Central European prehistory was highly dynamic
Frequent cultural, genetic, and social change epitomises the history of central Europe from the Stone Age to the Early Bronze Age

Date:
August 25, 2021
Source:
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Summary:
Recent archaeogenetic studies have shown that human movements
like migrations and expansions played a major role in driving the
spread of cultures and genes in ancient Europe. However, it is
only now with detailed regional studies and dense sampling that
researchers start to better understand the magnitude, rate and
social implications of these changes.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Centrally located along trade routes and tightly nestled around
the important waterways such as the Elbe River, Bohemia attracted
many different archaeological cultures, rendering it a key region in understanding the prehistory of Europe. In addition to the expansions associated with the spread of agriculture and "steppe"-related ancestry previously discovered, this new study identifies at least another three migratory events which shaped central European prehistory.


==========================================================================
The genetic profiles of people associated with Funnelbeaker and
Globular Amphora cultures show evidence of being recent migrants to the
region. This finding shows that the period between arrival of agriculture
and "steppe"- related ancestry, hitherto thought of as an uneventful
period, was more dynamic than previously hypothesised.

Drastic changes to the genetic landscape The large sample size of the
study, particularly concentrated on the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze
Age (~6,000-3,700 years ago), also allowed novel insights into social
processes to be made. Individuals associated with the Corded Ware culture expanded from Eastern Europe and then assimilated preferentially central European women into their culture, giving them the same burial ritual
as members of the immigrating group. "We were finally able to fill key
temporal gaps, especially in the transition period around 5,000 years
ago, when we see the genetic landscape changing drastically," says Max
Planck researcher Wolfgang Haak, senior author and principal investigator
of the study. "Intriguingly, in this early horizon we find individuals
with high amounts of 'steppe' ancestry next to others with little or
none, all buried according to the same customs." Once established,
individuals of the Corded Ware culture (4,900-4,400 years ago) changed genetically through time. One important change seems to have been the
sharp decline in Y-chromosome lineage diversity. Although initially
carrying five different Y-lineages, later Corded Ware males carry almost exclusively only a single lineage, essentially being descended from the
same man in the recent past. "This pattern may reflect the emergence of
a new social structure or regulation of mating in which only a subset of
men fathered the majority of offspring," says first author Luka Papac,
a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

This social structure seems to have been even stricter in the following
Bell Beaker society (4,500-4,200 years ago) where every single male
sampled belonged to a single, newly introduced Y-lineage. Remarkably,
this Bell Beaker Y-lineage is never seen before in Bohemia, implying
that a new clan arrived in the region and almost immediately replaced
all pre-existing Y-lineages with not a single lineage from Corded Ware
or previous societies found among Bell Beaker males.

Cultural, biological, and social changes The Early Bronze Age Unetice
culture has traditionally been thought of descending from Bell Beaker individuals, with perhaps limited input from the southeast (Carpathian
Basin). However, the new genetic data supports yet another genetic
turnover originating from regions northeast of Bohemia.

Remarkably, also 80 percent of the early Unetice Y-lineages are
new to Bohemia, some of which are previously found in individuals
from north-eastern Europe, providing clues to where they originated
from. "This finding was very surprising to us archaeologists as we did
not expect to see such clear patterns, even though the region has played
a critical role, e.g. in the emerging trade of amber from the Baltic
and became an important trading hub during the Bronze and Iron Ages,"
adds co-author and co-PI Michal Erne'e from the Czech Academy of Sciences.

The results paint a highly dynamic picture of the prehistory of central
Europe, with many and frequent changes in the cultural, biological,
and social make-up of societies, highlighting the power and potential
of high-resolution studies at regional scale. Challenges remain in understanding the socio-economic, environmental and/or political reasons
and mechanisms behind these changes, which provides ample scope for
future cross-disciplinary studies of Europe's prehistory.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Max_Planck_Institute_for_Evolutionary_Anthropology. Note: Content may
be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Luka Papac, Michal Erne'e, Miroslav Dobes, Michaela Langova',
Adam B.

Rohrlach, Franziska Aron, Gunnar U. Neumann, Maria A. Spyrou, Nadin
Rohland, Petr Velemi'nsky', Martin Kuna, Hana Brzobohata', Brendan
Culleton, David Daněček, Alžběta Danielisova',
Miluse Dobisi'kova', Josef Hložek, Douglas J. Kennett, Jana
Klementova', Michal Kostka, Petr Kristuf, Milan Kuchaři'k,
Jana Kuljavceva Hlavova', Petr Limbursky', Drahomi'ra Malykova',
Lucia Mattiello, Monika Pecinovska', Katari'na Petrisča'kova',
Erika Průchova', Petra Stra'nska', Lubor Smejtek, Jaroslav
Spaček, Radka Sumberova', Ondřej Svejcar, Martin Trefny',
Milos Va'vra, Jan Kola'ř, Volker Heyd, Johannes Krause, Ron
Pinhasi, David Reich, Stephan Schiffels, Wolfgang Haak. Dynamic
changes in genomic and social structures in third millennium BCE
central Europe. Science Advances, 2021; 7 (35): eabi6941 DOI:
10.1126/sciadv.abi6941 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210825143018.htm

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