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Parkinson EW, Stoddart S, Sparacello V, Bertoldi F, Fonzo O, Malone C, Marini E, Martinet F, Moggi-Cecchi J, Pacciani E, Raiteri L, Stock JT. Multiproxy bioarchaeological data reveals interplay between growth, diet and population dynamics across the transition to farming in the central Mediterranean. Sci Rep 2023; 13:21965. [PMID: 38081902 PMCID: PMC10713518 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-49406-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2023] [Accepted: 12/07/2023] [Indexed: 12/18/2023] Open
Abstract
The transition to farming brought on a series of important changes in human society, lifestyle, diet and health. The human bioarchaeology of the agricultural transition has received much attention, however, relatively few studies have directly tested the interrelationship between individual lifestyle factors and their implications for understanding life history changes among the first farmers. We investigate the interplay between skeletal growth, diet, physical activity and population size across 30,000 years in the central Mediterranean through a 'big data' cross-analysis of osteological data related to stature (n = 361), body mass (n = 334) and long bone biomechanics (n = 481), carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotopes (n = 1986 human, n = 475 animal) and radiocarbon dates (n = 5263). We present the observed trends on a continuous timescale in order to avoid grouping our data into assigned 'time periods', thus achieving greater resolution and chronological control over our analysis. The results identify important changes in human life history strategies associated with the first farmers, but also highlight the long-term nature of these trends in the millennia either side of the agricultural transition. The integration of these different data is an important step towards disentangling the complex relationship between demography, diet and health, and reconstruct life history changes within a southern European context. We believe the methodological approach adopted here has broader global implications for bioarchaeological studies of human adaptation more generally.
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Affiliation(s)
- E W Parkinson
- Archaeology & Palaeoecology, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK.
| | - S Stoddart
- Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - V Sparacello
- Dipartimento di Scienze della vita e dell'ambiente, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy
| | - F Bertoldi
- Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università Ca Foscari Venezia, Venice, Italy
| | - O Fonzo
- Museo Archeologico "Genna Maria" di Villanovaforru, Villanovaforru, Italy
| | - C Malone
- Archaeology & Palaeoecology, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, UK
| | - E Marini
- Dipartimento di Scienze della vita e dell'ambiente, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy
| | - F Martinet
- Soprintendenza per i beni e le Attività Culturali della Valle d'Aosta, Aosta, Italy
| | - J Moggi-Cecchi
- Dipartimento Di Biologia, Università degli Studi Firenze, Florence, Italy
| | - E Pacciani
- Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio di Firenze, Pistoia e Prato, Florence, Italy
| | - L Raiteri
- Soprintendenza per i beni e le Attività Culturali della Valle d'Aosta, Aosta, Italy
| | - J T Stock
- Department of Anthropology, Western University, London, Canada
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Wang Y, Pedersen MW, Alsos IG, De Sanctis B, Racimo F, Prohaska A, Coissac E, Owens HL, Merkel MKF, Fernandez-Guerra A, Rouillard A, Lammers Y, Alberti A, Denoeud F, Money D, Ruter AH, McColl H, Larsen NK, Cherezova AA, Edwards ME, Fedorov GB, Haile J, Orlando L, Vinner L, Korneliussen TS, Beilman DW, Bjørk AA, Cao J, Dockter C, Esdale J, Gusarova G, Kjeldsen KK, Mangerud J, Rasic JT, Skadhauge B, Svendsen JI, Tikhonov A, Wincker P, Xing Y, Zhang Y, Froese DG, Rahbek C, Bravo DN, Holden PB, Edwards NR, Durbin R, Meltzer DJ, Kjær KH, Möller P, Willerslev E. Late Quaternary dynamics of Arctic biota from ancient environmental genomics. Nature 2021; 600:86-92. [PMID: 34671161 PMCID: PMC8636272 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04016-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2021] [Accepted: 09/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
During the last glacial-interglacial cycle, Arctic biotas experienced substantial climatic changes, yet the nature, extent and rate of their responses are not fully understood1-8. Here we report a large-scale environmental DNA metagenomic study of ancient plant and mammal communities, analysing 535 permafrost and lake sediment samples from across the Arctic spanning the past 50,000 years. Furthermore, we present 1,541 contemporary plant genome assemblies that were generated as reference sequences. Our study provides several insights into the long-term dynamics of the Arctic biota at the circumpolar and regional scales. Our key findings include: (1) a relatively homogeneous steppe-tundra flora dominated the Arctic during the Last Glacial Maximum, followed by regional divergence of vegetation during the Holocene epoch; (2) certain grazing animals consistently co-occurred in space and time; (3) humans appear to have been a minor factor in driving animal distributions; (4) higher effective precipitation, as well as an increase in the proportion of wetland plants, show negative effects on animal diversity; (5) the persistence of the steppe-tundra vegetation in northern Siberia enabled the late survival of several now-extinct megafauna species, including the woolly mammoth until 3.9 ± 0.2 thousand years ago (ka) and the woolly rhinoceros until 9.8 ± 0.2 ka; and (6) phylogenetic analysis of mammoth environmental DNA reveals a previously unsampled mitochondrial lineage. Our findings highlight the power of ancient environmental metagenomics analyses to advance understanding of population histories and long-term ecological dynamics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yucheng Wang
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Mikkel Winther Pedersen
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Inger Greve Alsos
- The Arctic University Museum of Norway, UiT- The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Bianca De Sanctis
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Fernando Racimo
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Ana Prohaska
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Eric Coissac
- The Arctic University Museum of Norway, UiT- The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
- Université Grenoble Alpes, Université Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LECA, Grenoble, France
| | - Hannah Lois Owens
- Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | | | - Antonio Fernandez-Guerra
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Alexandra Rouillard
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Geosciences, UiT-The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Youri Lammers
- The Arctic University Museum of Norway, UiT- The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Adriana Alberti
- Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, CNRS, Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), Gif-sur-Yvette, France
- Génomique Métabolique, Genoscope, Institut François Jacob, CEA, CNRS, Université Evry, Université Paris-Saclay, Evry, France
| | - France Denoeud
- Génomique Métabolique, Genoscope, Institut François Jacob, CEA, CNRS, Université Evry, Université Paris-Saclay, Evry, France
| | - Daniel Money
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Anthony H Ruter
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Hugh McColl
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Nicolaj Krog Larsen
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Anna A Cherezova
- Institute of Earth Sciences, St Petersburg State University, St Petersburg, Russia
- Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St Petersburg, Russia
| | - Mary E Edwards
- School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
- Alaska Quaternary Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA
| | - Grigory B Fedorov
- Institute of Earth Sciences, St Petersburg State University, St Petersburg, Russia
- Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St Petersburg, Russia
| | - James Haile
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Ludovic Orlando
- Centre d'Anthropobiologie et de Génomique de Toulouse, Université Paul Sabatier, Faculté de Médecine Purpan, Toulouse, France
| | - Lasse Vinner
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Thorfinn Sand Korneliussen
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- National Research University, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
| | - David W Beilman
- Department of Geography and Environment, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA
| | - Anders A Bjørk
- Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Jialu Cao
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | | | - Julie Esdale
- Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
| | - Galina Gusarova
- The Arctic University Museum of Norway, UiT- The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
- Faculty of Biology, St Petersburg State University, St Petersburg, Russia
| | - Kristian K Kjeldsen
- Department of Glaciology and Climate, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Jan Mangerud
- Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
- Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway
| | - Jeffrey T Rasic
- US National Park Service, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Fairbanks, AK, USA
| | | | - John Inge Svendsen
- Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
- Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway
| | - Alexei Tikhonov
- Zoological Institute, , Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg, Russia
| | - Patrick Wincker
- Génomique Métabolique, Genoscope, Institut François Jacob, CEA, CNRS, Université Evry, Université Paris-Saclay, Evry, France
| | - Yingchun Xing
- Resource and Environmental Research Center, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yubin Zhang
- College of Plant Science, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Duane G Froese
- Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
| | - Carsten Rahbek
- Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Center for Global Mountain Biodiversity, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - David Nogues Bravo
- Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Philip B Holden
- School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
| | - Neil R Edwards
- School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
| | - Richard Durbin
- Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - David J Meltzer
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA
| | - Kurt H Kjær
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Per Möller
- Department of Geology, Quaternary Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | - Eske Willerslev
- Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
- Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre, GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Genome Campus, Cambridge, UK.
- MARUM, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
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