Mitochondrial DNA analysis of eneolithic trypillians from Ukraine reveals neolithic farming genetic roots

The agricultural revolution in Eastern Europe began in the Eneolithic with the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture complex. In Ukraine, the Trypillian culture (TC) existed for over two millennia (ca. 5,400–2,700 BCE) and left a wealth of artifacts. Yet, their burial rituals remain a mystery and to date almost nothing is known about the genetic composition of the TC population. One of the very few TC sites where human remains can be found is a cave called Verteba in western Ukraine. This report presents four partial and four complete mitochondrial genomes from nine TC individuals uncovered in the cave. The results of this analysis, combined with the data from previous reports, indicate that the Trypillian population at Verteba carried, for the most part, a typical Neolithic farmer package of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) lineages traced to Anatolian farmers and Neolithic farming groups of central Europe. At the same time, the find of two specimens belonging to haplogroup U8b1 at Verteba can be viewed as a connection of TC with the Upper Paleolithic European populations. At the level of mtDNA haplogroup frequencies, the TC population from Verteba demonstrates a close genetic relationship with population groups of the Funnel Beaker/ Trichterbecker cultural complex from central and northern Europe (ca. 3,950–2,500 BCE)

Scattering coefficients of surface plasmon polaritons impinging at oblique incidence onto one-dimensional surface relief defects

4 pages, 4 figures.-- PACS number(s): 73.20.Mf, 78.67. n, 41.20.JbWe present a theoretical analysis of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) scattering by shallow one-dimensional surface relief defects for oblique incidence, applying both surface impedance boundary conditions and Rayleigh expansion. Using this method, nontrivial angular dependences for transmission, reflection, and out-of-plane scattering are obtained. For the case of a defect with rectangular shape, we give an analytical description of the interference phenomena caused by the SPP diffraction for both a single defect (either protrusion or indentation) and a finite array of them.The authors acknowledge financial support from the INTAS YS Grant No. 05-109-5206, the European Network of Excellence Plasmo-Nano-Devices (Grant No. FP6-2002-IST- 1-507879 , the STREP “Surface Plasmon Photonics” Grant No. FP6-NMP4-CT2003-505699), and the Spanish MCyT Project No. MAT2005-06608-C02.Peer reviewe

First evidence for interpersonal violence in Ukraine's Trypillian farming culture : Individual 3 from Verteba Cave, Bilche Zolote

This paper presents the initial stages of an interdisciplinary study of human skeletal remains interred at Verteba Cave, western Ukraine. This site has been described previously as a “ritual site of the Trypillian culture complex” by Nikitin et al. in Comprehensive site chronology and ancient mitochondrial DNA analysis from Verteba Cave – a Trypillian culture site of Eneolithic Ukraine, Interdisciplinaria Archaeologica: Natural Sciences in Archaeology 1, 9–18., and the material considered here is one of seven crania recovered during excavations at Verteba between 2008 and 2010. Palaeopathological analysis of the individual considered here indicates that this is a young adult female with evidence for peri-mortem injury, cranial surgery and into early stage Trypillia culture inter-personal interactions and burial ritual in this region of Ukraine. Paper published in Proceedings of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology 13th and 14th Annual Conferences in Edinburgh (2nd-4th September 2011) and Bournemouth (14th–16th September 2012)

Paleo-Balkan and Slavic Contributions to the Genetic Pool of Moldavians

Moldova has a rich historical and cultural heritage, which may be reflected in the current genetic makeup of its population. To date, no comprehensive studies exist about the population genetic structure of modern Moldavians. To bridge this gap with respect to paternal lineages, we analyzed 37 binary and 17 multiallelic (STRs) polymorphisms on the non-recombining portion of the Y chromosome in 125 Moldavian males. In addition, 53 Ukrainians from eastern Moldova and 54 Romanians from the neighboring eastern Romania were typed using the same set of markers. In Moldavians, 19 Y chromosome haplogroups were identified, the most common being I-M423 (20.8%), R-M17* (17.6%), R-M458 (12.8%), E-v13 (8.8%), RM269* and R-M412* (both 7.2%). In Romanians, 14 haplogroups were found including I-M423 (40.7%), R-M17* (16.7%), RM405 (7.4%), E-v13 and R-M412* (both 5.6%). In Ukrainians, 13 haplogroups were identified including R-M17 (34.0%), I-M423 (20.8%), R-M269* (9.4%), N-M178, R-M458 and R-M73 (each 5.7%). Our results show that a significant majority of the Moldavian paternal gene pool belongs to eastern/central European and Balkan/eastern Mediterranean Y lineages. Phylogenetic and AMOVA analyses based on Y-STR loci also revealed that Moldavians are close to both eastern/central European and Balkan-Carpathian populations. The data correlate well with historical accounts and geographical location of the region and thus allow to hypothesize that extant Moldavian paternal genetic lineages arose from extensive recent admixture between genetically autochthonous populations of the Balkan-Carpathian zone and neighboring Slavic group

Twisted Nano-optics: Manipulating Light at the Nanoscale with Twisted Phonon Polaritonic Slabs

Recent discoveries have shown that when two layers of van der Waals (vdW) materials are superimposed with a relative twist angle between their respective in-plane principal axes, the electronic properties of the coupled system can be dramatically altered. Here, we demonstrate that a similar concept can be extended to the optics realm, particularly to propagating polaritons, hybrid light-matter interactions. To do this, we fabricate stacks composed of two twisted slabs of a polar vdW crystal (MoO3) supporting low-loss anisotropic phonon polaritons (PhPs), and image the propagation of the latter when launched by localized sources (metal antennas). Our images reveal that under a critical angle the PhPs isofrequency curve (determining the PhPs momentum at a fixed frequency) undergoes a topological transition. Remarkably, at this angle, the propagation of PhPs is strongly guided along predetermined directions (canalization regime) with no geometrical spreading (diffraction-less). These results demonstrate a new degree of freedom (twist angle) for controlling the propagation of polaritons at the nanoscale with potential for nano-imaging, (bio)-sensing, quantum applications and heat management