Project description:The deadly maltreated body of Vittrup Man was deposited in a Danish bog, probably as part of a ritualised sacrifice. It happened between c. 3300 and 3100 cal years BC, i.e., during the period of the local farming-based Funnel Beaker Culture. In terms of skull morphological features he differs from the majority of the contemporaneous farmers found in Denmark, and associates with hunter-gatherers, who inhabited Scandinavia during the previous millennia. His skeletal remains were selected for transdisciplinary analysis to reveal his life-history in terms of a population historical perspective. We report the combined results of an integrated set of genetic, isotopic, physical anthropological and archaeological analytical approaches. Strontium signature suggests a foreign birthplace that could be in Norway or Sweden. In addition, enamel oxygen isotope values indicate that as a child he lived in a colder climate, i.e., to the north of the regions inhabited by farmers. Genomic data in fact demonstrates that he is closely related to Mesolithic humans known from Norway and Sweden. Moreover, dietary stable isotope analyses on enamel and bone collagen demonstrate a fisher-hunter way of life in his childhood and a diet typical of farmers later on. Such a volatile life-history is also reflected by proteomic analysis of hardened organic deposits on his teeth, indicating the consumption of forager food (seal, whale and marine fish) as well as farmer food (sheep/goat). From a dietary isotopic transect of one of his teeth it is shown that his transfer between societies of foragers and farmers took place near to the end of his late teenage years.

2024-02-16 | PXD044743 | Pride

Female lineages and changing kinship patterns in Neolithic Çatalhöyük

Project description:Female lineages and changing kinship patterns in Neolithic Çatalhöyük

| PRJEB76443 | ENA

Proteomic analysis of Late Neolithic pottery residues from Poland

Project description:The detection of dairy processing is pivotal to our understanding of ancient subsistence strategies. This culinary process is linked to key arguments surrounding the evolution of lactase persistence in prehistory. Despite extensive evidence indicating the presence of dairy products in ceramics in the European Neolithic, questions remain about the nature and extent of milk (and lactose) processing and consumption. In order to investigate past patterns of dairy processing, here we analyse ancient proteins identified from Late Neolithic Funnel Beaker ceramics, scrutinising the principle that curd and whey proteins partition during the production of dairy foods from milk. Our results indicate the presence of casein-rich dairy products in these vessels suggesting the creation of curd-enriched products from raw milk. Moreover, this analysis reveals the use of multiple species for their dairy products in the Late Neolithic Funnel Beaker culture, adding to a growing body of evidence that multiple taxa were exploited for dairying in the Neolithic. Alongside palaeoproteomic analysis we also apply lipid residue analysis, with discrepancies in these two approaches suggesting that effects from isotope mixing may be underestimating the frequency of milk use in prehistoric pottery, highlighting the utility of a multi-stranded approach.

2023-05-10 | PXD037912 | Pride

Proteomic analysis of Neolithic Balkan dental calculus

Project description:Shotgun proteomic analysis of archaeological dental calculus from Neolithic sites on the Balkan Peninsula.

2019-05-24 | MSV000083853 | MassIVE

Repeated plague infections across six generations of Neolithic Farmers.

Project description:In the period between 5,300 and 4,900 calibrated years before present (cal. BP), populations across large parts of Europe underwent a period of demographic decline1,2. However, the cause of this so-called Neolithic decline is still debated. Some argue for an agricultural crisis resulting in the decline3, others for the spread of an early form of plague4. Here we use population-scale ancient genomics to infer ancestry, social structure and pathogen infection in 108 Scandinavian Neolithic individuals from eight megalithic graves and a stone cist. We find that the Neolithic plague was widespread, detected in at least 17% of the sampled population and across large geographical distances. We demonstrate that the disease spread within the Neolithic community in three distinct infection events within a period of around 120 years. Variant graph-based pan-genomics shows that the Neolithic plague genomes retained ancestral genomic variation present in Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, including virulence factors associated with disease outcomes. In addition, we reconstruct four multigeneration pedigrees, the largest of which consists of 38 individuals spanning six generations, showing a patrilineal social organization. Lastly, we document direct genomic evidence for Neolithic female exogamy in a woman buried in a different megalithic tomb than her brothers. Taken together, our findings provide a detailed reconstruction of plague spread within a large patrilineal kinship group and identify multiple plague infections in a population dated to the beginning of the Neolithic decline.

| S-EPMC11291285 | biostudies-literature

Proteomic analysis of Late Neolithic pottery from Poland and modern replica cheesemaking vessels

2023-05-10 | PXD037913 | Pride

occupational change pig farmers

Project description:Nasal microbiota composition dynamics after occupational change in animal farmers suggest major shifts

| PRJEB39411 | ENA