Human palaeodiet at Zamostje 2, central Russia:Results of radiocarbon and stable isotope analyses

Only 21 human remains have been identified at Zamostje 2, despite extraordinarily good conditions for organic preservation, and the recovery of thousands of animal bones from layers dating from the Late Mesolithic to the Middle Neolithic (c.6500–4000 cal BC). Almost all the human remains are fragments of the cranium, maxilla, mandible, which are potentially reworked from earlier depositions, uphill or upstream of Zamostje 2, or isolated teeth. Disregarding naturally shed deciduous teeth, these remains have been attributed to between 5 and 14 individuals, ranging in age from 6 to 7 years to mature adult. We report AMS radiocarbon (14C) dating and dietary stable isotopes, δ13C and δ15N, for all the human bones, and δ13C and δ15N values from 63 prehistoric animal bones from Zamostje 2, including 18 fish and 7 dogs. Using the faunal isotope data, we construct isotope signatures for different food groups, which we use to interpret the human δ13C and δ15N values. Based on 14C ages and dietary stable isotopes, we propose that the human bones represent 10–12 individuals, most of whom date to the Late Mesolithic occupation at Zamostje 2; one is somewhat earlier in the Mesolithic, one (probably from the nearby site, Zamostje 1) may date to the Middle Neolithic, and two (one from Zamostje 1, one unprovenanced) date to the Late Neolithic or Eneolithic. The earliest and latest individuals may have obtained most of their dietary protein intake from fish, but Late Mesolithic individuals probably had more mixed diets. Palaeodiet reconstruction is complicated by unusual δ13C and δ15N values for local fish in the Late Mesolithic, which are reflected in δ13C and δ15N values from dogs

Kola Oleneostrovskiy Grave Field: A Unique Burial Site in the European Arctic

The Kola Oleneostrovskiy grave field (KOG) is the main source of information for the physical and cultural anthropology of the Early Metal Period population of the Kola Peninsula and the whole northern Fennoscandia.1 Excavations were conducted here in 1925, 1928, 1947–1948, and 2001–2004 by A. Shmidt, N. Gurina, and V. Shumkin. Altogether 32 burials containing the remains of 43 individuals were investigated. During the excavations, also remains of wooden grave constructions were found. The site is exceptionally rich in burial goods, including numerous bone, antler, stone, ceramic, and bronze items. Grave goods differ slightly between male and female burials. There is some evidence of long-distance contacts between the local population and southern and western Scandinavia, most notably in the chemical composition of bronze items and in some types of bone tools. Anthropological data, including the analysis of paleoDNA, suggests that people from geographically more eastern areas took part in the genesis of the ancient population of the northern Kola Peninsula. These people belonged to a specific physical type associated with modern Siberian anthropological groups

The genetic prehistory of the Baltic Sea region

Correction: Nature communications 9 (2018), art. no. 1494 doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03872-yWhile the series of events that shaped the transition between foraging societies and food producers are well described for Central and Southern Europe, genetic evidence from Northern Europe surrounding the Baltic Sea is still sparse. Here, we report genome-wide DNA data from 38 ancient North Europeans ranging from similar to 9500 to 2200 years before present. Our analysis provides genetic evidence that hunter-gatherers settled Scandinavia via two routes. We reveal that the first Scandinavian farmers derive their ancestry from Anatolia 1000 years earlier than previously demonstrated. The range of Mesolithic Western hunter-gatherers extended to the east of the Baltic Sea, where these populations persisted without gene-flow from Central European farmers during the Early and Middle Neolithic. The arrival of steppe pastoralists in the Late Neolithic introduced a major shift in economy and mediated the spread of a new ancestry associated with the Corded Ware Complex in Northern Europe.Peer reviewe

Paleogenomics. Genomic structure in Europeans dating back at least 36,200 years.

The origin of contemporary Europeans remains contentious. We obtained a genome sequence from Kostenki 14 in European Russia dating from 38,700 to 36,200 years ago, one of the oldest fossils of anatomically modern humans from Europe. We find that Kostenki 14 shares a close ancestry with the 24,000-year-old Mal'ta boy from central Siberia, European Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, some contemporary western Siberians, and many Europeans, but not eastern Asians. Additionally, the Kostenki 14 genome shows evidence of shared ancestry with a population basal to all Eurasians that also relates to later European Neolithic farmers. We find that Kostenki 14 contains more Neandertal DNA that is contained in longer tracts than present Europeans. Our findings reveal the timing of divergence of western Eurasians and East Asians to be more than 36,200 years ago and that European genomic structure today dates back to the Upper Paleolithic and derives from a metapopulation that at times stretched from Europe to central Asia.GeoGenetics members were supported by the Lundbeck Foundation and the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF94). ASM was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (PBSKP3_143529). Research on the archaeological background by PRN was supported by a MC Career Integration Grant (322261).This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Science at http://www.sciencemag.org/content/346/6213/1113.short

Ancient Fennoscandian genomes reveal origin and spread of Siberian ancestry in Europe

European population history has been shaped by migrations of people, and their subsequent admixture. Recently, ancient DNA has brought new insights into European migration events linked to the advent of agriculture, and possibly to the spread of Indo-European languages. However, little is known about the ancient population history of north-eastern Europe, in particular about populations speaking Uralic languages, such as Finns and Saami. Here we analyse ancient genomic data from 11 individuals from Finland and north-western Russia. We show that the genetic makeup of northern Europe was shaped by migrations from Siberia that began at least 3500 years ago. This Siberian ancestry was subsequently admixed into many modern populations in the region, particularly into populations speaking Uralic languages today. Additionally, we show that ancestors of modern Saami inhabited a larger territory during the Iron Age, which adds to the historical and linguistic information about the population history of Finland

Early divergent strains of Yersinia pestis in Eurasia 5,000 years ago.

The bacteria Yersinia pestis is the etiological agent of plague and has caused human pandemics with millions of deaths in historic times. How and when it originated remains contentious. Here, we report the oldest direct evidence of Yersinia pestis identified by ancient DNA in human teeth from Asia and Europe dating from 2,800 to 5,000 years ago. By sequencing the genomes, we find that these ancient plague strains are basal to all known Yersinia pestis. We find the origins of the Yersinia pestis lineage to be at least two times older than previous estimates. We also identify a temporal sequence of genetic changes that lead to increased virulence and the emergence of the bubonic plague. Our results show that plague infection was endemic in the human populations of Eurasia at least 3,000 years before any historical recordings of pandemics

An integrative skeletal and paleogenomic analysis of stature variation suggests relatively reduced health for early european farmers

Human culture, biology, and health were shaped dramatically by the onset of agriculture ∼12,000 y B.P. This shift is hypothesized to have resulted in increased individual fitness and population growth as evidenced by archaeological and population genomic data alongside a decline in physiological health as inferred from skeletal remains. Here, we consider osteological and ancient DNA data from the same prehistoric individuals to study human stature variation as a proxy for health across a transition to agriculture. Specifically, we compared “predicted” genetic contributions to height from paleogenomic data and “achieved” adult osteological height estimated from long bone measurements for 167 individuals across Europe spanning the Upper Paleolithic to Iron Age (∼38,000 to 2,400 B.P.). We found that individuals from the Neolithic were shorter than expected (given their individual polygenic height scores) by an average of −3.82 cm relative to individuals from the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic (P = 0.040) and −2.21 cm shorter relative to post-Neolithic individuals (P = 0.068), with osteological vs. expected stature steadily increasing across the Copper (+1.95 cm relative to the Neolithic), Bronze (+2.70 cm), and Iron (+3.27 cm) Ages. These results were attenuated when we additionally accounted for genome-wide genetic ancestry variation: for example, with Neolithic individuals −2.82 cm shorter than expected on average relative to pre-Neolithic individuals (P = 0.120). We also incorporated observations of paleopathological indicators of nonspecific stress that can persist from childhood to adulthood in skeletal remains into our model. Overall, our work highlights the potential of integrating disparate datasets to explore proxies of health in prehistory.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The population history of northeastern Siberia since the Pleistocene.

Northeastern Siberia has been inhabited by humans for more than 40,000 years but its deep population history remains poorly understood. Here we investigate the late Pleistocene population history of northeastern Siberia through analyses of 34 newly recovered ancient genomes that date to between 31,000 and 600 years ago. We document complex population dynamics during this period, including at least three major migration events: an initial peopling by a previously unknown Palaeolithic population of 'Ancient North Siberians' who are distantly related to early West Eurasian hunter-gatherers; the arrival of East Asian-related peoples, which gave rise to 'Ancient Palaeo-Siberians' who are closely related to contemporary communities from far-northeastern Siberia (such as the Koryaks), as well as Native Americans; and a Holocene migration of other East Asian-related peoples, who we name 'Neo-Siberians', and from whom many contemporary Siberians are descended. Each of these population expansions largely replaced the earlier inhabitants, and ultimately generated the mosaic genetic make-up of contemporary peoples who inhabit a vast area across northern Eurasia and the Americas

Author Correction: The genetic prehistory of the Baltic Sea region

The original version of this Article omitted references to previous work, which are detailed in the associated Author Correction. These omissions have been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article