Genetic continuity, isolation, and gene flow in Stone Age Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract The genomic landscape of Stone Age Europe was shaped by multiple migratory waves and population replacements, but different regions do not all show the same patterns. To refine our understanding of the population dynamics before and after the dawn of the Neolithic, we generated and analyzed genomic sequence data from human remains of 56 individuals from the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Eneolithic across Central and Eastern Europe. We found that Mesolithic European populations formed a geographically widespread isolation-by-distance zone ranging from Central Europe to Siberia, which was already established 10 000 years ago. We also found contrasting patterns of population continuity during the Neolithic transition: people around the lower Dnipro Valley region, Ukraine, showed continuity over 4 000 years, from the Mesolithic to the end of Neolithic, in contrast to almost all other parts of Europe where population turnover drove this cultural change, including vast areas of Central Europe and around the Danube River

New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens

Fossil evidence points to an African origin of Homo sapiens from a group called either H. heidelbergensis or H. rhodesiensis. However, the exact place and time of emergence of H. sapiens remain obscure because the fossil record is scarce and the chronological age of many key specimens remains uncertain. In particular, it is unclear whether the present day ‘modern’ morphology rapidly emerged approximately 200 thousand years ago (ka) among earlier representatives of H. sapiens1 or evolved gradually over the last 400 thousand years2. Here we report newly discovered human fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, and interpret the affinities of the hominins from this site with other archaic and recent human groups. We identified a mosaic of features including facial, mandibular and dental morphology that aligns the Jebel Irhoud material with early or recent anatomically modern humans and more primitive neurocranial and endocranial morphology. In combination with an age of 315?±?34 thousand years (as determined by thermoluminescence dating)3, this evidence makes Jebel Irhoud the oldest and richest African Middle Stone Age hominin site that documents early stages of the H. sapiens clade in which key features of modern morphology were established. Furthermore, it shows that the evolutionary processes behind the emergence of H. sapiens involved the whole African continent

The genetic history of the Southern Arc: a bridge between West Asia and Europe

By sequencing 727 ancient individuals from the Southern Arc (Anatolia and its neighbors in Southeastern Europe and West Asia) over 10,000 years, we contextualize its Chalcolithic period and Bronze Age (about 5000 to 1000 BCE), when extensive gene flow entangled it with the Eurasian steppe. Two streams of migration transmitted Caucasus and Anatolian/Levantine ancestry northward, and the Yamnaya pastoralists, formed on the steppe, then spread southward into the Balkans and across the Caucasus into Armenia, where they left numerous patrilineal descendants. Anatolia was transformed by intra–West Asian gene flow, with negligible impact of the later Yamnaya migrations. This contrasts with all other regions where Indo-European languages were spoken, suggesting that the homeland of the Indo-Anatolian language family was in West Asia, with only secondary dispersals of non-Anatolian Indo-Europeans from the steppe

New data on the Late Roman Cemetery (4th–5th centuries AD) from the Extra Muros Basilica at Histria: burial and reburial of two young people

This study presents an atypical burial from the Late Roman cemetery at Histria. During previous archaeological excavations at the same site and the Scythia Province, no such discoveries were identified. This case consists of a burial in a simple pit with coffin and ordinary inventory, and an atypical re-inhumation which disturbed the first skeleton. The anthropological analysis identified two individuals under 20 years old, who displayed musculo-skeletal markers of physical activity. This feature is less common for this age category.Studiul de față prezintă o înmormântare atipică din necropola romană târzie de la Histria. Atât în descoperirile arheologice precedente din acest sit, cât și din provincia Scythia, nu au fost documentate astfel de complexe funerare. În cazul de față s-a identificat o înmormântare în groapă simplă cu sicriu și inventar funerar modest și o reînhumare atipică care a deranjat scheletul precedent. Analiza antropologică a identificat doi indivizi sub 20 de ani, care au efectuat activități fizice intense în timpul vieții, aspect mai puțin normal pentru asemenea categorie de vârstă.Dabîca Mircea, Pavel Cătălin, Soficaru Andrei. New data on the Late Roman Cemetery (4th–5th centuries AD) from the Extra Muros Basilica at Histria: burial and reburial of two young people. In: Materiale şi cercetãri arheologice (Serie nouã), N°17 2021. pp. 115-128

Digging up the archives: a reassessment of burial practices in the cemeteries from the Extra muros basilica Sector at Histria

The article is based on the recovery and reinterpretation of archaeological data from the Nubar Hamparțumian archival fonds found at the “ Vasile Pârvan” Institute of Archaeology in Bucharest. The documents contain information about 74 burials discovered by the archaeologist during the 1961– 1964 excavations at the “ Extra muros basilica” sector from Histria. By gathering information on each grave, a more systematic and detailed analysis was possible. All osteological material was anthropologically analysed in order to increase the amount of meaningful information on which our analysis is based. A necessary historical narrative was provided in an attempt to discuss the changes that took place in the topography of the city and the way in which the funerary space is organized. Based on our observations, a grave typology comprising five types was constructed. Different possible relationships between variables were explored (e. g. between funerary structures and grave goods, sex, age and grave goods) as a means to gain knowledge about burial practices during Late Antiquity (from the 4th to the 7th century AD) at the ancient city of Histria.Articolul de față se bazează pe redescoperirea și reinterpretarea informațiilor din fondul de arhivă Nubar Hamparțumian aflat la Institutul de Arheologie „ Vasile Pârvan” al Academiei Române din București. Documentele de arhivă conțin informații cu privire la 74 de morminte descoperite în campaniile de cercetare arheologică desfășurate în intervalul 1961– 1964 în Sectorul „ Basilica extra muros” de la Histria. Prin colectarea și organizarea informațiilor referitoare la fiecare mormânt în parte a fost posibilă o analiză sistematică și detaliată. Urmărind același scop, toate scheletele au fost analizate antropologic. În prima parte a articolului este construită o narațiune istorică pentru a surprinde schimbările ce au loc la nivelul topografiei cetății și modul în care acestea determină organizarea spațiului funerar. În urma analizei descoperirilor este elaborată o tipologie a mormintelor, care cuprinde cinci tipuri. Sunt discutate și interpretate diferitele relații între seturi de variabile (între amenajări funerare și inventare, între sexul sau vârsta indivizilor și inventare funerare etc.) în încercarea de a contura un discurs cât mai complex cu privire la practicile funerare identificate în necropolele histriene în intervalul cuprins între secolul al IV-lea și secolul al VII-lea p. Chr.Crețu Ciprian, Dabîca Mircea, Soficaru Andrei. Digging up the archives: a reassessment of burial practices in the cemeteries from the Extra muros basilica Sector at Histria. In: Materiale şi cercetãri arheologice (Serie nouã), N°16 2020. pp. 139-180

From Goths to Huns: Shifting identities in the Lower Danube area during the 5th century AD

Identity is a complex and contextual concept, typical to human behaviour and throughout the life course of an individual, it is negotiated, acquired, inherited or even crafted employing different techniques of self-representation. Identity is inherent to different relations of power and social inequality, and therefore one should identify and study the potential material remains and/or spatial patterns accounting for such practices. Being a multifaceted concept, social identity changes by means of cultural encounters as well as during periods of great turmoil, social discontinuity or reorganization as was the case with the Lower Danube area during the 5th century AD.By reading the archaeological discoveries belonging to this chronological framework in this interpretative key, we intend to tackle the mortuary contexts discovered in this area. We intend to use two-way analysis combining the anthropological and archaeological data in order to set the ground for a debate concerning the multiple facets (biological, cultural, social, economic, ethnic etc.) of this self-representation construct referred to as “identity”.After thorough scrutiny of the archaeological record, one should focus upon the complicated relations between the various communities inhabiting this area, especially since both the archaeological data and the ancient historical sources account for the existence of different groups in the Lower Danube area. Of great importance would be to understand both the impact as well as the nature of the relations between the newly arrived Huns and these diverse communities that they encountered upon their arrival.In the Romanian scholarly milieu was clearly exaggerated, the apocalyptic impact that the Huns have had upon this region. A reality that gave us a good reason for readdressing the above-mentioned topics based on the hypothesis about the of an archaeological culture must be related to an exact date in the time given by various military conflicts recorded in the ancient sources

The Mesolithic at the Danube’s Iron Gates: new radiocarbon dates and old stratigraphies

In this paper we present 31 new AMS radiocarbon dates from the Mesolithic Iron Gates sites. The new dates allowed for a total reconsideration of the chronological sequences, and offer new insights for a reinterpretation of both Upper Paleolithic-Mesolithic and Mesolithic-Neolithic developments in the region