Prehistoric spread rates and genetic clines

Fort, Joaquim

doi:10.47248/hpgg2202020003

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 126 publications

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“…Our estimated migration rates (Supplementary Table 2 ) are higher than those reconstructed for Sahul (0.71–0.92 km year −1 ) 54 or European Neolithic farmers ( ~ 1 km year −1 ) 55 , 56 , but our results remain plausible. First, our estimates represent the spread of hunter-gatherers that differ from farmers, because the development of farming technology suppresses the expansion rates of more sedentary agriculturalists 57 .…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 61%

Environmental conditions associated with initial northern expansion of anatomically modern humans

Saltré,

Chadœuf,

Higham

et al. 2024

Nat Commun

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The ability of our ancestors to switch food sources and to migrate to more favourable environments enabled the rapid global expansion of anatomically modern humans beyond Africa as early as 120,000 years ago. Whether this versatility was largely the result of environmentally determined processes or was instead dominated by cultural drivers, social structures, and interactions among different groups, is unclear. We develop a statistical approach that combines both archaeological and genetic data to infer the more-likely initial expansion routes in northern Eurasia and the Americas. We then quantify the main differences in past environmental conditions between the more-likely routes and other potential (less-likely) routes of expansion. We establish that, even though cultural drivers remain plausible at finer scales, the emergent migration corridors were predominantly constrained by a combination of regional environmental conditions, including the presence of a forest-grassland ecotone, changes in temperature and precipitation, and proximity to rivers.

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 61%

Environmental conditions associated with initial northern expansion of anatomically modern humans

Saltré,

Chadœuf,

Higham

et al. 2024

Nat Commun

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“…Ammerman & Cavalli-Sforza [19][20][21] pioneered the application of wave-of-advance/reaction-diffusion models [22][23][24][25][26] to archaeological issues [27,28]. Their point of departure was the demonstration of an approximately constant rate at which early farming spread from the Near East throughout much of Europe.…”

Section: Introduction (A) Microbladesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infectious diseases may have arrested the southward advance of microblades in Upper Palaeolithic East Asia

Aoki,

Takahata,

Oota

et al. 2023

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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An unsolved archaeological puzzle of the East Asian Upper Palaeolithic is why the southward expansion of an innovative lithic technology represented by microblades stalled at the Qinling–Huaihe Line. It has been suggested that the southward migration of foragers with microblades stopped there, which is consistent with ancient DNA studies showing that populations to the north and south of this line had differentiated genetically by 19 000 years ago. Many infectious pathogens are believed to have been associated with hominins since the Palaeolithic, and zoonotic pathogens in particular are prevalent at lower latitudes, which may have produced a disease barrier. We propose a mathematical model to argue that mortality due to infectious diseases may have arrested the wave-of-advance of the technologically advantaged foragers from the north.

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Cultural versus demic diffusion in agricultural expansions according to three definitions of dispersal distances

Bancells,

Fort

2024

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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Mathematical models of agricultural spread use distances between birthplaces of parents and their children (often called “birthplace distances”). However, the difficulty to find those distances for pre-industrial farmers has often led to the use of other kinds of distances. One example is the distance between the birthplace and the place of residence of each individual (“residence distances”). Another example is the separation between the birthplaces of parents (“mating distances”). It is poorly known to what extent the latter two distances are valid approximations to birthplace distances. In order to address this question, we have prepared a database with the three distances for a specific pre-industrial agricultural population (the Yanomamö). For the spread of the Neolithic in Europe, all three kinds of distances yield spread rates consistent with the archaeological data, as well as cultural effects below 50% (so demic diffusion was more important than cultural diffusion). The three kinds of distances also yield estimations for the percentage of early farmers who interbred with hunter-gatherers that are consistent with the corresponding estimation from genetics. There is wide agreement for the cultural and demic effects in other expansions of agriculture and/or herding (the spread of the Neolithic in Asia, Bantu, and Khoikhoi expansions; the spread of rice in Asia, etc.) and using distances measured for other populations. We conclude that estimates are largely insensitive to the kind of distances used. This implies that the conclusions drawn so far in the literature using these three kinds of distances are robust.

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Prehistoric spread rates and genetic clines

Cited by 6 publications

References 126 publications

Environmental conditions associated with initial northern expansion of anatomically modern humans

Environmental conditions associated with initial northern expansion of anatomically modern humans

Infectious diseases may have arrested the southward advance of microblades in Upper Palaeolithic East Asia

Cultural versus demic diffusion in agricultural expansions according to three definitions of dispersal distances

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