Genomes from Verteba cave suggest diversity within the Trypillians in Ukraine

Abstract

The transition to agriculture occurred relatively late in Eastern Europe, leading researchers to debate whether it was a gradual, interactive process or a colonisation event. In the forest and forest-steppe regions of Ukraine, farming appeared during the fifth millennium BCE, associated with the Cucuteni-Trypillia cultural complex (CTCC, ~ 5000–3000 BCE). Across Europe, the Neolithisation process was highly variable across space and over time. Here, we investigate the population dynamics of early agriculturalists from the eastern forest-steppe region based on the analyses of 20 ancient genomes from the site of Verteba Cave (3935–825 cal BCE). Results reveal that the CTCC individuals’ ancestry is related to both western hunter-gatherers and Near Eastern farmers, has no local ancestry associated with Ukrainian Neolithic hunter-gatherers and has steppe ancestry. An Early Bronze Age individual has an ancestry profile related to the Yamnaya expansions but with 20% of ancestry related to the other Trypillian individuals, which suggests admixture between the Trypillians and the incoming populations carrying steppe-related ancestry. A Late Bronze Age individual dated to 980–825 cal BCE has a genetic profile indicating affinity to Beaker-related populations, detected close to 1000 years after the end of the Bell Beaker phenomenon during the third millennium BCE.

A genomic history of the North Pontic Region from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age

“… (a) Usatove-related individuals from this study and 5 . (b) Trypillians from this study and 17 . Kartal cluster A (c) and B (d) from 5 .…”

“…Archaeologists trace the origin of CTAC to western Transylvania 13,14 . The genetic ancestry of CTAC was primarily EEFderived with admixture from WHG, EHG and Caucasus Hunter-Gatherers (CHG) 6,[15][16][17][18] . During their eastward expansion, CTAC encountered mobile steppe communities of the Serednii Stih archaeological complex (SSAC) 13 , which likely emerged from the Azov-Dnipro-Donets area in the first half of the 5 th millennium BCE [19][20][21] .…”

North Pontic crossroads: Mobility in Ukraine from the Bronze Age to the early modern period

“…The model including Middle Neolithic individuals from Germany (AADR_Central_MN 8 ), Yamna-associated individuals from Ukraine (AADR_Ukraine_Yamnaya 6 ) and Slab-grave culture-associated individuals from Mongolia (AADR_Mongolia_EIA_SlabGrave_1 51 , AADR_Mongolia_EIA_SlabGrave used for brevity) as sources is among the models with the highest number of significant plausible results (27 out of 39 modelled groups) (Table S7). The best performing model with two Ukrainian sources includes Trypillia culture-associated individuals from Ukraine (AADR_Ukraine_Trypillia 6,36 ), AADR_Ukraine_Yamnaya and AADR_Mongolia_SlabGrave and gives significant plausible results for 26 out of 39 groups (Table S7). When models with one or two of the sources dropped are included, both up to three source models described above (AADR_Central_MN/AADR_Ukraine_Trypillia, AADR_Ukraine_Yamnaya, AADR_Mongolia_SlabGrave) produce a significant plausible result for 28 out of the 39 groups (Figure 5A, Figure S5A, Tables S8–S9).…”

“…Genomic studies of HGs in Ukraine indicate closer genetic affinities to Eastern, rather than Western European HGs 6,37,41 . Early farmers in the region, represented by Trypillia and Globular Amphora Culture-associated individuals, show indications of admixture with HGs 6,36 . Eneolithic Cernavodă I and Usatove Culture-associated individuals display admixture with steppe ancestry groups 39 .…”

The Genetic Origin of the Indo-Europeans

“…We grouped individuals into analysis labels based on geographical and temporal information, archaeological context, and genetic clustering (Online Table 4 lists all individuals used for analyses, with their labels). The potential of the combined dataset for shedding light on this period can be appreciated from the fact that it adds 79 analyzed Eneolithic people from the steppe and its environs (from Russia or Ukraine, west of 60E longitude and south of 60N latitude, between 5000-3500BCE) to 82 published 5,7,13,[15][16][17][18][19][20] and a total of 286 Yamnaya/Afanasievo individuals compared to 75 in the literature. 2,[4][5][6]13,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] Discovery of three pre-Bronze Age genetic clines that collapsed after Yamnaya expansion Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of ancient individuals from the Pontic-Caspian steppe and adjacent areas of Southeastern Europe, the Caucasus and West Asia reveals that most of the Eneolithic people of the steppe as well as the later Bronze Age Yamnaya fall on non-overlapping genetic gradients (Figure 1).…”