The genetic prehistory of the Baltic Sea region

Abstract

While the series of events that shaped the transition between foraging societies and food producers are well described for Central and Southern Europe, genetic evidence from Northern Europe surrounding the Baltic Sea is still sparse. Here, we report genome-wide DNA data from 38 ancient North Europeans ranging from ~9500 to 2200 years before present. Our analysis provides genetic evidence that hunter-gatherers settled Scandinavia via two routes. We reveal that the first Scandinavian farmers derive their ancestry from Anatolia 1000 years earlier than previously demonstrated. The range of Mesolithic Western hunter-gatherers extended to the east of the Baltic Sea, where these populations persisted without gene-flow from Central European farmers during the Early and Middle Neolithic. The arrival of steppe pastoralists in the Late Neolithic introduced a major shift in economy and mediated the spread of a new ancestry associated with the Corded Ware Complex in Northern Europe

Genetic ancestry changes in Stone to Bronze Age transition in the East European plain

“…European Mesolithic hunter-gatherers (HG) can be divided into groups based on their ancestry. The socalled Western group (WHG) was spread from Iberia to the Balkans and reached as far as the Late Mesolithic Eastern Baltic [23][24][25][26][27][28] . The Eastern group (EHG) had genetic influences from further east (a genetic connection to modern Siberians) and so far includes 6 individuals from Western Russia 14,29,28,30 .…”

Mitochondrial genomes from Bronze Age Poland reveal genetic continuity from the Late Neolithic and additional genetic affinities with the steppe populations

“…These movements introduced genetic ancestries that are still present in various proportions in present‐day Europeans and represent three major components related to hunter‐gatherers, Early Neolithic farmers, and Pontic‐Caspian steppe pastoralists. Both, the initial expansion of farmers in the Neolithic (Bramanti et al, 2009; Haak et al, 2010; Lazaridis et al, 2014) and the emergence of the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age kurgan tradition in Europe, in the form of the Corded Ware culture (CWC), has been shown to be connected with large‐scale migrations (Allentoft et al, 2015; Haak et al, 2015; Jones et al, 2017; Malmström et al, 2019; Mittnik et al, 2018; Saag et al, 2017). Several subsequent movements were also proven to be responsible for cultural and demographic changes such as the occurrence of the Bell Beaker culture (BBC) in the British Isles connected with the arrival of new people (Olalde et al, 2018).…”

Ancient human genes of North-Eastern Europe

“…Nevertheless, even as near as in Estonia and Latvia, the Mesolithic population harboured a prominent component from another group, so-called "western hunter-gatherers" (WHG), who were otherwise constrained to western Europe -the eastern Baltic region seems to have served as a contact zone for human populations deriving from eastern and western Ice Age refugia. Much like in central Europe, the appearance of Corded Ware Culture here coincides with the emergence of a new genetic component, coming from the steppes (Saag et al 2017;Mittnik et al 2018). Some more early farmer-related ancient European genes were locally introduced in the Bronze Age, but yet, the Siberian kind of genetic legacy, though observed in low levels in, e.g., modern Estonians, has not been presented in the studied ancient individuals of this region (Saag et al 2017;Mittnik et al 2018).…”

“…Much like in central Europe, the appearance of Corded Ware Culture here coincides with the emergence of a new genetic component, coming from the steppes (Saag et al 2017;Mittnik et al 2018). Some more early farmer-related ancient European genes were locally introduced in the Bronze Age, but yet, the Siberian kind of genetic legacy, though observed in low levels in, e.g., modern Estonians, has not been presented in the studied ancient individuals of this region (Saag et al 2017;Mittnik et al 2018). Until the project presented in this paper, basically no studies concerning North-Western Russia or Finland have been published.…”