Dataset Information

High Resolution AMS Dates from Shubayqa 1, northeast Jordan Reveal Complex Origins of Late Epipalaeolithic Natufian in the Levant.

ABSTRACT: The Late Epipalaeolithic Natufian (~14,600?-?11,500?cal BP) is a key period in the prehistory of southwest Asia. Often described as a complex hunting and gathering society with increased sedentism, intensive plant exploitation and associated with an increase in artistic and symbolic material culture, it is positioned between the earlier Upper- and Epi-Palaeolithic and the early Neolithic, when plant cultivation and subsequently animal domestication began. The Natufian has thus often been seen as a necessary pre-adaptation for the emergence of Neolithic economies in southwest Asia. Previous work has pointed to the Mediterranean woodland zone of the southern Levant as the 'core zone' of the Early Natufian. Here we present a new sequence of 27 AMS radiocarbon dates from the Natufian site Shubayqa 1 in northeast Jordan. The results suggest that the site was occupied intermittently between ~14,600?-?12,000?cal BP. The dates indicate the Natufian emerged just as early in eastern Jordan as it did in the Mediterranean woodland zone. This suggests that the origins and development of the Natufian were not tied to the ecological conditions of the Mediterranean woodlands, and that the evolution of this hunting and gathering society was more complex and heterogeneous than previously thought.

SUBMITTER: Richter T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5717003 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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High Resolution AMS Dates from Shubayqa 1, northeast Jordan Reveal Complex Origins of Late Epipalaeolithic Natufian in the Levant.

Richter Tobias T Arranz-Otaegui Amaia A Yeomans Lisa L Boaretto Elisabetta E

Scientific reports 20171205 1

The Late Epipalaeolithic Natufian (~14,600 - 11,500 cal BP) is a key period in the prehistory of southwest Asia. Often described as a complex hunting and gathering society with increased sedentism, intensive plant exploitation and associated with an increase in artistic and symbolic material culture, it is positioned between the earlier Upper- and Epi-Palaeolithic and the early Neolithic, when plant cultivation and subsequently animal domestication began. The Natufian has thus often been seen as ...[more]

PMID: 29208998

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Project description:BACKGROUND:The current Brazilian population is the product of centuries of admixture between intercontinental founding groups. Although previous results have revealed a heterogeneous distribution of mitochondrial lineages in the Northeast region, the most targeted by foreign settlers during the sixteenth century, little is known about the paternal ancestry of this particular population. Considering historical records have documented a series of territorial invasions in the Northeast by various European populations, we aimed to characterize the male lineages found in Brazilian individuals in order to discover to what extent these migrations have influenced the present-day gene pool. Our approach consisted of employing four hierarchical multiplex assays for the investigation of 45 unique event polymorphisms in the non-recombining portion of the Y-chromosome of 280 unrelated men from several Northeast Brazilian states. RESULTS:Primary multiplex results allowed the identification of six major haplogroups, four of which were screened for downstream SNPs and enabled the observation of 19 additional lineages. Results reveal a majority of Western European haplogroups, among which R1b-S116* was the most common (63.9%), corroborating historical records of colonizations by Iberian populations. Nonetheless, FST genetic distances show similarities between Northeast Brazil and several other European populations, indicating multiple origins of settlers. Regarding Native American ancestry, our findings confirm a strong sexual bias against such haplogroups, which represented only 2.5% of individuals, highly contrasting previous results for maternal lineages. Furthermore, we document the presence of several Middle Eastern and African haplogroups, supporting a complex historical formation of this population and highlighting its uniqueness among other Brazilian regions. CONCLUSIONS:We performed a comprehensive analysis of the major Y-chromosome lineages that form the most dynamic migratory region from the Brazilian colonial period. This evidence suggests that the ongoing entry of European, Middle Eastern, and African males in the Brazilian Northeast, since at least 500?years, was significantly responsible for the present-day genetic architecture of this population.

Dataset Information

High Resolution AMS Dates from Shubayqa 1, northeast Jordan Reveal Complex Origins of Late Epipalaeolithic Natufian in the Levant.

Publications

High Resolution AMS Dates from Shubayqa 1, northeast Jordan Reveal Complex Origins of Late Epipalaeolithic Natufian in the Levant.

Similar Datasets

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