Laure Salanova

Amy2B copy number variation reveals starch diet adaptations in ancient European dogs

Extant dog and wolf DNA indicates that dog domestication was accompanied by the selection of a series of duplications on the Amy2B gene coding for pancreatic amylase. In this study, we used a palaeogenetic approach to investigate the timing and expansion of the Amy2B gene in the ancient dog populations of Western and Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction was used to estimate the copy numbers of this gene for 13 ancient dog samples, dated to between 15u2009000 and 4000 years before present (cal. BP). This evidenced an increase of Amy2B copies in ancient dogs from as early as the 7th millennium cal. BP in Southeastern Europe. We found that the gene expansion was not fixed across all dogs within this early farming context, with ancient dogs bearing between 2 and 20 diploid copies of the gene. The results also suggested that selection for the increased Amy2B copy number started 7000 years cal. BP, at the latest. This expansion reflects a local adaptation that allowed dogs to thrive on a starch rich diet, especially within early farming societies, and suggests a biocultural coevolution of dog genes and human culture.

The Consumption of Bone Powder in the Early Neolithic Societies of Southeastern Europe: Evidence of a Diet Stress?

Research performed on Early Neolithic ceramic assemblages from southwestern Bulgaria has revealed that several categories of pottery were used for the preparation of foodstuffs. One particular type of beige residue has been identified on the inner surface of ceramic vessels from several sites. Chemical analyses of mineral residues, combined with the stylistic characteristics of ceramic vessels, have shown the consumption of bone powder. This consumption , far from being anecdotal, raises several questions regarding the diet behaviour of the earliest Neolithic communities in the Balkans, which have obviously sought a complementary source of calcium. Would the dietary transition at the beginning of the Neolithic period correspond to a diet stress?

Modéliser le rythme des inhumations dans une allée sépulcrale Seine-Oise de la seconde moitié du IVe millénaire av. J.-C. : le cas de Bazoches-sur-Vesle « le Bois de Muisemont » (Aisne)

RésuméL’allée sépulcrale de Bazoches-sur-Vesle (Aisne) fait partie des 450 sépultures collectives connues dans le Bassin parisien. Une centaine d’individus a été inhumée dans cette tombe construite en matériaux périssables à la fin du IVe millénaire avant notre ère. L’absence de datation absolue nous a conduits à proposer une lecture alternative de la succession des inhumations en vue d’aborder la notion de durée, déjà explorée dans d’autres domaines que celui des dépôts collectifs. L’échantillon comprend 65 sujets adultes et immatures replacés dans un diagramme stratigraphique. L’état des connexions labiles et persistantes est étudié selon un principe simple. Si les connexions labiles du dépôt inférieur sont maintenues, nous avons considéré comme « court » le temps entre deux dépôts successifs. Au contraire, plus le dépôt inférieur est désarticulé, plus nous avons estimé « long » le temps entre deux dépôts. Il résulte de ce travail une proposition de modèle du rythme des inhumations au cours de l’utilisation de la tombe. Quatre phases d’inhumations distinctes alternent entre des inhumations successives selon un rythme lent et des inhumations simultanées indiquant un rythme plus soutenu. Ce modèle met en évidence des épisodes d’occupation et d’abandon de la tombe, donnée nouvelle dans l’histoire de l’utilisation de la sépulture de Bazoches-sur-Vesle.AbstractThe gallery grave of Bazoches-sur-Vesle (Aisne, northern France) is one of 450 collective burial sites that have been discovered in the Paris Basin. No less than 100 deceased individuals were deposited within this grave built out of perishable materials at the end of the fourth millennium BC. For lack of enough bone collagen to perform radiocarbon dating, an alternative approach was developed to further examine the rate of burials and the duration of the grave’s general use. The notion of duration had already been tackled in other fields, but not yet for collective burials. The stratigraphic order of a total of 65 deceased adult and nonadult individuals was represented in a diagram form. The state of the skeletons’ labile and persistent anatomical connections was then examined according to a simple principle: if the labile connections in the lower burial deposits remained, we considered that the time span between two deposits was short, while the more dislocated the lower burial deposits, the greater the time span between two successive burials. This resulted in a model of the rate at which burials were made throughout the gallery grave. Four different deposit phases show an alternation between successive deposits at a slow rate and simultaneous burials deposited together within shorter intervals. The model brings out episodes of use and abandon of the burial site, thus delivering new data on the use history of the gallery grave of Bazochessur- Vesle.