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 complex 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 Holocene. We further observed that the inferred sources of gene flow shifted in time. In the first half of the Holocene, 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 inter-regional divergence can be captured by outgroup-f$_3$-based genetic distances, but not by the commonly used F$_{ST}$ statistic, due to the sensitivity of F$_{ST}$, but not outgroup-f$_3$, to within-population diversity. Finally, we report a temporal trend of increasing male bias in admixture events through the Holocene

The impact of the transition from broad-spectrum hunting to sheep herding on human meat consumption: Multi-isotopic analyses of human bone collagen at Asikli Hoyuk, Turkey

At Asikli Hoyuk, one of the earliest Pre-pottery Neolithic mound sites in Central Anatolia, a shift in animal utilization from broad-spectrum exploitation of diverse animal species to a concentration on managed caprines has been observed. Changes in the balance of meat to plant foods over the same time frame remain an open question. In this study, carbon and nitrogen isotopic analyses of bulk collagen and compound-specific nitrogen isotopic analysis of amino acids were undertaken for the human remains to elucidate the dietary impact of the hunting to herding transition over a span of about 1000 years. The results showed that animal protein consumption did not change very much as managed sheep became the main source of meat. The contribution of animal protein to the total human diet at Asikli Hoyuk is similar to comparison data on later Neolithic farmers in Anatolia measured in previous studies. The early development of ungulate management and the increasing focus on just a few prey species do not appear to have forced drastic changes in the extent human carnivory from the early Pre-pottery Neolithic to the early Pottery Neolithic. However, human individuals showed similar isotopic compositions within the same buildings at Asikli, suggesting variation in food consumption by household

First Genomic Insights into Pre-pottery Neolithic of Upper Mesopotamia

Recent studies showed that Neolithic populations in southwest Asia included distinct gene pools in the Levant, in Central Anatolia, and in the Zagros. Further, genomic comparisons suggested that all three populations adopted sedentism and farming without major admixture or replacement from other regions. Meanwhile, the population genetic characteristics of the geographic midpoint of these regions, namely upper Mesopotamia, has not been investigated so far. Here in this study, we present the first genomic data of individuals excavated from the PPNB phase of Çayönü. Çayönü, near the upper stretches of river Tigris, is one of the early settlements discovered in southeast Anatolia at the upper-most edge of Fertile Crescent. Material culture data indicate that the Çayönü population interacted intensely with nearby regions - Anatolia, Levant, and Zagros. Despite poor DNA preservation due to harsh environmental conditions, after screening the remains of 33 individuals we managed to obtain genomic data enough for population genetics analyses from 14 individuals. We revealed that Çayönü individuals were genetically similar to early Holocene groups of C Anatolia, Levant, and Zagros, with higher affinity to the C Anatolia-Levant cline. We also modelled Çayönü as a three-way admixture utilizing qpAdm and found that pre-pottery Neolithic population of Çayönü harbored ancestry from all surrounding populations. Overall, in line with archaeological evidence, Çayönü appears to have been a melting pot of neighbouring Neolithic populations during the 9th and 8th millennia BC