The Genomic History of the Bronze Age Southern Levant

Agranat-Tamir, Lily; Waldman, Shamam; Martin, Mario A. S.; Gokhman, David; Mishol, Nadav; Eshel, Tzilla; Cheronet, Olivia; Rohland, Nadin; Mallick, Swapan; Adamski, Nicole; Lawson, Ann Marie; Mah, Matthew; Michel, Megan; Oppenheimer, Jonas; Stewardson, Kristin; Candilio, Francesca; Keating, Denise; Gamarra, Beatriz; Tzur, Shay; Novak, Mario; Kalisher, Rachel; Bechar, Shlomit; Eshed, Vered; Kennett, Douglas J.; Faerman, Marina; Yahalom-Mack, Naama; Monge, Janet; Govrin, Yehuda; Erel, Yigal; Yakir, Benjamin; Pinhasi, Ron; Carmi, Shai; Finkelstein, Israel; Carmel, Liran; Reich, David

doi:10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.024

Cited by 58 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(68 reference statements)

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“…One of these mutations was detected in a 4,000-year-old mummy from Deir el-Bersha, Egypt also assigned to this haplogroup 65 , raising the possibility that the presence of U5b2b5 at Kulubnarti reflects deep connections with Egypt; other mtDNA haplogroups, including J2a2e, R0a1, T1a7, U1a1, and U3b are also found both at Kulubnarti and in ancient Egyptians 31 . U1a1, U3b, and N1b1a2 have also been identified in Bronze Age individuals from Israel and Jordan 42 , so the presence of these lineages also at Kulubnarti is consistent with the genome-wide data. Previously-published ancient Egyptian data in ref.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 81%

Social stratification without genetic differentiation at the site of Kulubnarti in Christian Period Nubia

Sirak

Fernandes

Lipson

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Nubia has been a corridor for the movement of goods, culture, and people between sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt, and West Eurasia since prehistory, but little is known about the genetic landscape of the region prior to the influence of the Islamic migrations that began in the late 1st millennium CE. We report genome-wide data for 66 individuals from the site of Kulubnarti (~650-1000 CE), increasing the number of ancient individuals with genome-level data from the Nile Valley from three to 69. Our results shed light on the genetic ancestry of a Christian Period group and help to address a long-standing question about the relationships among people buried in two neighboring cemeteries who show skeletal evidence of differences in morbidity and mortality that are broadly suggestive of differences in social status. We find that the Kulubnarti Nubians were admixed with ~43% Nilotic-related ancestry on average (individual proportions varied between ~36-54%) and the remaining ancestry reflecting a West Eurasian-related gene pool likely introduced into Nubia through Egypt, but ultimately deriving from an ancestry pool like that found in the Bronze and Iron Age Levant. The admixed ancestry at Kulubnarti reflects interactions between genetically-distinct people in northeast Africa spanning almost a millennium, with West Eurasian ancestry disproportionately associated with females, highlighting the impact of female mobility in this region. We find no significant differences in ancestry among individuals from the two plausibly socially-stratified cemeteries at Kulubnarti, supporting hypotheses that the groups may have been socially divided but were not genetically distinct. We identify seven pairs of inter-cemetery relatives as close as second-degree, suggesting that any social divisions at Kulubnarti did not prevent mixing between groups. Present-day Nubians are not directly descended from the Christian Period people from Kulubnarti without additional admixture, attesting to the dynamic history of interaction that continues to shape the cultural and genetic landscape of Nubia.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 81%

Social stratification without genetic differentiation at the site of Kulubnarti in Christian Period Nubia

Sirak

Fernandes

Lipson

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…This example highlights how the vagaries of discovery and issues of representativeness influence mobility studies, and it is important to keep in mind that only a small portion of the total number of ancient inhabitants of the city has been recovered to date and is available for sampling. Nevertheless, this study has revealed multiple scales and levels of mobility at Alalakh in the Middle and Late Bronze Age, and shows, as have other recent studies in the ancient Near East [139,141,215], that the majority of sampled individuals were locals who likely lived, died, and were buried in close proximity to the place where they were born. This has important implications for understanding individual mobility in the Near Eastern Bronze Age: while such mobility is documented at relatively high levels both textually and archaeologically, it seems that -within the range and limitations the methods discussed here…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Human mobility at Tell Atchana (Alalakh) during the 2nd millennium BC: integration of isotopic and genomic evidence

Ingman

Eisenmann

Skourtanioti

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The Middle and Late Bronze Age Near East, a period roughly spanning the second millennium BC (ca. 2000-1200 BC), is frequently referred to as the first ‘international age’, characterized by intense and far-reaching contacts between different entities from the eastern Mediterranean to the Near East and beyond. In a large-scale tandem study of stable isotopes and ancient DNA of individuals excavated at Tell Atchana (Alalakh), situated in the northern Levant, we explore the role of mobility at the capital of a regional kingdom. We generated strontium isotope data for 53 individuals, oxygen isotope data for 77 individuals, and added ancient DNA data from 9 new individuals to a recently published dataset of 28 individuals. A dataset like this, from a single site in the Near East, is thus far unparalleled in terms of both its breadth and depth, providing the opportunity to simultaneously obtain an in-depth view of individual mobility and also broader demographic insights into the resident population. The DNA data reveals a very homogeneous gene pool, with only one outlier. This picture of an overwhelmingly local ancestry is consistent with the evidence of local upbringing in most of the individuals indicated by the isotopic data, where only five were found to be ‘non-local’. High levels of contact, trade, and exchange of ideas and goods in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, therefore, seem not to have translated into high levels of individual mobility detectable at Tell Atchana.

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“…The Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula are pivotal regions in the timeline of human history and an increasing number of aDNA studies have attempted to understand the genetic history in these regions. Although there have been successful studies 1,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] , given the poor conditions for DNA preservation, this process is proving to be slower than in more environmentally favourable regions of the world. Nonetheless, given the historical importance of this region, each newly recovered DNA sequence adds an important piece to the genomic and cultural puzzle of this territory.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa, the proportion of African ancestry increases. Different archaeogenetic studies have highlighted the complex demographic changes that have shaped genomic ancestry in the Levant 1,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] .The majority of prehistoric and historic genomes sequenced so far follow a similar pattern, but several studies have also found single individuals deviating from this pattern 6,8,11 . Such finds suggest additional small-scale migrations and the presence of structure within the region that is not displayed in the majority of the past society.…”

Section: Genomic Ancestry Of Levantine Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These include descriptions of the earliest local farming groups from the Neolithic 1 and their expansions into Europe 2,3 as well as the genetic differentiation among contemporary Neolithic groups [4][5][6] . In the later Chalcolithic period, evidence of distinctive cultural practices and associated population movements highlight the dynamic history of the region, especially in the Southern Levant 7,8 . Further, genomic studies from the Bronze to Iron Ages in the Levant also report admixture and population movements, and suggest some degree of continuity with modern populations 6,[9][10][11] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bioarchaeological analysis of one of the earliest Islamic burials in the Levant

Srigyan

Bolívar

Ureña

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The Middle East plays a central role in human history harbouring a vast diversity of ethnic, cultural and religious groups. However, much remains to be understood about past and present genomic diversity in this region. Here, we present for the first time, a multidisciplinary bioarchaeological analysis of two individuals dated to late 7th and early 8th centuries from Tell Qarassa, an open-air site in modern-day Syria. Radiocarbon dates, religious and cultural burial evidence indicate that this site represents one of the earliest Islamic Arab burials in the Levant during the Late Antiquity period. Interestingly, we found genomic similarity to a genotyped group of modern-day Bedouins and Saudi rather than to most neighbouring Levantine groups. This is highlighted through substantial Neolithic Levant ancestry in our samples, inviting an alternative scenario of long-term continuity in this region. This raises questions about the influence of ancient populations and historical migrations to genetic structure in the Middle East. As our study represents the first genomic analysis of an early Islamic burial in the Levant, we discuss our findings and possible historic scenarios in light of forces such as genetic drift and their possible interaction with religious and cultural processes.

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The Genomic History of the Bronze Age Southern Levant

Cited by 58 publications

References 61 publications

Social stratification without genetic differentiation at the site of Kulubnarti in Christian Period Nubia

Social stratification without genetic differentiation at the site of Kulubnarti in Christian Period Nubia

Human mobility at Tell Atchana (Alalakh) during the 2nd millennium BC: integration of isotopic and genomic evidence

Bioarchaeological analysis of one of the earliest Islamic burials in the Levant

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