Genomic and dietary transitions during the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic in Sicily

Abstract

37Southern Italy is a key region for understanding the agricultural transition in the Mediterranean due to its 38 central position. We present a genomic transect for 19 prehistoric Sicilians that covers the Early Mesolithic 39 to Early Neolithic period. We find that the Early Mesolithic hunter-gatherers (HGs) are a highly drifted 40 sister lineage to Early Holocene western European HGs, whereas a quarter of the Late Mesolithic HGs 41 ancestry is related to HGs from eastern Europe and the Near East. This indicates substantial gene flow from 42 (south-)eastern Europe between the Early and Late Mesolithic. The Early Neolithic farmers are genetically 43 most similar to those from the Balkan and Greece, and carry only a maximum of ~7% ancestry from Sicilian 44 Mesolithic HGs. Ancestry changes match changes in dietary profile and material culture, except for two 45individuals who may provide tentative initial evidence that HGs adopted elements of farming in Sicily. 47One-sentence summary 48 Genome-wide and isotopic data from prehistoric Sicilians reveal a pre-farming connection to (south-) 49 eastern Europe, and tentative initial evidence that hunter-gatherers adopted some Neolithic aspects prior to 50 near-total replacement by early farmers. 51 52

Archaeogenetics and Landscape Dynamics in Sicily during the Holocene: A Review

“…More recently, Modi et al [12] also categorized the Mesolithic Oriente B individual into the U2 3 4 7 8 9 mtDNA haplogroup, estimating the emergence date of a "Sicilian clade" to 23,248 years BP. Interestingly, new ancient sequences from a Paleolithic individual in Grotta di San Teodoro and from two Early Mesolithic individuals in Grotta dell'Uzzo seem to corroborate the idea that U2 3 4 7 8 9 was the only mitochondrial lineage in Sicily during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene [49,50]. Taken together, all these findings are consistent with the hypothesis of a genetic continuity between Paleo-Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in Sicily.…”

“…Starting with the pioneering studies performed in the 1980s [47,48], the field of ancient DNA (aDNA) is now able to explore many aspects of human genetic history better than ever. The development of next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, along with the application of sophisticated bioinformatics pipelines, has enabled the generation of an unprecedented quantity of genomic data from past populations [14,49,50].…”

Genomic transformation and social organization during the Copper Age–Bronze Age transition in southern Iberia

“…Leveraging insights from previous studies about the differential HG legacy in western Europe (7,(57)(58)(59), we explored the HG ancestry of geographically diverse CA Iberians in different ways. We first calculated f4-statistics of the form f4(GoyetQ2, WHG; test, Mbuti), where test represents all MLN and CA groups (Fig.…”

Potential interactions between Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers in the Western Mediterranean: The geochronological data revisited

“…The preservation of hunter-gatherers’ personal ornamentation styles (and likely also meanings) within emerging farming communities has also been observed in several parts of the Western Mediterranean [ 19 ]. In line with this, recent genetic studies have revealed a complex mix of Neolithic migrants originating from the Near East [ 50 , 51 ] and a contribution of local Mesolithic hunter-gatherers among agriculturalist societies [ 52 ]. But, for the moment, data from archaeological contexts in the Western Mediterranean are still too scarce for us to establish global scenarios based on paleogenetics alone.…”