Deer Teeth as a Special Type of adornments in Neolithic – Eneolithic Burial Complexes of the East European Steppe – Forest-Steppe

The paper considers the red deer teeth and their replicas with through holes, according to the presence of which these items can be classified as adornments in burial complexes and hoards. Geographically applied sources cover the territories from the Dnieper–Dniester interfluve to the Volga region within the boundaries of the steppe and forest-steppe zones and the Caucasus. The chronological interval includes the Neolithic and the Eneolithic periods (VI–IV millennium BC). Deer teeth appeared as a "hunting" decoration detail of the burial costume in the burials of the Neolithic. During the Eneolithic these finds began to accompany buried individuals with prestigious sets of burial goods, emphasizing the special social status of their owner. The presence of deer teeth with holes and their replicas in the hoards from the agricultural area to the west of the Dnieper also indicates the special role of these findings. There is a tendency of spreading bone replicas – copies of adornments from the original deer teeth in the Eneolithic. This can be connected with the development of the producing economy, weakening of the role of hunting, shortage of raw materials, and also with the change of value orientations realized in burial practice. In the Bronze Age adornments, made of deer teeth, almost completely disappear throughout the territory under consideration

Descent on certain Shimura curves

ABSTRACT We give an explicit procedure for constructing Shimura curves analogous to the modular curves Xo(N) that are counterexamples to the Hasse principle over imaginary quadratic fields. These counterexamples are accounted for by the Manin obstruction. Introduction The aim of this note is to show that descent can be used to establish the nonexistence of rational points on certain Shimura curves over number fields, in particular, in the case when rational points exist everywhere locally. Our result is an easy to implement algorithm which, when it applies, says that a particula

Evaluation of Discrimination Performance in Case for Multiple Non-Discriminated Samples: Classification of Honeys by Fluorescent Fingerprinting

In this study we develop a variant of fluorescent sensor array technique based on addition of fluorophores to samples. A correct choice of fluorophores is critical for the successful application of the technique, which calls for the necessity of comparing different discrimination protocols. We used 36 honey samples from different sources to which various fluorophores were added (tris-(2,2′-bipyridyl) dichlororuthenium(II) (Ru(bpy)32+), zinc(II) 8-hydroxyquinoline-5-sulfonate (8-Ox-Zn), and thiazole orange in the presence of two types of deoxyribonucleic acid). The fluorescence spectra were obtained within 400–600 nm and treated by principal component analysis (PCA). No fluorophore allowed for the discrimination of all samples. To evaluate the discrimination performance of fluorophores, we introduced crossing number (CrN) calculated as the number of mutual intersections of confidence ellipses in the PCA scores plots, and relative position (RP) characterized by the pairwise mutual location of group centers and their most distant points. CrN and RP parameters correlated with each other, with total sensitivity (TS) calculated by Mahalanobis distances, and with the overall rating based on all metrics, with coefficients of correlation over 0.7. Most of the considered parameters gave the first place in the discrimination performance to Ru(bpy)32+ fluorophore

Population genomics of post-glacial western Eurasia

Western Eurasia witnessed several large-scale human migrations during the Holocene1-5. Here, to investigate the cross-continental effects of these migrations, we shotgun-sequenced 317 genomes-mainly from the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods-from across northern and western Eurasia. These were imputed alongside published data to obtain diploid genotypes from more than 1,600 ancient humans. Our analyses revealed a 'great divide' genomic boundary extending from the Black Sea to the Baltic. Mesolithic hunter-gatherers were highly genetically differentiated east and west of this zone, and the effect of the neolithization was equally disparate. Large-scale ancestry shifts occurred in the west as farming was introduced, including near-total replacement of hunter-gatherers in many areas, whereas no substantial ancestry shifts happened east of the zone during the same period. Similarly, relatedness decreased in the west from the Neolithic transition onwards, whereas, east of the Urals, relatedness remained high until around 4,000 BP, consistent with the persistence of localized groups of hunter-gatherers. The boundary dissolved when Yamnaya-related ancestry spread across western Eurasia around 5,000 BP, resulting in a second major turnover that reached most parts of Europe within a 1,000-year span. The genetic origin and fate of the Yamnaya have remained elusive, but we show that hunter-gatherers from the Middle Don region contributed ancestry to them. Yamnaya groups later admixed with individuals associated with the Globular Amphora culture before expanding into Europe. Similar turnovers occurred in western Siberia, where we report new genomic data from a 'Neolithic steppe' cline spanning the Siberian forest steppe to Lake Baikal. These prehistoric migrations had profound and lasting effects on the genetic diversity of Eurasian populations

Population Genomics of Stone Age Eurasia

Summary The transitions from foraging to farming and later to pastoralism in Stone Age Eurasia (c. 11-3 thousand years before present, BP) represent some of the most dramatic lifestyle changes in human evolution. We sequenced 317 genomes of primarily Mesolithic and Neolithic individuals from across Eurasia combined with radiocarbon dates, stable isotope data, and pollen records. Genome imputation and co-analysis with previously published shotgun sequencing data resulted in >1600 complete ancient genome sequences offering fine-grained resolution into the Stone Age populations. We observe that: 1) Hunter-gatherer groups were more genetically diverse than previously known, and deeply divergent between western and eastern Eurasia. 2) We identify hitherto genetically undescribed hunter-gatherers from the Middle Don region that contributed ancestry to the later Yamnaya steppe pastoralists; 3) The genetic impact of the Neolithic transition was highly distinct, east and west of a boundary zone extending from the Black Sea to the Baltic. Large-scale shifts in genetic ancestry occurred to the west of this “Great Divide”, including an almost complete replacement of hunter-gatherers in Denmark, while no substantial ancestry shifts took place during the same period to the east. This difference is also reflected in genetic relatedness within the populations, decreasing substantially in the west but not in the east where it remained high until c. 4,000 BP; 4) The second major genetic transformation around 5,000 BP happened at a much faster pace with Steppe-related ancestry reaching most parts of Europe within 1,000-years. Local Neolithic farmers admixed with incoming pastoralists in eastern, western, and southern Europe whereas Scandinavia experienced another near-complete population replacement. Similar dramatic turnover-patterns are evident in western Siberia; 5) Extensive regional differences in the ancestry components involved in these early events remain visible to this day, even within countries. Neolithic farmer ancestry is highest in southern and eastern England while Steppe-related ancestry is highest in the Celtic populations of Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall (this research has been conducted using the UK Biobank resource); 6) Shifts in diet, lifestyle and environment introduced new selection pressures involving at least 21 genomic regions. Most such variants were not universally selected across populations but were only advantageous in particular ancestral backgrounds. Contrary to previous claims, we find that selection on the FADS regions, associated with fatty acid metabolism, began before the Neolithisation of Europe. Similarly, the lactase persistence allele started increasing in frequency before the expansion of Steppe-related groups into Europe and has continued to increase up to the present. Along the genetic cline separating Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from Neolithic farmers, we find significant correlations with trait associations related to skin disorders, diet and lifestyle and mental health status, suggesting marked phenotypic differences between these groups with very different lifestyles. This work provides new insights into major transformations in recent human evolution, elucidating the complex interplay between selection and admixture that shaped patterns of genetic variation in modern populations