Reconstructing genetic histories and social organisation in Neolithic and Bronze Age Croatia

Abstract

Ancient DNA studies have revealed how human migrations from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age transformed the social and genetic structure of European societies. Present-day Croatia lies at the heart of ancient migration routes through Europe, yet our knowledge about social and genetic processes here remains sparse. To shed light on these questions, we report new whole-genome data for 28 individuals dated to between ~ 4700 BCE–400 CE from two sites in present-day eastern Croatia. In the Middle Neolithic we evidence first cousin mating practices and strong genetic continuity from the Early Neolithic. In the Middle Bronze Age community that we studied, we find multiple closely related males suggesting a patrilocal social organisation. We also find in that community an unexpected genetic ancestry profile distinct from individuals found at contemporaneous sites in the region, due to the addition of hunter-gatherer-related ancestry. These findings support archaeological evidence for contacts with communities further north in the Carpathian Basin. Finally, an individual dated to Roman times exhibits an ancestry profile that is broadly present in the region today, adding an important data point to the substantial shift in ancestry that occurred in the region between the Bronze Age and today.

Interdisciplinary analyses of Bronze Age communities from Western Hungary reveal complex population histories

“…Uniparental diversity makeup points to a patriarchal social structure similar to previously reported Bronze Age findings 9,11,15 . Results are highly similar to previous observations on Encrusted Pottery culture at the Jagodnjak site (Croatia) 10 . The kinship network of Bk-II follows the distribution of grave groups (Fig.…”

“…The population of Bk-III was the direct descendant of Bk-II, forming not just cultural (Encrusted pottery) but also genetic continuity for at least ~500 years, even if the radiocarbon sequences allow a few decades of hiatus at the studied site. Continuous female-biased admixture with various groups occurred during this period according to our and previous genetic 10 and archaeological 31,43 evidence, diluting the BK-II genetic ancestry.…”

“…Results of outgroup in f3 -statistics in the form of f3(X=Bk-II, Y=HG-s, Z=Yoruba) showed that HGs fit the best to Bk-II are geographically widely distributed (Supplementary Table S11), thus we conclude that the true source for this component is yet to be described. We can take into consideration the outgroup f3 -statistics results, chronology, timing of HG admixture according to Freilich 2021 10 between ~3400-2400 BCE, qpAdm results and the geographical distribution of groups and outliers of similar HG makeup. These suggest a dated migration pattern for this undescribed population with dominant HG genetic ancestry from what is present-day Bulgaria to the Baltic through the Eastern borders of the Carpathians (Fig.…”

“…According to our results, the Bk-II population had outstandingly high HG genetic ancestry levels, compared to other Bronze Age groups of the region, which can be traced back to today’s Ukraine, Belarus, Moldavia or Romania, pointing to a long standing previously unsampled population with dominant HG ancestry. Calculated admixture dates 10 suggest the presence of a genetically pure or at least highly HG specific population in Eastern Europe as late as the end of the Copper Age. Part of this group subsequently admixed with populations of mainly steppe (likely Poland Southeast BBC) and early farmer (most likely a Globular Amphora culture related) ancestry during their westward migration on a Northern route, leaving genetic traces in Corded Ware culture, BBC, and other Bronze Age populations.…”

“…A number of studies addressed population historical questions in Prehistoric Europe by recovering major events connected to the pre-Neolithic hunter-gatherers (HG) [1][2][3] , their assimilation to early European farmers during the Neolithic era 2,[4][5][6] , and the appearance, expansion and admixture of steppe ancestry during the Eneolithic / Late Copper Age to the dawn of Early Bronze Age 4,7,8 . While some of these studies are essential for understanding the foundation of the European gene pool, studies are sparse in the literature that uncover regional interactions or social stratification via kinship [9][10][11] . Additionally, except for a few well-known markers in most archaic studies -e.g.…”