Genetic Genealogy & Ancient DNA (TITLES/ABSTRACTS)

[Qrts]

Archaeogenetic characterization reveals social endogamy among Samnite groups in ancient pre-Roman Italy (Pontecagnano, Campania, 5th-4th century BCE)

Abstract

The Samnites, prominent competitors of the Romans prior their dominance over the Italian peninsula in the 3rd century BCE, underwent a transformative cultural period known as the 'Samnitization process' between the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. This marked a shift in the political structure of Italic populations, involving mobility of groups from inland central Italy to the Campania region in the south. While the analysis of topography, spatial organization, and material culture has shed light on these migrations, biosocial and biocultural aspects of this process remain largely unexplored. In this study, we integrated osteological and archaeological data with new genomic data obtained from the disarticulated petrous bones of 26 individuals inhumated in the funerary sector of Di Renna (5th–4th centuries BCE) within the eastern necropolis of the Etruscan-Campanian site of Pontecagnano (Salerno, southern Italy). The archaeological interpretation based on the grave goods allowed us to identify individuals belonging to Samnite groups; ‘aeroplano’ fibula was usually found in female and non-adult burials while males were adorned with bronze belt and spear. As for topography of Di Renna funerary sector, several family clusters were identified. Biocultural relatedness was supported by characterization of genetic kinship and detection of runs of homozygosity providing direct evidence of consanguineous marriage practices among cousins at high frequencies during 425-375 BCE, the later phase of the Samnitization. Genomic data also revealed that the ancestry of these individuals mainly arose from the Italian mainland, with some showing additional ancestry from the eastern Mediterranean. Our results shed light on the social organization of this ancient group and highlight the potential of archaeogenetic approaches for unravelling the interplay of genetic admixture, mating patterns, and marital practices associated to mobility in pre-Roman Italy.

Genetic ancestry and kinship practices in Middle Bronze Age Calabria

Abstract

Located at the center of the Mediterranean Basin, at the “tip” of the Italian boot, the territory of present-day Calabria is characterized by a richness in natural resources and an extremely inhomogeneous landscape. Its strategic position as a bridge to Sicily and its wealth in minerals spurred several waves of migrations and colonization of the region since the Early Neolithic up to the modern era, both on coastal and inner mountain areas. Moreover, coastal sites experienced millennia of maritime contacts. While more recent events, such as the Hellenic colonization, are well documented on the archaeological record, the demography of prehistoric native populations remains a topic of debate, mostly due to chronological discordance of the findings and a general lack of integrated archaeological research. As such, nearly no genetic information exists today for ancient Calabrian populations. Here, we present genome-wide data for 13 ancient humans found buried in the Middle Bronze Age cave site of Grotta della Monaca. Supported by archaeological evidence, we use paleogenomic data to decipher funerary customs, social organization, family ties, and gender-related burial practices of a Proto-Apennine community dated 1700-1380 cal BCE. We also contextualize the biogeographical origin and ancestry of prehistoric people of Calabria within the broad landscape of existing data from Mediterranean populations. We investigate the persistence of distinct genomic components, such as Near Eastern-related ancestry, for which we provide the earliest appearance in mainland southern Italy. We also highlight the first evidence for prehistoric Italy of close-kin incestuous mating, which we address in light of the existing archaeological, anthropological, sociological and historical knowledge.

[teepean]

Ancient genomes illuminate Eastern Arabian population history and adaptation against malaria

Summary

The harsh climate of Arabia has posed challenges in generating ancient DNA from the region, hindering the direct examination of ancient genomes for understanding the demographic processes that shaped Arabian populations. In this study, we report whole-genome sequence data obtained from four Tylos-period individuals from Bahrain. Their genetic ancestry can be modeled as a mixture of sources from ancient Anatolia, Levant, and Iran/Caucasus, with variation between individuals suggesting population heterogeneity in Bahrain before the onset of Islam. We identify the G6PD Mediterranean mutation associated with malaria resistance in three out of four ancient Bahraini samples and estimate that it rose in frequency in Eastern Arabia from 5 to 6 kya onward, around the time agriculture appeared in the region. Our study characterizes the genetic composition of ancient Arabians, shedding light on the population history of Bahrain and demonstrating the feasibility of studies of ancient DNA in the region.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar...9X2400034X

[Shuzam87]

Network of large pedigrees reveals social practices of Avar communities

https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/browser/view/PRJEB72021

From 567/68 CE, the onset of the Avar period, populations from the Eurasian Steppe settled in the Carpathian Basin for approximately 250 years. An extensive sampling for archaeogenomics (424 individuals) and isotopes, combined with archaeological, anthropological, and historical contextualization on four Avar-period cemeteries, allowed for a detailed description of the genomic structure of these communities and their kinship and social practices. We present the largest set of pedigrees reconstructed so far through aDNA, spanning over 9 generations comprising ~300 individuals. We uncover a strict patrilineal kinship system, where patrilocality and female exogamy were the norm and multiple reproductive partnering and levirate unions were commonly practiced. The absence of consanguinity indicates this society maintained a detailed memory of ancestry over generations. These kinship practices correspond to the evidence of historical sources and anthropological research on Eurasian Steppe societies. Novel network analyses of identity-by-descent DNA connections suggest social cohesion between communities was maintained via females. Finally, despite the absence of major ancestry shifts, the level of resolution reached by our analyses allowed us to detect genetic discontinuity: the replacement of a community at one of the studied sites. This was paralleled with changes in the archaeological record and was likely due to local political realignment.

[J Man]

Not sure if this has been discussed before.

Network of large pedigrees reveals social practices of Avar communities

From 567/68 CE, the onset of the Avar period, populations from the Eurasian Steppe settled in the Carpathian Basin for approximately 250 years. An extensive sampling for archaeogenomics (424 individuals) and isotopes, combined with archaeological, anthropological, and historical contextualization on four Avar-period cemeteries, allowed for a detailed description of the genomic structure of these communities and their kinship and social practices. We present the largest set of pedigrees reconstructed so far through aDNA, spanning over 9 generations comprising ~300 individuals. We uncover a strict patrilineal kinship system, where patrilocality and female exogamy were the norm and multiple reproductive partnering and levirate unions were commonly practiced. The absence of consanguinity indicates this society maintained a detailed memory of ancestry over generations. These kinship practices correspond to the evidence of historical sources and anthropological research on Eurasian Steppe societies. Novel network analyses of identity-by-descent DNA connections suggest social cohesion between communities was maintained via females. Finally, despite the absence of major ancestry shifts, the level of resolution reached by our analyses allowed us to detect genetic discontinuity: the replacement of a community at one of the studied sites. This was paralleled with changes in the archaeological record and was likely due to local political realignment.

Looks like there's 440 samples!

The data is already available:

https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/browser/view/PRJEB72021

Do you know if these are old or new samples?

[teepean]

Do you know if these are old or new samples?

I did not find any with similar names so I assume these are new.

[J Man]

Do you know if these are old or new samples?

I did not find any with similar names so I assume these are new.

Very nice!....Are you analyzing the Y-DNA haplogroups already as well?

[Alain]

East-to-west human dispersal into Europe 1.4 million years ago

Abstract
Stone tools stratified in alluvium and loess at Korolevo, western Ukraine, have been studied by several research groups1,2,3 since the discovery of the site in the 1970s. Although Korolevo’s importance to the European Palaeolithic is widely acknowledged, age constraints on the lowermost lithic artefacts have yet to be determined conclusively. Here, using two methods of burial dating with cosmogenic nuclides4,5, we report ages of 1.42 ± 0.10 million years and 1.42 ± 0.28 million years for the sedimentary unit that contains Mode-1-type lithic artefacts. Korolevo represents, to our knowledge, the earliest securely dated hominin presence in Europe, and bridges the spatial and temporal gap between the Caucasus (around 1.85–1.78 million years ago)6 and southwestern Europe (around 1.2–1.1 million years ago)7,8. Our findings advance the hypothesis that Europe was colonized from the east, and our analysis of habitat suitability9 suggests that early hominins exploited warm interglacial periods to disperse into higher latitudes and relatively continental sites—such as Korolevo—well before the Middle Pleistocene Transition.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07151-3

https://www.n-tv.de/wissen/fundsache/Men...88423.html

[J1_DYS388=13]

aDNA from Early Medieval Wales

According to the April edition of Current Archaeology, this archaeological project will include aDNA and isotopic analysis of more than 36 skeletons from a late 6th-early 7th century cemetery near Cardiff Airport.

Most aDNA analysis of this period has been with 'Anglo-Saxon' skeletons.  This collection of skeletons should be pre-Norman native British.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5q2ZbQIRIq0

[jdean]

Evidence for dynastic succession among early Celtic elites

The early Iron Age in France, Germany, and Switzerland, known as the West-Hallstattkreis, stands out as featuring the earliest evidence for supra-regional organisation north of the Alps. Often referred to as ‘early Celtic‘, suggesting tentative connections to later cultural phenomena, its societal and population structure remain enigmatic. Here, we present genomic and isotope data from 31 individuals from this context. We identify three biologically related groups spanning multiple elite burials as far as 100 km apart, supported by transregional individual mobility inferred from isotope data. These include a close biological relationship between two of the richest burial mounds of the Hallstatt culture. Bayesian modelling points to an avuncular relationship between the two individuals, which may suggest a practice of matrilineal dynastic succession in early Celtic elites. We show that their ancestry is shared on a broad geographic scale from Iberia throughout Central-Eastern Europe, undergoing decline after the late Iron Age.

[FR9CZ6]

Doctoral Thesis:

Pompeii, time capsule of the Roman Empire: paleogenomic analysis of human remains found in the ancient city


" The ancient city of Pompeii has a worldwide interest for its unique history, so that it is included in the UNESCO World Heritage. It represents a time capsule of Roman antiquity because buildings, monuments, sculptures, paintings and mosaics were preserved and remained intact, as well as food and personal objects related with daily life. Many human remains, belonging to people who died during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, have been unearthed thanks to the intense excavations of the archaeological site. Bone microstructures seem to be well preserved under 5-6 meters of pyroclastic materials, which also slowed down the DNA degradation process due to oxidative decay. Indeed, a first shallow shotgun sequencing of more than 170 human remains (mostly bones and in some cases even teeth) demonstrated a good preservation of ancient DNA (aDNA), exceeding even 90% in a few cases. This is the first time that a great number of individuals who lived or were in Pompeii for other reasons at the time of the eruption are studied from a population genomic perspective. Using a multidisciplinary approach, we studied human remains found in the same archaeological context, the so-called “Stanza degli Scheletri”. We were able to identify the minimum number of individuals who found shelter inside the room and a first-degree relationship between two of them. In addition, we observed high genomic variability even when studying a small sample of the population. Moreover, twelve genomic libraries with a good percentage of endogenous DNA preservation (>20%) were selected to perform a deep shotgun sequencing with the aim to obtain an average coverage of 1x. We used a whole-genome approach to analyse the genomic variability of individuals found in Pompei and to make comparisons between them and other ancient Eurasian populations published so far. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the Admixture demonstrate the presence of an heterogeneous populations. In Pompeii we found genetic variants already observed in pre-Roman Italic populations and in coeval individuals from different parts of Europe. These results are supported by historical documents and archaeological findings that show Pompeii as one of the most active commercial and port cities of the Mediterranean."

https://www.repository.unipr.it/bitstrea...ariato.pdf

[miquirumba]

Shrouded in history: Unveiling the ways of life of an early Muslim population in Santarém, Portugal (8th– 10th century AD)

Rebecca Anne MacRoberts,
Marco Liberato,
Xavier Roca-Rada,
Maria João Valente,
Claudia Relvado,
Teresa Matos Fernandes,
Cristina Barrocas Dias,
Bastien Llamas,
Hermínia Vasconcelos Vilar,
Bernd R. Schöne,
Sara Ribeiro,
José Francisco Santos,
João C. Teixeira,
Anne-France Maurer

PLOS

Published: March 6, 2024
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299958

Abstract

In around 716 AD, the city of Santarém, Portugal, was conquered by the Berber and Arab armies that swept the Iberian Peninsula and went on to rule the region until the 12th century. Archaeological excavations in 2007/08 discovered an Islamic necropolis (Avenida 5 de Outubro #2–8) that appears to contain the remains of an early Muslim population in Santarém (8th– 10th century). In this study, skeletal material from 58 adult individuals was analysed for stable carbon (δ13Ccol; δ13Cap), nitrogen (δ15N) and sulphur (δ34S) isotope ratios in bones, and stable oxygen (δ18O), carbon (δ13Cen) and radiogenic strontium (87Sr/86Sr) isotopes in tooth enamel. The results of this study revealed a dietary pattern of predominantly C3-plant and domestic C3-fed herbivore consumption during adulthood (δ13Ccol and δ15N, respectively) but a higher proportion of C4-plant input during childhood (δ13Cen) for some individuals—interpreted as possible childhood consumption of millet porridge, a common practice in North Africa—in those with unorthodox burial types (Groups 1 and 2) that was not practiced in the individuals with canonical burials (Group 3). In this first mobility study of a medieval Muslim population in Portugal, δ18ODW values revealed greater heterogeneity in Groups 1 and 2, consistent with diverse origins, some in more humid regions than Santarém when compared to regional precipitation δ18O data, contrasting the more homogenous Group 3, consistent with the local precipitation δ18O range. Ancient DNA analysis conducted on three individuals revealed maternal (mtDNA) and paternal (Y-chromosome) lineages compatible with a North African origin for (at least) some of the individuals. Additionally, mobility of females in this population was higher than males, potentially resulting from a patrilocal social system, practiced in Berber and Arab communities. These results serve to offer a more detailed insight into the ancestry and cultural practices of early Muslim populations in Iberia.

[VladMC]

Archaeogenomics of humans from the layer of the Upper Volga Culture revealed their greatest genetic similarity with Eastern European hunter-gatherers and ancient representatives of Mesolithic/Neolithic Europe

The genetic structure of the population of Northern Europe of the Mesolithic-Neolithic period currently remains poorly investigated due to the small number of materials available for research. For the first time, the complete genome of an individual from the multilayer Meso-Neolithic site Ivanovskoe VII, located in the Upper Volga region in Yaroslavl Oblast, was studied. According to stratigraphic data, an isolated skull of an adult male without a lower jaw was found in layer II containing ceramics of the Upper Volga Early Neolithic Culture. AMS date obtained from the scull bone. The calibrated age of the collagen sample was determined with a probability of 1σ (68 %) in the interval 6588–6498 cal.y.b. (UGAMS-67431 OxCal v4.4), wich corresponds to the Late Mesolithic. The dates of the peat containing layer II of the culture lie between 6000 and 7000 radiocarbon years ago. The main aim of the study is to elucidate the position of this individual in the context of the genomic landscape of Mesolithic and Neolithic Europe. It is shown that the genetic profile of the studied individual (DM5) fully coincides with the genetic diversity profile of the Eastern Hunter-Gatherers (EHG). Haplogroups of mitochondrial DNA (U5a2+16294) and Y-chromosome (R1b1a1) testify to its genetic connection with ancient Mesolithic populations of Europe. The DM5 sample has an additional substitution at position 54 of mtDNA in common with the most ancient samples of this mitochondrial haplogroup from the territory of Western Europe (England and France), which suggests the existence of a probable ancestor belonging to an even earlier period (Late Paleolithic), possibly on the territory of Western Europe. Specimen DM5 is clustered together with several ancient territorially and chronologically separated groups. First, with representatives of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers of northern Eastern Europe (South Oleniy Island, Karelia; Minino I and II, Vologda region; Peschanitsa, and Popovo, Arkhangelsk region). Second, DM5 is similar to Early Mesolithic materials from the Middle Volga region — the oldest representative of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from Sidelkino and an Eneolithic specimen from Lebyazhinka, Samara region. Third, in the cluster of individuals close to DM5there are representatives of later groups — from the Early Neolithic Yazykovo I, Tver region, Middle Neolithic Karavaikha, Vologda region and Eneolithic layers of the Murzikhinsky II burial ground, which is located near the village of Alekseevskoye (Tatarstan) in the mouth of the Kama River. The data we obtained do not exclude that the Early Eneolithic Upper Volga Culturehas local Mesolithic roots, which indicates the long-term preservation of the oldest gene pool of Europe in the central part of the Russian Plain.

http://ipdn.ru/_private/a64/113-125.pdf



Y chromosome DM5 belongs to haplogroup R1b1a1, which belongs to the most common R1b clade in modern Europe. The Y-chromosomal clade R1b1a1 and its daughter branches were widespread among European hunter-gatherers, including men from Mesolithic and Neolithic populations, as well as the typical Eastern hunter-gatherer from the Mayak site, p. Sidelkino, Samara region [Posth et al., 2023, Mathieson et al., 2018]. Several skeletons of Mesolithic people were discovered at the Mayak site (Sidelkino) [Vasiliev et al., 2021]; a sample from a male skeleton (burial 2), included in the genetic analysis, was dated and confirmed the Early Mesolithic age of the site (11170–11310 BPCal. RICH-25916.1.1).



This is interesting. This sample is not included in the appendix to the article by Posth et al., 2023, but it is in the Harvard database.

[J1_DYS388=13]

A couple of mentions of aDNA in this paper.  Moderator will delete if insufficient for this forum.

New Results

A genetic perspective on the recent demographic history of Ireland and Britain

Ashwini Shanmugam, Michael Merrigan, Seamus O'Reilly, Anne M Molloy,  View ORCID ProfileLawrence Brody,  View ORCID ProfileOrla Hardiman,  View ORCID ProfileRussell L McLaughlin,  View ORCID ProfileGianpiero L Cavalleri,  View ORCID ProfileRoss P. Byrne,  View ORCID ProfileEdmund H Gilbert
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.03.08.584042

Abstract

Background: While subtle yet discrete clusters of genetic identity across Ireland and Britain have been identified, their demographic history is unclear. Methods: Using genotype data from 6,574 individuals with associated regional Irish or British ancestry, we identified Irish-like and British-like genetic communities using network community detection. We segregated Identity-by-Descent (IBD) and Runs-of-Homozygosity (ROH) segments by length and approximated their corresponding time periods. Through this, we inferred the regional Irish and British demographic histories in these time periods by (1) estimating genetic relatedness between communities, (2) estimating changes in effective population sizes, (3) inferring recent migration rates across Ireland and Britain, and (4) estimating changing affinities to regional European populations. For a subset of the Irish communities, we determined the enrichment/depletion of surnames within the genetic communities. Results: Through patterns of IBD-sharing and ROH, we find evidence of recent population bottlenecks in the Orcadian, Manx and Welsh communities. While the structure in Ireland is subtler, the communities share relatively more IBD segments that are shorter in length, and the genetic differences between the Irish communities are more subtle on average, when compared to the British communities. Regional effective population size trajectories indicate a similar demographic history throughout the island of Ireland. Further, we observe a stable migration corridor between north-east Ireland and south-west Scotland while there is a recent migration barrier between South-Eastern Ireland and Western Ireland. We observed an enrichment of Anglo-Norman and English surnames in the Wexford community while within the West Ulster-Argyll community, we saw an enrichment of Gallowglass and Scottish surnames. Conclusions: Using well-annotated Irish and British reference genotypes, we observed temporal changes in genetic affinities within and between genetic communities in Ireland and Britain. In addition, using effective population size estimates and levels of haplotype-sharing, we detected varying degrees of genetic isolation in some Irish and British genetic communities across time. Using these new insights into the regional demographic history of Ireland and Britain across different time periods, we hope to understand the driving forces of rare allele frequencies and disease risk association within these populations.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/...8.584042v1

[J1_DYS388=13]

New Results

Steppe Ancestry in western Eurasia and the spread of the Germanic Languages

Hugh McColl et al.

Abstract

Germanic-speaking populations historically form an integral component of the North and Northwest European cultural configuration. According to linguistic consensus, the common ancestor of the Germanic languages, which include German, English, Frisian, Dutch as well as the Nordic languages, was spoken in Northern Europe during the Pre-Roman Iron Age. However, important questions remain concerning the earlier Bronze Age distribution of this Indo-European language branch in Scandinavia as well as the driving factors behind its Late Iron Age diversification and expansion across the European continent. A key difficulty in addressing these questions are the existence of striking differences in the interpretation of the archaeological record, leading to various hypotheses of correlations with linguistic dispersals and changes in material culture. Moreover, these interpretations have been difficult to assess using genomics due to limited ancient genomes and the difficulty in differentiating closely related populations. Here we integrate multidisciplinary evidence from population genomics, historical sources, archaeology and linguistics to offer a fully revised model for the origins and spread of Germanic languages and for the formation of the genomic ancestry of Germanic-speaking northern European populations, while acknowledging that coordinating archaeology, linguistics and genetics is complex and potentially controversial. We sequenced 710 ancient human genomes from western Eurasia and analysed them together with 3,940 published genomes suitable for imputing diploid genotypes. We find evidence of a previously unknown, large-scale Bronze Age migration within Scandinavia, originating in the east and becoming widespread to the west and south, thus providing a new potential driving factor for the expansion of the Germanic speech community. This East Scandinavian genetic cluster is first seen 800 years after the arrival of the Corded Ware Culture, the first Steppe-related population to emerge in Northern Europe, opening a new scenario implying a Late rather than an Middle Neolithic arrival of the Germanic language group in Scandinavia. Moreover, the non-local Hunter-Gatherer ancestry of this East Scandinavian cluster is indicative of a cross-Baltic maritime rather than a southern Scandinavian land-based entry. Later in the Iron Age around 1700 BP, we find a southward push of admixed Eastern and Southern Scandinavians into areas including Germany and the Netherlands, previously associated with Celtic speakers, mixing with local populations from the Eastern North Sea coast. During the Migration Period (1575-1200 BP), we find evidence of this structured, admixed Southern Scandinavian population representing the Western Germanic Anglo-Saxon migrations into Britain and Langobards into southern Europe. During the Migration Period, we detect a previously unknown northward migration back into Southern Scandinavia, partly replacing earlier inhabitants and forming the North Germanic-speaking Viking-Age populations of Denmark and southern Sweden, corresponding with historically attested Danes. However, the origin and character of these major changes in Scandinavia before the Viking Age remain contested. In contrast to these Western and Northern Germanic-speaking populations, we find the Wielbark population from Poland to be primarily of Eastern Scandinavian ancestry, supporting a Swedish origin for East Germanic groups. In contrast, the later cultural descendants, the Ostrogoths and Visigoths are predominantly of Southern European ancestry implying the adoption of Gothic culture. Together, these results highlight the use of archaeology, linguistics and genetics as distinct but complementary lines of evidence.


https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/...3.584607v1

[Anglesqueville]

^^ I think I'm going to reopen the thread dedicated to proto-Germanic, if only to have a place to publicly triumph.

We find evidence of a previously unknown, large-scale Bronze Age migration within Scandinavia, originating in the east and becoming widespread to the west and south, thus providing a new potential driving factor for the expansion of the Germanic speech community. This East Scandinavian genetic cluster is first seen 800 years after the arrival of the Corded Ware Culture, the first Steppe-related population to emerge in Northern Europe, opening a new scenario implying a Late rather than an Middle Neolithic arrival of the Germanic language group in Scandinavia. Moreover, the non-local Hunter-Gatherer ancestry of this East Scandinavian cluster is indicative of a cross-Baltic maritime rather than a southern Scandinavian land-based entry.