Dataset Information

Genomic insights into the origin of farming in the ancient Near East.

ABSTRACT: We report genome-wide ancient DNA from 44 ancient Near Easterners ranging in time between ~12,000 and 1,400 bc, from Natufian hunter-gatherers to Bronze Age farmers. We show that the earliest populations of the Near East derived around half their ancestry from a 'Basal Eurasian' lineage that had little if any Neanderthal admixture and that separated from other non-African lineages before their separation from each other. The first farmers of the southern Levant (Israel and Jordan) and Zagros Mountains (Iran) were strongly genetically differentiated, and each descended from local hunter-gatherers. By the time of the Bronze Age, these two populations and Anatolian-related farmers had mixed with each other and with the hunter-gatherers of Europe to greatly reduce genetic differentiation. The impact of the Near Eastern farmers extended beyond the Near East: farmers related to those of Anatolia spread westward into Europe; farmers related to those of the Levant spread southward into East Africa; farmers related to those of Iran spread northward into the Eurasian steppe; and people related to both the early farmers of Iran and to the pastoralists of the Eurasian steppe spread eastward into South Asia.

SUBMITTER: Lazaridis I

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5003663 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Genomic insights into the origin of farming in the ancient Near East.

Lazaridis Iosif I Nadel Dani D Rollefson Gary G Merrett Deborah C DC Rohland Nadin N Mallick Swapan S Fernandes Daniel D Novak Mario M Gamarra Beatriz B Sirak Kendra K Connell Sarah S Stewardson Kristin K Harney Eadaoin E Fu Qiaomei Q Gonzalez-Fortes Gloria G Jones Eppie R ER Roodenberg Songül Alpaslan SA Lengyel György G Bocquentin Fanny F Gasparian Boris B Monge Janet M JM Gregg Michael M Eshed Vered V Mizrahi Ahuva-Sivan AS Meiklejohn Christopher C Gerritsen Fokke F Bejenaru Luminita L Blüher Matthias M Campbell Archie A Cavalleri Gianpiero G Comas David D Froguel Philippe P Gilbert Edmund E Kerr Shona M SM Kovacs Peter P Krause Johannes J McGettigan Darren D Merrigan Michael M Merriwether D Andrew DA O'Reilly Seamus S Richards Martin B MB Semino Ornella O Shamoon-Pour Michel M Stefanescu Gheorghe G Stumvoll Michael M Tönjes Anke A Torroni Antonio A Wilson James F JF Yengo Loic L Hovhannisyan Nelli A NA Patterson Nick N Pinhasi Ron R Reich David D

Nature 20160725 7617

We report genome-wide ancient DNA from 44 ancient Near Easterners ranging in time between ~12,000 and 1,400 bc, from Natufian hunter-gatherers to Bronze Age farmers. We show that the earliest populations of the Near East derived around half their ancestry from a 'Basal Eurasian' lineage that had little if any Neanderthal admixture and that separated from other non-African lineages before their separation from each other. The first farmers of the southern Levant (Israel and Jordan) and Zagros Mou ...[more]

PMID: 27459054

Similar Datasets

Project description:The deep population history of East Asia remains poorly understood owing to a lack of ancient DNA data and sparse sampling of present-day people1,2. Here we report genome-wide data from 166 East Asian individuals dating to between 6000 BC and AD 1000 and 46 present-day groups. Hunter-gatherers from Japan, the Amur River Basin, and people of Neolithic and Iron Age Taiwan and the Tibetan Plateau are linked by a deeply splitting lineage that probably reflects a coastal migration during the Late Pleistocene epoch. We also follow expansions during the subsequent Holocene epoch from four regions. First, hunter-gatherers from Mongolia and the Amur River Basin have ancestry shared by individuals who speak Mongolic and Tungusic languages, but do not carry ancestry characteristic of farmers from the West Liao River region (around 3000 BC), which contradicts theories that the expansion of these farmers spread the Mongolic and Tungusic proto-languages. Second, farmers from the Yellow River Basin (around 3000 BC) probably spread Sino-Tibetan languages, as their ancestry dispersed both to Tibet-where it forms approximately 84% of the gene pool in some groups-and to the Central Plain, where it has contributed around 59-84% to modern Han Chinese groups. Third, people from Taiwan from around 1300 BC to AD 800 derived approximately 75% of their ancestry from a lineage that is widespread in modern individuals who speak Austronesian, Tai-Kadai and Austroasiatic languages, and that we hypothesize derives from farmers of the Yangtze River Valley. Ancient people from Taiwan also derived about 25% of their ancestry from a northern lineage that is related to, but different from, farmers of the Yellow River Basin, which suggests an additional north-to-south expansion. Fourth, ancestry from Yamnaya Steppe pastoralists arrived in western Mongolia after around 3000 BC but was displaced by previously established lineages even while it persisted in western China, as would be expected if this ancestry was associated with the spread of proto-Tocharian Indo-European languages. Two later gene flows affected western Mongolia: migrants after around 2000 BC with Yamnaya and European farmer ancestry, and episodic influences of later groups with ancestry from Turan.

Dataset Information

Genomic insights into the origin of farming in the ancient Near East.

Publications

Genomic insights into the origin of farming in the ancient Near East.

Similar Datasets

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