Tag: mediterranean

Iberian prehistoric migrations in Genomics from Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age

iberia-neolithic-bronze-age

New open access paper Four millennia of Iberian biomolecular prehistory illustrate the impact of prehistoric migrations at the far end of Eurasia, by Valdiosera, Günther, Vera-Rodríguez, et al. PNAS (2018) published ahead of print.

Abstract (emphasis mine)

Population genomic studies of ancient human remains have shown how modern-day European population structure has been shaped by a number of prehistoric migrations. The Neolithization of Europe has been associated with large-scale migrations from Anatolia, which was followed by migrations of herders from the Pontic steppe at the onset of the Bronze Age. Southwestern Europe was one of the last parts of

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Y-DNA relevant in the postgenomic era, mtDNA study of Iron Age Italic population, and reconstructing the genetic history of Italians

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Open Access Annals of Human Biology (2018), Volume 45, Issue 1, with the title Human population genetics of the Mediterranean.

Among the most interesting articles (emphasis mine):

Iron Age Italic population genetics: the Piceni from Novilara (8th–7th century BC), by Serventi, Panicucci, Bodega, et al.

Background: Archaeological data provide evidence that Italy, during the Iron Age, witnessed the appearance of the first communities with well defined cultural identities. To date, only a few studies report genetic data about these populations and, in particular, the Piceni have never been analysed.

Aims: To provide new data about mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)

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Migration vs. Acculturation models for Aegean Neolithic in Genetics — still depending strongly on Archaeology

aegean-neolithic-anatolia

Recent paper in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Archaeogenomic analysis of the first steps of Neolithization in Anatolia and the Aegean, by Kılınç et al. (2017).

Abstract:

The Neolithic transition in west Eurasia occurred in two main steps: the gradual development of sedentism and plant cultivation in the Near East and the subsequent spread of Neolithic cultures into the Aegean and across Europe after 7000 cal BCE. Here, we use published ancient genomes to investigate gene flow events in west Eurasia during the Neolithic transition. We confirm that the Early Neolithic central Anatolians in the ninth millennium BCE

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