation (pre sented elsewhere [86][87][88] ). In addition, in solutionbased capture has recently become the preferred method for microbial pathogen genome recovery for both bacteria and DNA viruses (for examples, see reFs 34,37,41,43,45,49,50 ).…”