Kamis, 26 April 2012

Skeletons reveal how migrants brought farming to northern Europe

Skeletons reveal how migrants brought farming to northern Europe

By Ted Thornhill

PUBLISHED: 13:14 EST, 26 April 2012 | UPDATED: 13:14 EST, 26 April 2012

Mediterranean migrants introduced agriculture to northern Europe 5,000 years ago, genetic evidence from four stone-age skeletons suggests.

Before their arrival, northern Europeans were nomadic hunter gatherers who lived off wild plants and animals.

The newcomers from the warm lands of southern Europe brought with them knowledge of farming that first developed in the Middle East around 11,000 years ago.

Boning up on the facts: Scientists study the skeleton of a Stone Age hunter-gatherer unearthed on the island of Gotland, Sweden

Boning up on the facts: Scientists study the skeleton of a Stone Age hunter-gatherer unearthed on the island of Gotland, Sweden

Eventually, both groups interbred and gave rise to modern northern Europeans.

The story behind agriculture's rise in northern Europe was written in the DNA of four 5,000-year-old skeletons unearthed in Sweden.

Three were hunter gatherers, buried in flat grave sites that were typical of their culture.

The fourth was a farmer, laid to rest 249 miles away beneath one of the megalithic tomb stones associated with agricultural communities.

DNA from the bones revealed a stark difference between the hunter gatherers and the farmer.

Analysis of thousands of molecular markers showed that the farmer had genetic fingerprints matching those of present-day populations from southern Europe.

Rock on: A megalith tomb in Sweden like the one where scientists found the remains of a Stone Age farmer with a Mediterranean genetic profile

Rock on: A megalith tomb in Sweden like the one where scientists found the remains of a Stone Age farmer with a Mediterranean genetic profile

‘The Stone Age farmer's genetic profile matched that of people currently living in the vicinity of the Mediterranean, on Cyprus, for example,’ said researcher Pontus Skoglund, from Uppsala University in Sweden.

‘The three hunter-gatherers from the same time most resembled Northern Europeans, without exactly matching any particular group.

‘When you put these findings in archaeological context, a picture begins to emerge of Stone Age farmers migrating from south to north across Europe.

‘And the result of this migration, 5,000 years later, looks like a mixture of these two groups in the modern population.’

The findings, reported today in the journal Science, also showed that although the remains were excavated in Sweden, none shared many similarities with modern Swedes.

The hunter-gatherers were genetically most similar to Finns and Orcadians - Orkney islanders.

Mr Skogland, a Phd student, developed new analytical techniques tha t were used to study the bones.

The three hunter-gatherers were associated with the Pitted Ware Culture and found on the Swedish island of Gotland.

The farmer was linked to the Funnel Beaker Culture and discovered in Gokhem parish, Sweden.

‘The results suggest that agriculture spread across Europe in concert with a migration of people,’ Mr Skoglund said.

‘If farming had spread solely as a cultural process, we would not expect to see a farmer in the north with such genetic affinity to southern populations.’

Co-author Dr Mattias Jakobsson, also from Uppsala University, said: ‘What is interesting and surprising is that Stone Age farmers and hunter-gatherers from the same time had entirely different genetic backgrounds and lived side-by-side for more than a thousand years, to finally interbreed.

‘We know that the hunter-gatherer remains were buried in flat-bed grave sites, in stark contrast to the megalithic sites that the farmers built.

‘The farmer we analysed was buried under such a megalith, and that's just one difference that helps distinguish the two cultures.’

 

Diposting oleh di

Tidak ada komentar:

Posting Komentar

Langganan: Posting Komentar (Atom)