Variable kinship patterns in Neolithic Anatolia revealed by ancient genomes

The social organization of the first fully sedentary societies that emerged during the Neolithic period in Southwest Asia remains enigmatic,1 mainly because material culture studies provide limited insight into this issue. However, because Neolithic Anatolian communities often buried their dead beneath domestic buildings,2 household composition and social structure can be studied through these human remains. Here, we describe genetic relatedness among co-burials associated with domestic buildings in Neolithic Anatolia using 59 ancient genomes, including 22 new genomes from Aşıklı Höyük and Çatalhöyük. We infer pedigree relationships by simultaneously analyzing multiple types of information, including autosomal and X chromosome kinship coefficients, maternal markers, and radiocarbon dating. In two early Neolithic villages dating to the 9th and 8th millennia BCE, Aşıklı Höyük and Boncuklu, we discover that siblings and parent-offspring pairings were frequent within domestic structures, which provides the first direct indication of close genetic relationships among co-burials. In contrast, in the 7th millennium BCE sites of Çatalhöyük and Barcın, where we study subadults interred within and around houses, we find close genetic relatives to be rare. Hence, genetic relatedness may not have played a major role in the choice of burial location at these latter two sites, at least for subadults. This supports the hypothesis that in Çatalhöyük,3–5 and possibly in some other Neolithic communities, domestic structures may have served as burial location for social units incorporating biologically unrelated individuals. Our results underscore the diversity of kin structures in Neolithic communities during this important phase of sociocultural development

A genomic snapshot of demographic and cultural dynamism in Upper Mesopotamia during the Neolithic Transition

Upper Mesopotamia played a key role in the Neolithic Transition in Southwest Asia through marked innovations in symbolism, technology, and diet. We present 13 ancient genomes (c. 8500 to 7500 cal BCE) from Pre-Pottery Neolithic Cayonu in the Tigris basin together with bioarchaeological and material culture data. Our findings reveal that Cayonu was a genetically diverse population, carrying mixed ancestry from western and eastern Fertile Crescent, and that the community received immigrants. Our results further suggest that the community was organized along biological family lines. We document bodily interventions such as head shaping and cauterization among the individuals examined, reflecting Cayonu's cultural ingenuity. Last, we identify Upper Mesopotamia as the likely source of eastern gene flow into Neolithic Anatolia, in line with material culture evidence. We hypothesize that Upper Mesopotamia's cultural dynamism during the Neolithic Transition was the product not only of its fertile lands but also of its interregional demographic connections.European Research Council [772390, 952317]; European Research Council (ERC) [772390] Funding Source: European Research Council (ERC)This work was supported by the European Research Council Consolidator Grant H2020 ERC (no. 772390 NEOGENE to M.S.) and H2020-WIDESPREAD-05-2020 TWINNING Grant (no. 952317 NEOMATRIXto M.S.)

Ancient Upper Mesopotamia, 10,000 years ago: first genomic impressions

We present partial ancient genomes from 13 individuals from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period of Çayönü Tepesi in present-day Diyarbakır, Turkey. The sample coversa 1,000 year range, between approximately 10,500-9,500 years ago, and represents the first ancient genome set yet published from Upper Mesopotamia. Pre-Pottery Neolithic Çayönü was a sedentary community, with largely hunter-gatherersubsistence,but at the same time heavily experimenting with crop cultivation and animal management. Neolithic Çayönü is also known for its remarkable cultural dynamism reflected in diverse architectural styles and changing mortuary practices. Our genome data suggest that the Çayönü population, most likely representing that of Upper Mesopotamia, emerged through admixture between groups from eastern and western Fertile Crescent, namely the Central Zagros and Central Anatolia/Levant, respectively. We find that the Çayönü genetic profile is the best candidate for "eastern" gene flow into Central Anatolia by the 7th millennium BCE, marking Upper Mesopotamia as a potentialcontributing ancestry source to sites such as Çatalhöyük. We further determineclose genetic kinship among individuals co-buried underneath floors of domestic buildings, in support of the notion that household membership was related to biological family ties in thePre-Pottery Neolithic, a pattern that appears to have changed in later sites such as Çatalhöyük and Barcın. Finally, using the genomic data and pedigree simulations we identifya possible third-generation migrant infant of likely Central Zagros descent in our sample, implying that the Çayönü communitywas open to immigration

A genomic snapshot of demographic and cultural dynamism in Upper Mesopotamia during the Neolithic Transition

Upper Mesopotamia played a key role in the Neolithic Transition in Southwest Asia through marked innovations in symbolism, technology, and foodways. We present thirteen ancient genomes (c.8500-7500 calBCE) from Pre-Pottery Neolithic Çayönü in the Tigris basin together with bioarchaeological and material culture data. Our findings reveal that Çayönü was a genetically diverse population, carrying a mixed ancestry from western and eastern Fertile Crescent, and that the community received immigrants. Our results further suggest that the community was organised along biological family lines. We document bodily interventions such as head-shaping and cauterization among the individuals examined, reflecting Çayönü's cultural ingenuity. Finally, we identify Upper Mesopotamia as the likely source of eastern gene flow into Neolithic Anatolia, in line with material culture evidence. We hypothesise that Upper Mesopotamia's cultural dynamism during the Neolithic Transition was the product not only of its fertile lands but also of its interregional demographic connections

Spatial and temporal heterogeneity in human mobility patterns in Holocene Southwest Asia and the East Mediterranean.

We present a spatiotemporal picture of human genetic diversity in Anatolia, Iran, Levant, South Caucasus, and the Aegean, a broad region that experienced the earliest Neolithic transition and the emergence of com- plex hierarchical societies. Combining 35 new ancient shotgun genomes with 382 ancient and 23 present-day published genomes, we found that genetic diversity within each region steadily increased through the Holo- cene. We further observed that the inferred sources of gene flow shifted in time. In the first half of the Holo- cene, Southwest Asian and the East Mediterranean populations homogenized among themselves. Starting with the Bronze Age, however, regional populations diverged from each other, most likely driven by gene flow from external sources, which we term ‘‘the expanding mobility model.’’ Interestingly, this increase in in- ter-regional divergence can be captured by outgroup-f3-based genetic distances, but not by the commonly used FST statistic, due to the sensitivity of FST, but not outgroup-f3, to within-population diversity. Finally, we report a temporal trend of increasing male bias in admixture events through the Holocene