Joachim Wahl

Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe

We generated genome-wide data from 69 Europeans who lived between 8,000–3,000 years ago by enriching ancient DNA libraries for a target set of almost 400,000 polymorphisms. Enrichment of these positions decreases the sequencing required for genome-wide ancient DNA analysis by a median of around 250-fold, allowing us to study an order of magnitude more individuals than previous studies and to obtain new insights about the past. We show that the populations of Western and Far Eastern Europe followed opposite trajectories between 8,000–5,000 years ago. At the beginning of the Neolithic period in Europe, ∼8,000–7,000 years ago, closely related groups of early farmers appeared in Germany, Hungary and Spain, different from indigenous hunter-gatherers, whereas Russia was inhabited by a distinctive population of hunter-gatherers with high affinity to a ∼24,000-year-old Siberian. By ∼6,000–5,000 years ago, farmers throughout much of Europe had more hunter-gatherer ancestry than their predecessors, but in Russia, the Yamnaya steppe herders of this time were descended not only from the preceding eastern European hunter-gatherers, but also from a population of Near Eastern ancestry. Western and Eastern Europe came into contact ∼4,500 years ago, as the Late Neolithic Corded Ware people from Germany traced ∼75% of their ancestry to the Yamnaya, documenting a massive migration into the heartland of Europe from its eastern periphery. This steppe ancestry persisted in all sampled central Europeans until at least ∼3,000 years ago, and is ubiquitous in present-day Europeans. These results provide support for a steppe origin of at least some of the Indo-European languages of Europe.

Prehistoric human migration in the Linearbandkeramik of Central Europe

This paper presents a revised chronology for the Linearbandkeramik and strontium isotope measurements of human skeletal material from two cemeteries which indicate a high incidence of migration. It appears that LBK farmers were highly migratory and interacted with surrounding communities.

Community differentiation and kinship among Europe’s first farmers

Community differentiation is a fundamental topic of the social sciences, and its prehistoric origins in Europe are typically assumed to lie among the complex, densely populated societies that developed millennia after their Neolithic predecessors. Here we present the earliest, statistically significant evidence for such differentiation among the first farmers of Neolithic Europe. By using strontium isotopic data from more than 300 early Neolithic human skeletons, we find significantly less variance in geographic signatures among males than we find among females, and less variance among burials with ground stone adzes than burials without such adzes. From this, in context with other available evidence, we infer differential land use in early Neolithic central Europe within a patrilocal kinship system.

Neanderthal behaviour, diet, and disease inferred from ancient DNA in dental calculus

Recent genomic data have revealed multiple interactions between Neanderthals and modern humans, but there is currently little genetic evidence regarding Neanderthal behaviour, diet, or disease. Here we describe the shotgun-sequencing of ancient DNA from five specimens of Neanderthal calcified dental plaque (calculus) and the characterization of regional differences in Neanderthal ecology. At Spy cave, Belgium, Neanderthal diet was heavily meat based and included woolly rhinoceros and wild sheep (mouflon), characteristic of a steppe environment. In contrast, no meat was detected in the diet of Neanderthals from El Sidrón cave, Spain, and dietary components of mushrooms, pine nuts, and moss reflected forest gathering. Differences in diet were also linked to an overall shift in the oral bacterial community (microbiota) and suggested that meat consumption contributed to substantial variation within Neanderthal microbiota. Evidence for self-medication was detected in an El Sidrón Neanderthal with a dental abscess and a chronic gastrointestinal pathogen (Enterocytozoon bieneusi). Metagenomic data from this individual also contained a nearly complete genome of the archaeal commensal Methanobrevibacter oralis (10.2× depth of coverage)—the oldest draft microbial genome generated to date, at around 48,000 years old. DNA preserved within dental calculus represents a notable source of information about the behaviour and health of ancient hominin specimens, as well as a unique system that is useful for the study of long-term microbial evolution.

Basics in Paleodemography: A Comparison of Age Indicators Applied to the Early Medieval Skeletal Sample of Lauchheim

Recent advances in the methods of skeletal age estimation have rekindled interest in their applicability to paleodemography. The current study contributes to the discussion by applying several long established as well as recently developed or refined aging methods to a subsample of 121 adult skeletons from the early medieval cemetery of Lauchheim. The skeletal remains were analyzed by 13 independent observers using a variety of aging techniques (complex method and other multimethod approaches, Transition Analysis, cranial suture closure, auricular surface method, osteon density method, tooth root translucency measurement, and tooth cementum annulation counting). The age ranges and mean age estimations were compared and results indicate that all methods showed smaller age ranges for the younger individuals, but broader age ranges for the older age groups.

Isotopic signatures and hereditary traits: snapshot of a Neolithic community in Germany

A group of Linearbandkeramik people at Talheim, Germany were previously found to have died at the same time, probably in a massacre, and the authors were able to ask some searching questions of their skeletons. The isotope signatures of strontium, oxygen and carbon, which gave information on diet and childhood region, showed up three groups which correlated with hereditary traits (derived previously from the analysis of the teeth). In the local group, there were many local children but no adult women, suggesting they had been selectively taken alive at the time of the massacre. Another group, with isotope signatures derived from upland areas, includes two men who may have been closely related. A third group has a composition suggestive of a nuclear family. The variations of one type of isotope signature with another suggested subtle interpretations, such as transhumance, and a probable labour division in the community between stockholders and cultivators. Here we see the ever-growing potential of these new methods for writing the ‘biographies’ of prehistoric skeletons.

Isotopic Evidence for Mobility and Group Organization Among Neolithic Farmers At Talheim, Germany, 5000 BC

The mass grave found near Talheim in southern Germany dates to approximately 7000 years ago and contains the skeletal remains of 34 individuals from the Early Neolithic period, associated with what...

Patterns of activity adaptation in humeral trabecular bone in Neolithic humans and present-day people

OBJECTIVE The annual turnover rate of trabecular bone by far exceeds that of cortical bone and, therefore, is very sensitive to its daily loading regime. Here we test the hypothesis that the study of the trabecular bone architecture of the human humerus is able to differentiate between different habitual manual activities. MATERIALS AND METHODS For this purpose, we compared the trabecular architecture of the humeral head in a Neolithic population to that of a sample of contemporary Europeans using micro-computed tomography (microCT). We defined in each specimen a spherical volume of interest with a diameter of 57.5 ± 2.5% of the maximal diameter of the humeral head to metrically analyze the bulk of humeral head trabecular architecture. We subsequently quantified the trabecular architectures in the VOIs, measuring seven standard 3D-morphometric parameters, and used univariate and multivariate statistical analyses for comparisons within and between populations. RESULTS Univariate statistical analysis showed significant differences in a combination of 3D-morphometric parameters. A principal components analysis of the 3D-morphometrics of the trabecular architectures separated the Neolithic from the contemporary samples on the basis of differences in their gross trabecular architecture, including differences in the bone volume fraction (BV/TV), the number of trabeculae per unit length (Tb N), and the distance between trabeculae (Tb Sp). DISCUSSION We interpret the significant differences found in the humeral trabecular bone of the Neolithic and the contemporary group as likely reflecting the distinct manual working routines. The trabecular bone configuration in the Neolithic sample shows presumably functional signatures of prehistoric subsistence techniques and activity levels.

United in death-related by blood? Genetic and archeometric analyses of skeletal remains from the neolithic earthwork Bruchsal-Aue.

OBJECTIVES Straight next to a segment of the outer ditch of the Late Neolithic Michelsberg Culture earthwork of Bruchsal-Aue in SW-Germany (ca. 4250-3650 calBC), a multiple burial of eight individuals (two male adults and six children) plus a subsequent child burial was excavated. In this study, we applied a multidisciplinary approach to elucidate interpersonal relationships and life histories within this collective. MATERIALS AND METHODS To determine the identity of this collective, we performed aDNA analyses in addition to osteological examination using HVR I plus Y-chromosomal and autosomal STR profiling to find evidence for kinship relations. Strontium isotopic analyses were used to reconsider migrational behavior. To find evidence for a specific social affiliation, the individual diet was reconstructed by performing nitrogen and carbon isotopic analyses. Furthermore, radiocarbon-dating was carried out to integrate the burial context into an absolute timeframe. Two nearby single burials were included in the analyses for comparison. RESULTS Because of a shared HVR I haplotype, three pairs of individuals were most likely linked by kinship, and statistical testing on autosomal STR profiles shows a high probability for the pair of two men being brothers. Although it cannot be excluded, isotopic data gave no clear proof for migration. A rather poor health status is indicated by skeletal stress markers even though the isotope data attest to a diet rich in meat and fish. DISCUSSION Although clear kinship relations among the infants remain unconfirmed, a relationship could also be indicated by the positioning of the bodies in the burial pit. Whereas a common cause of death might have been the presupposition for their special treatment, interpersonal relationships were likely the decisive factor for the multiple burial.

Early Holocene ritual complexity in South America: the archaeological record of Lapa do Santo (east-central Brazil)

Abstract Early Archaic human skeletal remains found in a burial context in Lapa do Santo in east-central Brazil provide a rare glimpse into the lives of hunter-gatherer communities in South America, including their rituals for dealing with the dead. These included the reduction of the body by means of mutilation, defleshing, tooth removal, exposure to fire and possibly cannibalism, followed by the secondary burial of the remains according to strict rules. In a later period, pits were filled with disarticulated bones of a single individual without signs of body manipulation, demonstrating that the region was inhabited by dynamic groups in constant transformation over a period of centuries.