The timing and tempo of the Neolithic expansion across the Central Balkans in the light of the new radiocarbon evidence

Porčić, Marko; Blagojević, Tamara; Pendić, Jugoslav; Stefanović, Sofija

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102528

Cited by 20 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…5A). This indicates mobility from there to Central Europe in accordance with archaeological models [Por+20]. The lowest genetic distances can be observed to Southern Europe, where the Neolithic expansion followed another route [Boc+09; Boc+12].…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 74%

“…They therefore may not be representative for the entire region and their long mobility vectors pointing to the Northwest are probably an artefact of the also low data density in Central Europe and Britain, where our ancestry field misrepresents a most likely more Western Hunter-Gatherer-related (WHG) profile. During the 6th millennium BC, correlating well with the beginning of the Neolithisation in the region [Por+20], we observe more plausible non-locality signals: The ancestry profile of Early Neolithic individuals like e.g. I3948 [Mat+18] from the Adriatic coast, points, to Western Anatolia.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 78%

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Estimating human mobility in Holocene Western Eurasia with large-scale ancient genomic data

Schmid

Schiffels

2021

Preprint

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The recent increase in openly available ancient human DNA samples allows for new, large-scale meta analysis applications. Trans-generational past human mobility is one of the key aspects that ancient genomics can contribute to, since changes in ancestry -- unlike cultural changes seen in the archaeological record -- necessarily reflect movements of people. Here we present a new algorithm to quantify past human mobility from large ancient genomic datasets. The key idea of the method is for each individual to compare a hypothetical genetic "origin" point with its actual burial point in space. This is achieved by first creating an interpolated ancestry field through space and time based on Multidimensional scaling and Gaussian process regression, and then using this field to map the ancient individuals into space according to their genetic profile. We apply this new algorithm to a dataset of 3191 aDNA samples with genome-wide data from Western Eurasia in the last 10,000 years and derive a diachronic measure of mobility for subregions in Western, Central, Southern and Eastern Europe. For regions and periods with sufficient data coverage, our mobility estimates show general concordance with previous results, but also reveal new signals of movements beyond the well-known key events.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 78%

Estimating human mobility in Holocene Western Eurasia with large-scale ancient genomic data

Schmid

Schiffels

2021

Preprint

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“…The eastern region of present-day Croatia demarcates the southern edge of the Pannonian Plain (broadly synonymous with the Carpathian Basin), and is intersected by the Danube river, Sava, Drava and other large tributaries that are the site of many prehistoric settlements and formed an important part of communication and exchange networks in this area 11 , 12 . The emergence of the Neolithic here can be traced to the arrival of the Starčevo culture, which spread from present-day Serbia west and northwards into the Carpathian Basin 13 , while at coastal sites the Early Neolithic was marked by the presence of the Impressed Ware culture from about 6000 BCE 14 , 15 (Fig. 1 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing genetic histories and social organisation in Neolithic and Bronze Age Croatia

Freilich

Ringbauer

Los³

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Ancient DNA studies have revealed how human migrations from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age transformed the social and genetic structure of European societies. Present-day Croatia lies at the heart of ancient migration routes through Europe, yet our knowledge about social and genetic processes here remains sparse. To shed light on these questions, we report new whole-genome data for 28 individuals dated to between ~ 4700 BCE–400 CE from two sites in present-day eastern Croatia. In the Middle Neolithic we evidence first cousin mating practices and strong genetic continuity from the Early Neolithic. In the Middle Bronze Age community that we studied, we find multiple closely related males suggesting a patrilocal social organisation. We also find in that community an unexpected genetic ancestry profile distinct from individuals found at contemporaneous sites in the region, due to the addition of hunter-gatherer-related ancestry. These findings support archaeological evidence for contacts with communities further north in the Carpathian Basin. Finally, an individual dated to Roman times exhibits an ancestry profile that is broadly present in the region today, adding an important data point to the substantial shift in ancestry that occurred in the region between the Bronze Age and today.

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“…These approaches and the contributions they can make to the understanding of long-term history and to justifying the validity of the methods themselves are strongly represented in this issue (e.g. [30][31][32][33]). For example, as Arroyo-Kalin & Riris [30] put it in their study of regional population patterns in Amazonia, 'simply put, the size of human populations bears on how novel human niches are formed, how traditions of material culture evolve, why people intensify food production, and how new languages diversify within a language family'.…”

Section: Archaeological Demography Todaymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the light of the conclusion of Tallavaara & Jørgensen [33] that archaeological temporal resolution is not generally good enough to tell us about instantaneous growth and decline rates, it is interesting that Porcǐćet al's [32] calculation of a growth rate for incoming farming populations in the Central Balkans over approximately 200 years produces estimates of well over 1%, entirely compatible with ethnographic rates and resulting from the much higher carrying capacity made possible by farming. It was immediately followed by a rapid drop, down to half the peak level within 200 years, before rising equally rapidly to another peak.…”

Section: Populations In Fluxmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeology, demography and life history theory together can help us explain past and present population patterns

Shennan

Sear

2020

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Population matters. Demographic patterns are both a cause and a consequence of human behaviour in other important domains, such as subsistence, cooperation, politics and culture. Demographers interested in contemporary and recent historical populations have rich data at their fingertips; the importance of demography means many interested parties have gathered demographic data, much of which is now readily available for all to explore. Those interested in the demography of the distant past are not so fortunate, given the lack of written records. Nevertheless, the emergence in recent years of a new interest in the demography of ancient populations has seen the development of a range of new methods for piecing together archaeological, skeletal and DNA evidence to reconstruct past population patterns. These efforts have found evidence in support of the view that the relatively low long-term population growth rates of prehistoric human populations, albeit ultimately conditioned by carrying capacities, may have been owing to ‘boom–bust’ cycles at the regional level; rapid population growth, followed by population decline. In fact, this archaeological research may have come to the same conclusion as some contemporary demographers: that demography can be remarkably hard to predict, at least in the short term. It also fits with evidence from biology that primates, and particularly humans, may be adapted to environmental variability, leading to associated demographic stochasticity. This evidence of the fluctuating nature of human demographic patterns may be of considerable significance in understanding our species' evolution, and of understanding what our species future demographic trajectories might be. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Cross-disciplinary approaches to prehistoric demography’.

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The timing and tempo of the Neolithic expansion across the Central Balkans in the light of the new radiocarbon evidence

Cited by 20 publications

References 29 publications

Estimating human mobility in Holocene Western Eurasia with large-scale ancient genomic data

Estimating human mobility in Holocene Western Eurasia with large-scale ancient genomic data

Reconstructing genetic histories and social organisation in Neolithic and Bronze Age Croatia

Archaeology, demography and life history theory together can help us explain past and present population patterns

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