This paper is of huge importance, so I think it deserves its own thread, though it has already been reported on the news thread.
Morten E. Allentoft et al., Population genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia, Nature, 522, 167–172 (11 June 2015)
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal...ture14507.html
Abstract
Allentoft2015.jpgThe Bronze Age of Eurasia (around 3000–1000 BC) was a period of major cultural changes. However, there is debate about whether these changes resulted from the circulation of ideas or from human migrations, potentially also facilitating the spread of languages and certain phenotypic traits. We investigated this by using new, improved methods to sequence low-coverage genomes from 101 ancient humans from across Eurasia. We show that the Bronze Age was a highly dynamic period involving large-scale population migrations and replacements, responsible for shaping major parts of present-day demographic structure in both Europe and Asia. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesized spread of Indo-European languages during the Early Bronze Age. We also demonstrate that light skin pigmentation in Europeans was already present at high frequency in the Bronze Age, but not lactose tolerance, indicating a more recent onset of positive selection on lactose tolerance than previously thought.
By analysing our genomic data in relation to previously published ancient and modern data (Supplementary Information, section 6), we find evidence for a genetically structured Europe during the Bronze Age (Fig. 2; Extended Data Fig. 1; and Supplementary Figs 5 and 6). Populations in northern and central Europe were composed of a mixture of the earlier hunter-gatherer and Neolithic farmer groups, but received ‘Caucasian’ genetic input at the onset of the Bronze Age (Fig. 2). This coincides with the archaeologically well defined expansion of the Yamnaya culture from the Pontic-Caspian steppe into Europe (Figs 1 and 2). This admixture event resulted in the formation of peoples of the Corded Ware and related cultures, as supported by negative ‘admixture’ f3 statistics when using Yamnaya as a source population (Extended Data Table 2, Supplementary Table 12). Although European Late Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures such as Corded Ware, Bell Beakers, Unetice, and the Scandinavian cultures are genetically very similar to each other (Fig. 2), they still display a cline of genetic affinity with Yamnaya, with highest levels in Corded Ware, lowest in Hungary, and central European Bell Beakers being intermediate (Fig. 2b and Extended Data Table 1).The close affinity we observe between peoples of Corded Ware and Sintashta cultures (Extended Data Fig. 2a) suggests similar genetic
sources of the two, which contrasts with previous hypotheses placing the origin of Sintastha in Asia or the Middle East. Although we
cannot formally test whether the Sintashta derives directly from an eastward migration of Corded Ware peoples or if they share common
ancestry with an earlier steppe population, the presence of European Neolithic farmer ancestry in both the Corded Ware and the Sintashta,
combined with the absence of Neolithic farmer ancestry in the earlier Yamnaya, would suggest the former being more probable (Fig. 2b and
Extended Data Table 1).
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Originally Posted by Humanist
