1
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Fort J, Pérez-Losada J. Interbreeding between farmers and hunter-gatherers along the inland and Mediterranean routes of Neolithic spread in Europe. Nat Commun 2024; 15:7032. [PMID: 39147743 PMCID: PMC11327347 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-51335-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2022] [Accepted: 08/05/2024] [Indexed: 08/17/2024] Open
Abstract
The Neolithic (i.e., farming and stockbreeding) spread from the Near East across Europe since about 9000 years before the common era (BCE) until about 4000 yr BCE. It followed two main routes, namely a sea route along the northern Mediterranean coast and an inland one across the Balkans and central Europe. It is known that the dispersive behavior of farmers depended on geography, with longer movements along the Mediterranean coast than along the inland route. In sharp contrast, here we show that for both routes the percentage of farmers who interbred with hunter-gatherers and/or acculturated one of them was strikingly the same (about 3.6%). Therefore, whereas the dispersive behavior depended on the proximity to the Mediterranean sea, the interaction behavior (incorporation of hunter-gatherers) did not depend on geographical constraints but only on the transition in the subsistence economy (from hunting and gathering to farming) and its associated way of life. These conclusions are reached by analyzing the clines of haplogroup K, which was virtually absent in hunter-gatherers and the most frequent mitochondrial haplogroup in early farmers. Similarly, the most frequent Y-chromosome Neolithic haplogroup (G2a) displays an inland cline that agrees with the percentage of interbreeding reported above.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joaquim Fort
- Complex Systems Laboratory, Universitat de Girona, C/ Maria Aurèlia Capmany 61, 17003, Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
- Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Passeig Lluís Companys 3, 08010, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
| | - Joaquim Pérez-Losada
- Complex Systems Laboratory, Universitat de Girona, C/ Maria Aurèlia Capmany 61, 17003, Girona, Catalonia, Spain
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2
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Gutaker RM, Purugganan MD. Adaptation and the Geographic Spread of Crop Species. ANNUAL REVIEW OF PLANT BIOLOGY 2024; 75:679-706. [PMID: 38012052 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-arplant-060223-030954] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
Crops are plant species that were domesticated starting about 11,000 years ago from several centers of origin, most prominently the Fertile Crescent, East Asia, and Mesoamerica. From their domestication centers, these crops spread across the globe and had to adapt to differing environments as a result of this dispersal. We discuss broad patterns of crop spread, including the early diffusion of crops associated with the rise and spread of agriculture, the later movement via ancient trading networks, and the exchange between the Old and New Worlds over the last ∼550 years after the European colonization of the Americas. We also examine the various genetic mechanisms associated with the evolutionary adaptation of crops to their new environments after dispersal, most prominently seasonal adaptation associated with movement across latitudes, as well as altitudinal, temperature, and other environmental factors.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Michael D Purugganan
- Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, New York University, New York, NY, USA;
- Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
- Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University, New York, NY, USA
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3
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Chira AM, Gray RD, Botero CA. Geography is not destiny: A quantitative test of Diamond's axis of orientation hypothesis. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2024; 6:e5. [PMID: 38274321 PMCID: PMC10808877 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2023.34] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2023] [Revised: 12/11/2023] [Accepted: 12/12/2023] [Indexed: 01/27/2024] Open
Abstract
Jared Diamond suggested that the unique East-West orientation of Eurasia facilitated the spread of cultural innovations and gave it substantial political, technological and military advantages over other continental regions. This controversial hypothesis assumes that innovations can spread more easily across similar habitats, and that environments tend to be more homogeneous at similar latitudes. The resulting prediction is that Eurasia is home to environmentally homogenous corridors that enable fast cultural transmission. Despite indirect evidence supporting Diamond's influential hypothesis, quantitative tests of its underlying assumptions are currently lacking. Here we address this critical gap by leveraging ecological, cultural and linguistic datasets at a global scale. Our analyses show that although societies that share similar ecologies are more likely to share cultural traits, the Eurasian continent is not significantly more ecologically homogeneous than other continental regions. Our findings highlight the perils of single factor explanations and remind us that even the most compelling ideas must be thoroughly tested to gain a solid understanding of the complex history of our species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Angela M. Chira
- Department of Biology, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, Missouri, USA
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Russell D. Gray
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand
| | - Carlos A. Botero
- Department of Biology, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, Missouri, USA
- Department of Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
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4
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Lenton TM, Scheffer M. Spread of the cycles: a feedback perspective on the Anthropocene. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2024; 379:20220254. [PMID: 37952624 PMCID: PMC10645129 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0254] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2023] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 11/14/2023] Open
Abstract
What propelled the human 'revolutions' that started the Anthropocene? and what could speed humanity out of trouble? Here, we focus on the role of reinforcing feedback cycles, often comprised of diverse, unrelated elements (e.g. fire, grass, humans), in propelling abrupt and/or irreversible, revolutionary changes. We suggest that differential 'spread of the cycles' has been critical to the past human revolutions of fire use, agriculture, rise of complex states and industrialization. For each revolution, we review and map out proposed reinforcing feedback cycles, and describe how new systems built on previous ones, propelling us into the Anthropocene. We argue that to escape a bleak Anthropocene will require abruptly shifting from existing unsustainable 'vicious cycles', to alternative sustainable 'virtuous cycles' that can outspread and outpersist them. This will need to be complemented by a revolutionary cultural shift from maximizing growth to maximizing persistence (sustainability). To achieve that we suggest that non-human elements need to be brought back into the feedback cycles underlying human cultures and associated measures of progress. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis'.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Marten Scheffer
- Wageningen University, Wageningen NL-6700 AA, The Netherlands
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5
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Pereira D, Manen C, Rigaud S. The shaping of social and symbolic capital during the transition to farming in the Western Mediterranean: Archaeological network analyses of pottery decorations and personal ornaments. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0294111. [PMID: 37939080 PMCID: PMC10631656 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2023] [Accepted: 10/25/2023] [Indexed: 11/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Storing information and circulating it between individuals and groups is a critical behaviour that signals a tipping point in our evolutionary history. Such practices enabled the preservation and consolidation of knowledge over extended periods, facilitating the accumulation of cultural innovations across generations. In this study, we used Social Network Analysis methods to explore how knowledge circulated during the transition to agriculture in the Western Mediterranean region. Previous studies have shown that specific elements of the material culture reveal distinct patterns of cultural interaction among early farming communities. Here, we investigated if two archaeological proxies, personal ornaments and pottery decorations, both with an exclusively symbolic function, reveal different network structures, and if the different degree of connexions acted equally on the transmission of styles, symbols, and network changes over time. Our results relied on cultural data recorded from 77 archaeological occupations covering Italy, France, and Spain, spanning over 1,500 years (ca. 7950~6450 cal BP). By utilizing a chronological dataset comprising 114 radiocarbon dates, we revealed that pottery decorative techniques networks exhibited stronger connexions over space and time, with nodes organized in clear cluster, when compared to personal ornaments networks. The findings highlight the regionalization and fragmentation of cultural networks during the Early Neolithic, and that the transmission of cultural traits within each category of artefact operated through varying cultural and social mechanisms. Pottery expressed a dynamic regional identity, continuously shaped by geographical and chronological proximity, while bead-type associations contributed to enduring identities shared across vast geographical scales. These networks shed light on the multifaceted shaping of social and symbolic capital among the Mediterranean's early farmers, emphasizing the strength and quality of social ties that existed between communities and the level of reciprocity and cooperation required to foster these diverse social, economic, and cultural development strategies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel Pereira
- CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, Ministère de la Culture, PACEA, UMR 5199, Pessac, France
| | - Claire Manen
- CNRS UMR5608 TRACES. Université de Toulouse Jean-Jaurès, Maison de la Recherche, Toulouse, France
| | - Solange Rigaud
- CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, Ministère de la Culture, PACEA, UMR 5199, Pessac, France
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6
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The transmission of pottery technology among prehistoric European hunter-gatherers. Nat Hum Behav 2023; 7:171-183. [PMID: 36550220 PMCID: PMC9957732 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-022-01491-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2022] [Accepted: 11/01/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Human history has been shaped by global dispersals of technologies, although understanding of what enabled these processes is limited. Here, we explore the behavioural mechanisms that led to the emergence of pottery among hunter-gatherer communities in Europe during the mid-Holocene. Through radiocarbon dating, we propose this dispersal occurred at a far faster rate than previously thought. Chemical characterization of organic residues shows that European hunter-gatherer pottery had a function structured around regional culinary practices rather than environmental factors. Analysis of the forms, decoration and technological choices suggests that knowledge of pottery spread through a process of cultural transmission. We demonstrate a correlation between the physical properties of pots and how they were used, reflecting social traditions inherited by successive generations of hunter-gatherers. Taken together the evidence supports kinship-driven, super-regional communication networks that existed long before other major innovations such as agriculture, writing, urbanism or metallurgy.
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7
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Liu C, Stout D. Inferring cultural reproduction from lithic data: A critical review. Evol Anthropol 2022; 32:83-99. [PMID: 36245296 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21964] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2022] [Revised: 05/10/2022] [Accepted: 09/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The cultural reproduction of lithic technology, long an implicit assumption of archaeological theories, has garnered increasing attention over the past decades. Major debates ranging from the origins of the human culture capacity to the interpretation of spatiotemporal patterning now make explicit reference to social learning mechanisms and cultural evolutionary dynamics. This burgeoning literature has produced important insights and methodological innovations. However, this rapid growth has sometimes led to confusion and controversy due to an under-examination of underlying theoretical and methodological assumptions. The time is thus ripe for a critical assessment of progress in the study of the cultural reproduction of lithic technology. Here we review recent work addressing the evolutionary origins of human culture and the meaning of artifact variation at both intrasite and intersite levels. We propose that further progress will require a more extended and context-specific evolutionary approach to address the complexity of real-world cultural reproduction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cheng Liu
- Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
| | - Dietrich Stout
- Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
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8
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Crema ER, Stevens CJ, Shoda S. Bayesian analyses of direct radiocarbon dates reveal geographic variations in the rate of rice farming dispersal in prehistoric Japan. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2022; 8:eadc9171. [PMID: 36129978 PMCID: PMC9491708 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adc9171] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2022] [Accepted: 08/04/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The adoption of rice farming during the first millennium BC was a turning point in Japanese prehistory, defining the subsequent cultural, linguistic, and genetic variation in the archipelago. Here, we use a suite of novel Bayesian techniques to estimate the regional rates of dispersal and arrival time of rice farming using radiocarbon dates on charred rice remains. Our results indicate substantial variations in the rate of dispersal of rice within the Japanese islands, hinting at the presence of a mixture of demic and cultural diffusion, geographic variations in the suitability of its cultivation, and the possible role of existing social networks in facilitating or hindering the adoption of the new subsistence economy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Enrico R. Crema
- Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Chris J. Stevens
- McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Shinya Shoda
- Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Nara, Japan
- BioArCh, University of York, York, UK
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9
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Field Model-Based Cultural Diffusion Patterns and GIS Spatial Analysis Study on the Spatial Diffusion Patterns of Qijia Culture in China. REMOTE SENSING 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/rs14061422] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Cultural diffusion is one of the core issues among researchers in the field of cultural geography. This study aimed to examine the spatial diffusion patterns of the Qijia culture (QJC) to clarify the origin and formation process of Chinese field model-based cultural diffusion patterns (FM-CDP) and geographic information system (GIS) spatial analysis methods. It used the point data of Qijia cultural sites without time information and combined them with the relevant records of Qijia cultural and historical documents, as well as archaeological excavation materials. Starting with the spatial location information of cultural distribution, it comprehensively analysed the cultural hearth, regions, diffusion patterns, and diffusion paths. The results indicated the following. (1) The QJC’s heart is in the southeast of Gansu Province, where the Shizhaocun and Xishanping sites are distributed. (2) Five different levels of cultural regions were formed, which demonstrated different diffusion patterns at different regional scales. On a large regional scale, many cultural regions belong to relocation diffusion patterns. Meanwhile, at the small regional scale (in the Gansu–Qinghai region), there are two patterns of diffusion: expansion diffusion and relocation diffusion; however, the expansion diffusion pattern is the main one. (3) Based on the relationship between the QJC, altitude, and the water system, the culture also has the characteristics of diffusion to low altitude areas and a pattern of diffusion along water systems. (4) There is a circular structure of the core, periphery, and fringe regions of the QJC. Finally, (5) the dry and cold climate around 4000a B.P., the cultural exchange between Europe and the Asian continent (the introduction of barley, wheat, livestock and sheep, and copper smelting technology), and the war in the late Neolithic period were important factors affecting the diffusion of the QJC.
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10
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Middle Pleistocene fire use: The first signal of widespread cultural diffusion in human evolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2101108118. [PMID: 34301807 PMCID: PMC8346817 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2101108118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Control of fire is one of the most important technological innovations within the evolution of humankind. The archaeological signal of fire use becomes very visible from around 400,000 y ago onward. Interestingly, this occurs at a geologically similar time over major parts of the Old World, in Africa, as well as in western Eurasia, and in different subpopulations of the wider hominin metapopulation. We interpret this spatiotemporal pattern as the result of cultural diffusion, and as representing the earliest clear-cut case of widespread cultural change resulting from diffusion in human evolution. This fire-use pattern is followed slightly later by a similar spatiotemporal distribution of Levallois technology, at the beginning of the African Middle Stone Age and the western Eurasian Middle Paleolithic. These archaeological data, as well as studies of ancient genomes, lead us to hypothesize that at the latest by 400,000 y ago, hominin subpopulations encountered one another often enough and were sufficiently tolerant toward one another to transmit ideas and techniques over large regions within relatively short time periods. Furthermore, it is likely that the large-scale social networks necessary to transmit complicated skills were also in place. Most importantly, this suggests a form of cultural behavior significantly more similar to that of extant Homo sapiens than to our great ape relatives.
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11
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Abstract
Behavioral genetics and cultural evolution have both revolutionized our understanding of human behavior-largely independent of each other. Here we reconcile these two fields under a dual inheritance framework, offering a more nuanced understanding of the interaction between genes and culture. Going beyond typical analyses of gene-environment interactions, we describe the cultural dynamics that shape these interactions by shaping the environment and population structure. A cultural evolutionary approach can explain, for example, how factors such as rates of innovation and diffusion, density of cultural sub-groups, and tolerance for behavioral diversity impact heritability estimates, thus yielding predictions for different social contexts. Moreover, when cumulative culture functionally overlaps with genes, genetic effects become masked, unmasked, or even reversed, and the causal effects of an identified gene become confounded with features of the cultural environment. The manner of confounding is specific to a particular society at a particular time, but a WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic) sampling problem obscures this boundedness. Cultural evolutionary dynamics are typically missing from models of gene-to-phenotype causality, hindering generalizability of genetic effects across societies and across time. We lay out a reconciled framework and use it to predict the ways in which heritability should differ between societies, between socioeconomic levels and other groupings within some societies but not others, and over the life course. An integrated cultural evolutionary behavioral genetic approach cuts through the nature-nurture debate and helps resolve controversies in topics such as IQ.
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12
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Lucas-Sánchez M, Serradell JM, Comas D. Population history of North Africa based on modern and ancient genomes. Hum Mol Genet 2020; 30:R17-R23. [PMID: 33284971 DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddaa261] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/17/2020] [Revised: 11/30/2020] [Accepted: 12/02/2020] [Indexed: 01/09/2023] Open
Abstract
Compared with the rest of the African continent, North Africa has provided limited genomic data. Nonetheless, the genetic data available show a complex demographic scenario characterized by extensive admixture and drift. Despite the continuous gene flow from the Middle East, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, an autochthonous genetic component that dates back to pre-Holocene times is still present in North African groups. The comparison of ancient and modern genomes has evidenced a genetic continuity in the region since Epipaleolithic times. Later population movements, especially the gene flow from the Middle East associated with the Neolithic, have diluted the genetic autochthonous component, creating an east to west gradient. Recent historical movements, such as the Arabization, have also contributed to the genetic landscape observed currently in North Africa and have culturally transformed the region. Genome analyses have not shown evidence of a clear correlation between cultural and genetic diversity in North Africa, as there is no genetic pattern of differentiation between Tamazight (i.e. Berber) and Arab speakers as a whole. Besides the gene flow received from neighboring areas, the analysis of North African genomes has shown that the region has also acted as a source of gene flow since ancient times. As a result of the genetic uniqueness of North African groups and the lack of available data, there is an urgent need for the study of genetic variation in the region and its implications in health and disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcel Lucas-Sánchez
- Departament de Ciències Experimentals i de la Salut, Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Jose M Serradell
- Departament de Ciències Experimentals i de la Salut, Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
| | - David Comas
- Departament de Ciències Experimentals i de la Salut, Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
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13
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Vander Linden M, Silva F. Dispersals as demographic processes: testing and describing the spread of the Neolithic in the Balkans. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2020; 376:20200231. [PMID: 33250036 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0231] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Although population history and dispersal are back at the forefront of the archaeological agenda, they are often studied in relative isolation. This contribution aims at combining both dimensions, as population dispersal is, by definition, a demographic process. Using a case study drawn from the Early Neolithic of South-Eastern Europe, we use radiocarbon dates to jointly investigate changes in speed and population size linked to the new food production economy and demonstrate that the spread of farming in this region corresponds to a density-dependent dispersal process. The implications of this characterization are evaluated in the discussion. This article is part of the theme issue 'Cross-disciplinary approaches to prehistoric demography'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc Vander Linden
- Institute for the Modelling of Socio-Environmental Transitions, Bournemouth University, Poole, BH12 5BB, UK
| | - Fabio Silva
- Institute for the Modelling of Socio-Environmental Transitions, Bournemouth University, Poole, BH12 5BB, UK
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14
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Pollegioni P, Lungo SD, Müller R, Woeste KE, Chiocchini F, Clark J, Hemery GE, Mapelli S, Villani F, Malvolti ME, Mattioni C. Biocultural diversity of common walnut ( Juglans regia L.) and sweet chestnut ( Castanea sativa Mill.) across Eurasia. Ecol Evol 2020; 10:11192-11216. [PMID: 33144959 PMCID: PMC7593191 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.6761] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/02/2020] [Revised: 08/05/2020] [Accepted: 08/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
A biocultural diversity approach integrates plant biology and germplasm dispersal processes with human cultural diversity. An increasing number of studies have identified cultural factors and ethnolinguistic barriers as the main drivers of the genetic diversity in crop plants. Little is known about how anthropogenic processes have affected the evolution of tree crops over the entire time scale of their interaction with humans. In Asia and the Mediterranean, common walnut (Juglans regia L.) and sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) have been economically and culturally important crops for millennia; there, in ancient times, they were invested with symbolic and religious significance. In this study, we detected a partial geographic congruence between the ethno-linguistic repartition of human communities, the distribution of major cognitive sets of word-related terms, and the inferred genetic clusters of common walnut and sweet chestnut populations across Eurasia. Our data indicated that isolation by distance processes, landscape heterogeneity and cultural boundaries might have promoted simultaneously human language diversification and walnut/chestnut differentiation across the same geographic macro-regions. Hotspots of common walnut and sweet chestnut genetic diversity were associated with areas of linguistic enrichment in the Himalayas, Trans-Caucasus, and Pyrenees Mountains, where common walnuts and sweet chestnuts had sustained ties to human culture since the Early Bronze Age. Our multidisciplinary approach supported the indirect and direct role of humans in shaping walnut and chestnut diversity across Eurasia from the EBA (e.g., Persian Empire and Greek-Roman colonization) until the first evidence of active selection and clonal propagation by grafting of both species. Our findings highlighted the benefit of an efficient integration of the relevant cultural factors in the classical genome (G) × environmental (E) model and the urgency of a systematic application of the biocultural diversity concept in the reconstruction of the evolutionary history of tree species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paola Pollegioni
- Research Institute on Terrestrial EcosystemsNational Research CouncilPoranoTerniItaly
| | - Stefano Del Lungo
- The Institute of Cultural Heritage ScienceNational Research CouncilTito ScaloPotenzaItaly
| | - Ruth Müller
- Unit EntomologyDepartment of Biomedical SciencesInstitute of Tropical MedicineAntwerpBelgium
| | - Keith E. Woeste
- Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration CenterDepartment of Forestry and Natural ResourcesU.S.D.A. Forest ServicePurdue UniversityWest LafayetteINUSA
| | - Francesca Chiocchini
- Research Institute on Terrestrial EcosystemsNational Research CouncilPoranoTerniItaly
| | - Jo Clark
- Future Tree TrustStroudGloucestershireUK
| | | | - Sergio Mapelli
- Institute of Agricultural Biology and BiotechnologyNational Research CouncilMilanItaly
| | - Fiorella Villani
- Research Institute on Terrestrial EcosystemsNational Research CouncilPoranoTerniItaly
| | - Maria Emilia Malvolti
- Research Institute on Terrestrial EcosystemsNational Research CouncilPoranoTerniItaly
| | - Claudia Mattioni
- Research Institute on Terrestrial EcosystemsNational Research CouncilPoranoTerniItaly
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15
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Abstract
Some human fronts spread faster than expected by models based on dispersal and reproduction. The only explanation proposed so far assumes that some autochthonous individuals are incorporated by the expanding populations, leading to faster front speeds. Here we show that simple models without this effect are also consistent with the observed speeds of two fronts (a Khoi-khoi expansion of herders and a Bantu expansion of farmers), provided that the dispersal of individuals is biased (i.e., more probable) in directions closer to the front propagation direction. The physical models presented may also be applied to other kinds of social phenomena, including innovation diffusion, rumor propagation, linguistic fronts, epidemic spread, diffusion in economic space and the evolution of cooperation in spatial systems. They can be also adapted to non-human systems with biased dispersal, including biological invasions, cancer tumors and virus treatment of tumors.
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16
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Aoki K. A three-population wave-of-advance model for the European early Neolithic. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0233184. [PMID: 32428013 PMCID: PMC7237037 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0233184] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2020] [Accepted: 04/29/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Ancient DNA studies have shown that early farming spread through most of Europe by the range expansion of farmers of Anatolian origin rather than by the conversion to farming of the local hunter-gatherers, and have confirmed that these hunter-gatherers continued to coexist with the incoming farmers. In this short report, I extend a previous three-population wave-of-advance model to accommodate these new findings, and derive the conditions supportive of such a scenario in terms of the relative magnitudes of the parameters. The revised model predicts that the conversion rate must, not surprisingly, be low, but also that the hunter-gatherers must compete more strongly with the converted farmers than with the alien farmers. Moreover, competition with the hunter-gatherers diminishes the speed of the wave-of advance of the farmers. In addition, I briefly consider how the wave-of-advance approach may contribute to interpreting the results of archaeological studies using the summed probability distribution of radiocarbon dates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kenichi Aoki
- Organization for the Strategic Coordination of Research and Intellectual Properties, Meiji University, Nakano-ku, Tokyo, Japan
- * E-mail:
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17
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Williams AC, Hill LJ. Nicotinamide as Independent Variable for Intelligence, Fertility, and Health: Origin of Human Creative Explosions? Int J Tryptophan Res 2019; 12:1178646919855944. [PMID: 31258332 PMCID: PMC6585247 DOI: 10.1177/1178646919855944] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2019] [Accepted: 05/03/2019] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Meat and nicotinamide acquisition was a defining force during the 2-million-year evolution of the big brains necessary for, anatomically modern, Homo sapiens to survive. Our next move was down the food chain during the Mesolithic 'broad spectrum', then horticultural, followed by the Neolithic agricultural revolutions and progressively lower average 'doses' of nicotinamide. We speculate that a fertility crisis and population bottleneck around 40 000 years ago, at the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, was overcome by Homo (but not the Neanderthals) by concerted dietary change plus profertility genes and intense sexual selection culminating in behaviourally modern Homo sapiens. Increased reliance on the 'de novo' synthesis of nicotinamide from tryptophan conditioned the immune system to welcome symbionts, such as TB (that excrete nicotinamide), and to increase tolerance of the foetus and thereby fertility. The trade-offs during the warmer Holocene were physical and mental stunting and more infectious diseases and population booms and busts. Higher nicotinamide exposure could be responsible for recent demographic and epidemiological transitions to lower fertility and higher longevity, but with more degenerative and auto-immune disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrian C Williams
- Department of Neurology, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK
| | - Lisa J Hill
- School of Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Clinical Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
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Ahedo V, Caro J, Bortolini E, Zurro D, Madella M, Galán JM. Quantifying the relationship between food sharing practices and socio-ecological variables in small-scale societies: A cross-cultural multi-methodological approach. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0216302. [PMID: 31141510 PMCID: PMC6541262 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0216302] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/21/2019] [Accepted: 04/17/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
This article presents a cross-cultural study of the relationship among the subsistence strategies, the environmental setting and the food sharing practices of 22 modern small-scale societies located in America (n = 18) and Siberia (n = 4). Ecological, geographical and economic variables of these societies were extracted from specialized literature and the publicly available D-PLACE database. The approach proposed comprises a variety of quantitative methods, ranging from exploratory techniques aimed at capturing relationships of any type between variables, to network theory and supervised-learning predictive modelling. Results provided by all techniques consistently show that the differences observed in food sharing practices across the sampled populations cannot be explained just by the differential distribution of ecological, geographical and economic variables. Food sharing has to be interpreted as a more complex cultural phenomenon, whose variation over time and space cannot be ascribed only to local adaptation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Virginia Ahedo
- Área de Organización de Empresas, Departamento de Ingeniería Civil, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad de Burgos, Burgos, Spain
- CaSEs—Culture and Socio-Ecological Systems research group, Departamento de Arqueología y Antropología, Institución Milá y Fontanals–Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain & Departamento de Humanidades, Universidad Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Jorge Caro
- Área de Organización de Empresas, Departamento de Ingeniería Civil, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad de Burgos, Burgos, Spain
- CaSEs—Culture and Socio-Ecological Systems research group, Departamento de Arqueología y Antropología, Institución Milá y Fontanals–Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain & Departamento de Humanidades, Universidad Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Eugenio Bortolini
- CaSEs—Culture and Socio-Ecological Systems research group, Departamento de Arqueología y Antropología, Institución Milá y Fontanals–Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain & Departamento de Humanidades, Universidad Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, Ravenna, Italy
| | - Débora Zurro
- CaSEs—Culture and Socio-Ecological Systems research group, Departamento de Arqueología y Antropología, Institución Milá y Fontanals–Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain & Departamento de Humanidades, Universidad Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Marco Madella
- CaSEs—Culture and Socio-Ecological Systems research group, Departamento de Arqueología y Antropología, Institución Milá y Fontanals–Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain & Departamento de Humanidades, Universidad Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain
- ICREA, Barcelona, Spain
- School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | - José Manuel Galán
- INSISOC, Área de Organización de Empresas, Departamento de Ingeniería Civil, Escuela Politécnica Superior, Universidad de Burgos, Burgos, Spain
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Isern N, Fort J. Assessing the importance of cultural diffusion in the Bantu spread into southeastern Africa. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0215573. [PMID: 31067220 PMCID: PMC6506142 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0215573] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2018] [Accepted: 04/05/2019] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The subsistence of Neolithic populations is based on agriculture, whereas that of previous populations was based on hunting and gathering. Neolithic spreads due to dispersal of populations are called demic, and those due to the incorporation of hunter-gatherers are called cultural. It is well-known that, after agriculture appeared in West Africa, it spread across most of subequatorial Africa. It has been proposed that this spread took place alongside with that of Bantu languages. In eastern and southeastern Africa, it is also linked to the Early Iron Age. From the beginning of the last millennium BC, cereal agriculture spread rapidly from the Great Lakes area eastwards to the East African coast, and southwards to northeastern South Africa. Here we show that the southwards spread took place substantially more rapidly (1.50–2.27 km/y) than the eastwards spread (0.59–1.27 km/y). Such a faster southwards spread could be the result of a stronger cultural effect. To assess this possibility, we compare these observed ranges to those obtained from a demic-cultural wave-of-advance model. We find that both spreads were driven by demic diffusion, in agreement with most archaeological, linguistic and genetic results. Nonetheless, the southwards spread seems to have indeed a stronger cultural component, which could lead support to the hypothesis that, at the southern areas, the interaction with pastoralist people may have played a significant role.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neus Isern
- Complex Systems Laboratory, University of Girona, Girona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Joaquim Fort
- Complex Systems Laboratory, University of Girona, Girona, Catalonia, Spain
- Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
- * E-mail:
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Bonini SA, Premoli M, Tambaro S, Kumar A, Maccarinelli G, Memo M, Mastinu A. Cannabis sativa: A comprehensive ethnopharmacological review of a medicinal plant with a long history. JOURNAL OF ETHNOPHARMACOLOGY 2018; 227:300-315. [PMID: 30205181 DOI: 10.1016/j.jep.2018.09.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 284] [Impact Index Per Article: 47.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2018] [Revised: 09/02/2018] [Accepted: 09/03/2018] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE Cannabis sativa L. (C. sativa) is an annual dioecious plant, which shares its origins with the inception of the first agricultural human societies in Asia. Over the course of time different parts of the plant have been utilized for therapeutic and recreational purposes, for instance, extraction of healing oils from seed, or the use of inflorescences for their psychoactive effects. The key psychoactive constituent in C. sativa is called Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (D9-THC). The endocannabinoid system seems to be phylogenetically ancient, as it was present in the most primitive vertebrates with a neuronal network. N-arachidonoylethanolamine (AEA) and 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2-AG) are the main endocannabinoids ligands present in the animal kingdom, and the main endocannabinoid receptors are cannabinoid type-1 (CB1) receptor and cannabinoid type-2 (CB2) receptor. AIM OF THE STUDY The review aims to provide a critical and comprehensive evaluation, from the ancient times to our days, of the ethnological, botanical, chemical and pharmacological aspects of C. sativa, with a vision for promoting further pharmaceutical research to explore its complete potential as a therapeutic agent. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was performed by reviewing in extensive details the studies on historical significance and ethnopharmacological applications of C. sativa by using international scientific databases, books, Master's and Ph.D. dissertations and government reports. In addition, we also try to gather relevant information from large regional as well as global unpublished resources. In addition, the plant taxonomy was validated using certified databases such as Medicinal Plant Names Services (MPNS) and The Plant List. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS A detailed comparative analysis of the available resources for C. sativa confirmed its origin and traditional spiritual, household and therapeutic uses and most importantly its popularity as a recreational drug. The result of several studies suggested a deeper involvement of phytocannabinoids (the key compounds in C. sativa) in several others central and peripheral pathophysiological mechanisms such as food intake, inflammation, pain, colitis, sleep disorders, neurological and psychiatric illness. However, despite their numerous medicinal benefits, they are still considered as a menace to the society and banned throughout the world, except for few countries. We believe that this review will help lay the foundation for promoting exhaustive pharmacological and pharmaceutical studies in order to better understand the clinical relevance and applications of non-psychoactive cannabinoids in the prevention and treatment of life-threatening diseases and help to improve the legal status of C. sativa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Anna Bonini
- Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, Division of Pharmacology, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
| | - Marika Premoli
- Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, Division of Pharmacology, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
| | - Simone Tambaro
- Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Center for Alzheimer Research, Division of Neurogeriatrics, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden
| | - Amit Kumar
- Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Center for Alzheimer Research, Division of Clinical Geriatrics, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden
| | - Giuseppina Maccarinelli
- Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, Division of Pharmacology, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
| | - Maurizio Memo
- Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, Division of Pharmacology, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
| | - Andrea Mastinu
- Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, Division of Pharmacology, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
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21
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Fort J, Mercè Pareta M, Sørensen L. Estimating the relative importance of demic and cultural diffusion in the spread of the Neolithic in Scandinavia. J R Soc Interface 2018; 15:20180597. [PMID: 30464058 PMCID: PMC6283996 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2018.0597] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2018] [Accepted: 10/29/2018] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Using a database of early farming sites in Scandinavia, we estimate that the spread rate of the Neolithic was in the range 0.44-0.66 km yr-1 This is substantially slower (by about 50%) than the rate in continental Europe. We interpret this result in the framework of a new mathematical model that includes horizontal cultural transmission (acculturation), vertical cultural transmission (interbreeding) and demic diffusion (reproduction and dispersal of farmers). To parametrize the model, we estimate reproduction rates of early farmers using archaeological data (sum-calibrated probabilities for the dates of early Neolithic Scandinavian sites) and use them in a wave-of-advance model for the first time. Comparing the model with the archaeological data, we find that the percentage of the spread rate due to cultural diffusion is below 50% (except for very extreme parameter values, and even for them it is below 54%). This strongly suggests that the spread of the Neolithic in Scandinavia was driven mainly by demic diffusion. This conclusion, obtained from archaeological data, agrees qualitatively with the implications of ancient genetic data, but the latter are yet too few in Scandinavia to produce any quantitative percentage for the spread rate due to cultural diffusion. We also find that, on average, fewer than eight hunter-gatherers were incorporated in the Neolithic communities by each group of 10 pioneering farmers, via horizontal and/or vertical cultural transmission.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joaquim Fort
- Complex Systems Laboratory, University of Girona, C/. Maria Aurèlia Capmany 61, 17003 Girona, Spain
- Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), C/. Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Maria Mercè Pareta
- Complex Systems Laboratory, University of Girona, C/. Maria Aurèlia Capmany 61, 17003 Girona, Spain
| | - Lasse Sørensen
- Ancient Cultures of Denmark and the Mediterranean, The National Museum of Denmark, Frederiksholms Kanal 12, 1220 Copenhagen K, Denmark
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A serial founder effect model of phonemic diversity based on phonemic loss in low-density populations. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0198346. [PMID: 29856877 PMCID: PMC5983421 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198346] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/22/2017] [Accepted: 05/17/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
It has been observed that the number of phonemes in languages in use today tends to decrease with increasing distance from Africa. A previous formal model has recently reproduced the observed cline, but under two strong assumptions. Here we tackle the question of whether an alternative explanation for the worldwide phonemic cline is possible, by using alternative assumptions. The answer is affirmative. We show this by formalizing a proposal, following Atkinson, that this pattern may be due to a repeated bottleneck effect and phonemic loss. In our simulations, low-density populations lose phonemes during the Out-of-Africa dispersal of modern humans. Our results reproduce the observed global cline for the number of phonemes. In addition, we also detect a cline of phonemic diversity and reproduce it using our simulation model. We suggest how future work could determine whether the previous model or the new one (or even a combination of them) is valid. Simulations also show that the clines can still be present even 300 kyr after the Out-of-Africa dispersal, which is contrary to some previous claims which were not supported by numerical simulations.
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Rigaud S, Manen C, García-Martínez de Lagrán I. Symbols in motion: Flexible cultural boundaries and the fast spread of the Neolithic in the western Mediterranean. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0196488. [PMID: 29715284 PMCID: PMC5929525 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0196488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2017] [Accepted: 04/13/2018] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The rapid diffusion of farming technologies in the western Mediterranean raises questions about the mechanisms that drove the development of intensive contact networks and circulation routes between incoming Neolithic communities. Using a statistical method to analyze a brand-new set of cultural and chronological data, we document the large-scale processes that led to variations between Mediterranean archaeological cultures, and micro-scale processes responsible for the transmission of cultural practices within farming communities. The analysis of two symbolic productions, pottery decorations and personal ornaments, shed light on the complex interactions developed by Early Neolithic farmers in the western Mediterranean area. Pottery decoration diversity correlates with local processes of circulation and exchange, resulting in the emergence and the persistence of stylistic and symbolic boundaries between groups, while personal ornaments reflect extensive networks and the high level of mobility of Early Neolithic farmers. The two symbolic productions express different degrees of cultural interaction that may have facilitated the successful and rapid expansion of early farming societies in the western Mediterranean.
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Affiliation(s)
- Solange Rigaud
- CNRS, UMR 5199 –PACEA, Université de Bordeaux, Bâtiment, Allée Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, Pessac, France
- * E-mail:
| | - Claire Manen
- CNRS, UMR 5608 –TRACES, Université Toulouse–Jean Jaurès, Maison de la Recherche, 5, allées Antonio-Machado, Toulouse Cedex 9, France
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24
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Ramljak J, Bunevski G, Bytyqi H, Marković B, Brka M, Ivanković A, Kume K, Stojanović S, Nikolov V, Simčič M, Sölkner J, Kunz E, Rothammer S, Seichter D, Grünenfelder HP, Broxham ET, Kugler W, Medugorac I. Conservation of a domestic metapopulation structured into related and partly admixed strains. Mol Ecol 2018; 27:1633-1650. [PMID: 29575253 DOI: 10.1111/mec.14555] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2016] [Revised: 02/16/2018] [Accepted: 02/23/2018] [Indexed: 01/31/2023]
Abstract
Preservation of genetic diversity is one of the most pressing challenges in the planetary boundaries concept. Within this context, we focused on genetic diversity in a native, unselected and highly admixed domesticated metapopulation. A set of 1,828 individuals from 60 different cattle breeds was analysed using a medium density SNP chip. Among these breeds, 14 Buša strains formed a metapopulation represented by 350 individuals, while the remaining 46 breeds represented the global cattle population. Genetic analyses showed that the scarcely selected and less differentiated Buša metapopulation contributed a substantial proportion (52.6%) of the neutral allelic diversity to this global taurine population. Consequently, there is an urgent need for synchronized maintenance of this highly fragmented domestic metapopulation, which is distributed over several countries without sophisticated infrastructure and highly endangered by continuous replacement crossing as part of the global genetic homogenization process. This study collected and evaluated samples, data and genomewide information and developed genome-assisted cross-border conservation concepts. To detect and maintain genetic integrity of the metapopulation strains, we designed and applied a composite test that combines six metrics based on additive genetic relationships, a nearest neighbour graph and the distribution of semiprivate alleles. Each metric provides distinct information components about past admixture events and offers an objective and powerful tool for the detection of admixed outliers. The here developed conservation methods and presented experiences could easily be adapted to comparable conservation programmes of domesticated or other metapopulations bred and kept in captivity or under some other sort of human control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jelena Ramljak
- Population Genomics Group, Department of Veterinary Sciences, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany.,Department of Animal Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
| | - Gjoko Bunevski
- Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Food, University Ss. Cyril and Methodius, Skopje, Macedonia
| | - Hysen Bytyqi
- Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary, University of Prishtina, Prishtina, Kosovo-UNMIC
| | - Božidarka Marković
- Department of Livestock Science, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Montenegro, Podgorica, Montenegro
| | - Muhamed Brka
- Institute of Animal Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
| | - Ante Ivanković
- Department of Animal Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
| | | | - Srđan Stojanović
- Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, Beograd, Serbia
| | - Vasil Nikolov
- Executive Agency for Selection and Reproduction in Animal Breeding, Sofia, Bulgaria
| | - Mojca Simčič
- Department of Animal Science, Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Johann Sölkner
- Division of Livestock Science, Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Elisabeth Kunz
- Population Genomics Group, Department of Veterinary Sciences, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Sophie Rothammer
- Population Genomics Group, Department of Veterinary Sciences, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
| | | | | | | | | | - Ivica Medugorac
- Population Genomics Group, Department of Veterinary Sciences, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany
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25
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Harris EE. Demic and cultural diffusion in prehistoric Europe in the age of ancient genomes. Evol Anthropol 2017; 26:228-241. [PMID: 29027332 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21545] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/23/2017] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Ancient genomes can help us detect prehistoric migrations, population contractions, and admixture among populations. Knowing the dynamics of demography is invaluable for understanding culture change in prehistory, particularly the roles played by demic and cultural diffusion in transformations of material cultures. Prehistoric Europe is a region where ancient genome analyses can help illuminate the interplay between demography and culture change. In Europe, there is more archeological evidence, in terms of detailed studies, radiometric dates, and explanatory hypotheses that can be evaluated, than in any other region of the world. Here I show some important ways that ancient genomes have given us insights into population movements in European prehistory. I also propose that studies might be increasingly focused on specific questions of culture change, for example in evaluating the makers of "transitional" industries as well as the origins of the Gravettian and spread of the Magdalenian. I also discuss genomic evidence supporting the large role that demic expansion has played in the Neolithization of Europe and the formation of the European population during the Bronze Age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eugene E Harris
- Department of Biological Sciences and Geology, Queensborough Community College, City University of New York, Medical Arts Building, M-213, 222-05, 56th Avenue Bayside, NY, 1136411364.,Affiliated Researcher, Center for the Study of Human Origins, New York University
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26
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Pimenta J, Lopes AM, Comas D, Amorim A, Arenas M. Evaluating the Neolithic Expansion at Both Shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Mol Biol Evol 2017; 34:3232-3242. [DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msx256] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
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The ancient cline of haplogroup K implies that the Neolithic transition in Europe was mainly demic. Sci Rep 2017; 7:11229. [PMID: 28894281 PMCID: PMC5594011 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-11629-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2017] [Accepted: 08/29/2017] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Using a database with the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of 513 Neolithic individuals, we quantify the space-time variation of the frequency of haplogroup K, previously proposed as a relevant Neolithic marker. We compare these data to simulations, based on a mathematical model in which a Neolithic population spreads from Syria to Anatolia and Europe, possibly interbreeding with Mesolithic individuals (who lack haplogroup K) and/or teaching farming to them. Both the data and the simulations show that the percentage of haplogroup K (%K) decreases with increasing distance from Syria and that, in each region, the %K tends to decrease with increasing time after the arrival of farming. Both the model and the data display a local minimum of the genetic cline, and for the same Neolithic regional culture (Sweden). Comparing the observed ancient cline of haplogroup K to the simulation results reveals that about 98% of farmers were not involved in interbreeding neither acculturation (cultural diffusion). Therefore, cultural diffusion involved only a tiny fraction (about 2%) of farmers and, in this sense, the most relevant process in the spread of the Neolithic in Europe was demic diffusion (i.e., the dispersal of farmers), as opposed to cultural diffusion (i.e., the incorporation of hunter-gatherers).
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28
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Bortolini E, Pagani L, Crema ER, Sarno S, Barbieri C, Boattini A, Sazzini M, da Silva SG, Martini G, Metspalu M, Pettener D, Luiselli D, Tehrani JJ. Inferring patterns of folktale diffusion using genomic data. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2017; 114:9140-9145. [PMID: 28784786 PMCID: PMC5576778 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1614395114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Observable patterns of cultural variation are consistently intertwined with demic movements, cultural diffusion, and adaptation to different ecological contexts [Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman (1981) Cultural Transmission and Evolution: A Quantitative Approach; Boyd and Richerson (1985) Culture and the Evolutionary Process]. The quantitative study of gene-culture coevolution has focused in particular on the mechanisms responsible for change in frequency and attributes of cultural traits, the spread of cultural information through demic and cultural diffusion, and detecting relationships between genetic and cultural lineages. Here, we make use of worldwide whole-genome sequences [Pagani et al. (2016) Nature 538:238-242] to assess the impact of processes involving population movement and replacement on cultural diversity, focusing on the variability observed in folktale traditions (n = 596) [Uther (2004) The Types of International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography. Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson] in Eurasia. We find that a model of cultural diffusion predicted by isolation-by-distance alone is not sufficient to explain the observed patterns, especially at small spatial scales (up to [Formula: see text]4,000 km). We also provide an empirical approach to infer presence and impact of ethnolinguistic barriers preventing the unbiased transmission of both genetic and cultural information. After correcting for the effect of ethnolinguistic boundaries, we show that, of the alternative models that we propose, the one entailing cultural diffusion biased by linguistic differences is the most plausible. Additionally, we identify 15 tales that are more likely to be predominantly transmitted through population movement and replacement and locate putative focal areas for a set of tales that are spread worldwide.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eugenio Bortolini
- Complexity and Socio-Ecological Dynamics Research Group, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Institución Milá y Fontanals, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), 08001 Barcelona, Spain;
- Department of Humanities, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08005 Barcelona, Spain
- Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology, Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
| | - Luca Pagani
- Estonian Biocentre, 51010 Tartu, Estonia
- Department of Biology, University of Padova, 35131 Padua, Italy
| | - Enrico R Crema
- Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, CB2 3DZ Cambridge, United Kingdom
| | - Stefania Sarno
- Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology, Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
| | - Chiara Barbieri
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, 07745 Jena, Germany
| | - Alessio Boattini
- Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology, Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
| | - Marco Sazzini
- Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology, Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
| | - Sara Graça da Silva
- Institute for the Study of Literature and Tradition, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, New University of Lisbon, 1069-061 Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Gessica Martini
- Centre for the Coevolution of Biology and Culture, Department of Anthropology, Durham University, DH1 3LE Durham, United Kingdom
| | | | - Davide Pettener
- Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology, Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
| | - Donata Luiselli
- Laboratory of Molecular Anthropology, Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
| | - Jamshid J Tehrani
- Centre for the Coevolution of Biology and Culture, Department of Anthropology, Durham University, DH1 3LE Durham, United Kingdom
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Identification and analysis of mtDNA genomes attributed to Finns reveal long-stagnant demographic trends obscured in the total diversity. Sci Rep 2017; 7:6193. [PMID: 28733587 PMCID: PMC5522469 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-05673-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2016] [Accepted: 06/01/2017] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
In Europe, modern mitochondrial diversity is relatively homogeneous and suggests an ubiquitous rapid population growth since the Neolithic revolution. Similar patterns also have been observed in mitochondrial control region data in Finland, which contrasts with the distinctive autosomal and Y-chromosomal diversity among Finns. A different picture emerges from the 843 whole mitochondrial genomes from modern Finns analyzed here. Up to one third of the subhaplogroups can be considered as Finn-characteristic, i.e. rather common in Finland but virtually absent or rare elsewhere in Europe. Bayesian phylogenetic analyses suggest that most of these attributed Finnish lineages date back to around 3,000–5,000 years, coinciding with the arrival of Corded Ware culture and agriculture into Finland. Bayesian estimation of past effective population sizes reveals two differing demographic histories: 1) the ‘local’ Finnish mtDNA haplotypes yielding small and dwindling size estimates for most of the past; and 2) the ‘immigrant’ haplotypes showing growth typical of most European populations. The results based on the local diversity are more in line with that known about Finns from other studies, e.g., Y-chromosome analyses and archaeology findings. The mitochondrial gene pool thus may contain signals of local population history that cannot be readily deduced from the total diversity.
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Bicho N, Cascalheira J, Gonçalves C. Early Upper Paleolithic colonization across Europe: Time and mode of the Gravettian diffusion. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0178506. [PMID: 28542642 PMCID: PMC5443572 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0178506] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2017] [Accepted: 05/15/2017] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
This study presents new models on the origin, speed and mode of the wave-of-advance leading to the definitive occupation of Europe's outskirts by Anatomically Modern Humans, during the Gravettian, between c. 37 and 30 ka ago. These models provide the estimation for possible demic dispersal routes for AMH at a stable spread rate of c. 0.7 km/year, with the likely origin in Central Europe at the site of Geissenklosterle in Germany and reaching all areas of the European landscape. The results imply that: 1. The arrival of the Gravettian populations into the far eastern European plains and to southern Iberia found regions with very low human occupation or even devoid of hominins; 2. Human demography was likely lower than previous estimates for the Upper Paleolithic; 3. The likely early AMH paths across Europe followed the European central plains and the Mediterranean coast to reach to the ends of the Italian and Iberian peninsulas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nuno Bicho
- ICArEHB (Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and the Evolution of Human Behavior), Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, Faro, Portugal
| | - João Cascalheira
- ICArEHB (Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and the Evolution of Human Behavior), Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, Faro, Portugal
| | - Célia Gonçalves
- ICArEHB (Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and the Evolution of Human Behavior), Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, Faro, Portugal
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Modeling the role of voyaging in the coastal spread of the Early Neolithic in the West Mediterranean. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2017; 114:897-902. [PMID: 28096413 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1613413114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The earliest dates for the West Mediterranean Neolithic indicate that it expanded across 2,500 km in about 300 y. Such a fast spread is held to be mainly due to a demic process driven by dispersal along coastal routes. Here, we model the Neolithic spread in the region by focusing on the role of voyaging to understand better the core elements that produced the observed pattern of dates. We also explore the effect of cultural interaction with Mesolithic populations living along the coast. The simulation study shows that (i) sea travel is required to obtain reasonable predictions, with a minimum sea-travel range of 300 km per generation; (ii) leapfrog coastal dispersals yield the best results (quantitatively and qualitatively); and (iii) interaction with Mesolithic people can assist the spread, but long-range voyaging is still needed to explain the archaeological pattern.
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Günther T, Jakobsson M. Genes mirror migrations and cultures in prehistoric Europe — a population genomic perspective. Curr Opin Genet Dev 2016; 41:115-123. [DOI: 10.1016/j.gde.2016.09.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2016] [Revised: 09/13/2016] [Accepted: 09/13/2016] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
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Demography of the Early Neolithic Population in Central Balkans: Population Dynamics Reconstruction Using Summed Radiocarbon Probability Distributions. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0160832. [PMID: 27508413 PMCID: PMC4980024 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0160832] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2015] [Accepted: 06/23/2016] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
The Central Balkans region is of great importance for understanding the spread of the Neolithic in Europe but the Early Neolithic population dynamics of the region is unknown. In this study we apply the method of summed calibrated probability distributions to a set of published radiocarbon dates from the Republic of Serbia in order to reconstruct population dynamics in the Early Neolithic in this part of the Central Balkans. The results indicate that there was a significant population growth after ~6200 calBC, when the Neolithic was introduced into the region, followed by a bust at the end of the Early Neolithic phase (~5400 calBC). These results are broadly consistent with the predictions of the Neolithic Demographic Transition theory and the patterns of population booms and busts detected in other regions of Europe. These results suggest that the cultural process that underlies the patterns observed in Central and Western Europe was also in operation in the Central Balkan Neolithic and that the population increase component of this process can be considered as an important factor for the spread of the Neolithic as envisioned in the demic diffusion hypothesis.
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Fine-Scale Human Population Structure in Southern Africa Reflects Ecogeographic Boundaries. Genetics 2016; 204:303-14. [PMID: 27474727 DOI: 10.1534/genetics.116.187369] [Citation(s) in RCA: 74] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2016] [Accepted: 07/07/2016] [Indexed: 01/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Recent genetic studies have established that the KhoeSan populations of southern Africa are distinct from all other African populations and have remained largely isolated during human prehistory until ∼2000 years ago. Dozens of different KhoeSan groups exist, belonging to three different language families, but very little is known about their population history. We examine new genome-wide polymorphism data and whole mitochondrial genomes for >100 South Africans from the ≠Khomani San and Nama populations of the Northern Cape, analyzed in conjunction with 19 additional southern African populations. Our analyses reveal fine-scale population structure in and around the Kalahari Desert. Surprisingly, this structure does not always correspond to linguistic or subsistence categories as previously suggested, but rather reflects the role of geographic barriers and the ecology of the greater Kalahari Basin. Regardless of subsistence strategy, the indigenous Khoe-speaking Nama pastoralists and the N|u-speaking ≠Khomani (formerly hunter-gatherers) share ancestry with other Khoe-speaking forager populations that form a rim around the Kalahari Desert. We reconstruct earlier migration patterns and estimate that the southern Kalahari populations were among the last to experience gene flow from Bantu speakers, ∼14 generations ago. We conclude that local adoption of pastoralism, at least by the Nama, appears to have been primarily a cultural process with limited genetic impact from eastern Africa.
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Fort J, Pérez-Losada J. Can a linguistic serial founder effect originating in Africa explain the worldwide phonemic cline? J R Soc Interface 2016; 13:rsif.2016.0185. [PMID: 27122180 PMCID: PMC4874439 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2016.0185] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2016] [Accepted: 04/07/2016] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
It has been proposed that a serial founder effect could have caused the present observed pattern of global phonemic diversity. Here we present a model that simulates the human range expansion out of Africa and the subsequent spatial linguistic dynamics until today. It does not assume copying errors, Darwinian competition, reduced contrastive possibilities or any other specific linguistic mechanism. We show that the decrease of linguistic diversity with distance (from the presumed origin of the expansion) arises under three assumptions, previously introduced by other authors: (i) an accumulation rate for phonemes; (ii) small phonemic inventories for the languages spoken before the out-of-Africa dispersal; (iii) an increase in the phonemic accumulation rate with the number of speakers per unit area. Numerical simulations show that the predictions of the model agree with the observed decrease of linguistic diversity with increasing distance from the most likely origin of the out-of-Africa dispersal. Thus, the proposal that a serial founder effect could have caused the present observed pattern of global phonemic diversity is viable, if three strong assumptions are satisfied.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joaquim Fort
- Complex Systems Laboratory, University of Girona, Ma. Aurèlia Capmany 61, 17071 Girona, Catalonia, Spain Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Joaquim Pérez-Losada
- Complex Systems Laboratory, University of Girona, Ma. Aurèlia Capmany 61, 17071 Girona, Catalonia, Spain
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Fort J. Demic and cultural diffusion propagated the Neolithic transition across different regions of Europe. J R Soc Interface 2016; 12. [PMID: 25977959 PMCID: PMC4424695 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2015.0166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The Neolithic transition is the shift from hunting–gathering into farming. About 9000 years ago, the Neolithic transition began to spread from the Near East into Europe, until it reached Northern Europe about 5500 years ago. There are two main models of this spread. The demic model assumes that it was mainly due to the reproduction and dispersal of farmers. The cultural model assumes that European hunter–gatherers become farmers by acquiring domestic plants and animals, as well as knowledge, from neighbouring farmers. Here we use the dates of about 900 archaeological sites to compute a speed map of the spread of the Neolithic transition in Europe. We compare the speed map to the speed ranges predicted by purely demic, demic–cultural and purely cultural models. The comparison indicates that the transition was cultural in Northern Europe, the Alpine region and west of the Black Sea. But demic diffusion was at work in other regions such as the Balkans and Central Europe. Our models can be applied to many other cultural traits. We also propose that genetic data could be gathered and used to measure the demic kernels of Early Neolithic populations. This would lead to an enormous advance in Neolithic spread modelling.
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de Rioja VL, Fort J, Isern N. Front propagation speeds of T7 virus mutants. J Theor Biol 2015; 385:112-8. [PMID: 26300067 DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2015.08.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2014] [Revised: 07/22/2015] [Accepted: 08/01/2015] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
We propose a new reaction-diffusion model with an eclipse time to study the spread of viruses on bacterial populations. This new model is both biologically and physically sound, unlike previous ones. We determine important parameter values from experimental data, such as the one-step growth. We verify the proposed model by comparing theoretical and experimental data of the front propagation speed for several T7 virus strains.
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Affiliation(s)
- V L de Rioja
- Complex Systems Laboratory, Departament de Física, Universitat de Girona, 17071 Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
| | - J Fort
- Complex Systems Laboratory, Departament de Física, Universitat de Girona, 17071 Girona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - N Isern
- Complex Systems Laboratory, Departament de Física, Universitat de Girona, 17071 Girona, Catalonia, Spain
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Vestiges of an Ancient Border in the Contemporary Genetic Diversity of North-Eastern Europe. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0130331. [PMID: 26132657 PMCID: PMC4488853 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0130331] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2014] [Accepted: 05/19/2015] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
It has previously been demonstrated that the advance of the Neolithic Revolution from the Near East through Europe was decelerated in the northernmost confines of the continent, possibly as a result of space and resource competition with lingering Mesolithic populations. Finland was among the last domains to adopt a farming lifestyle, and is characterized by substructuring in the form of a distinct genetic border dividing the northeastern and southwestern regions of the country. To explore the origins of this divergence, the geographical patterns of mitochondrial and Y-chromosomal haplogroups of Neolithic and Mesolithic ancestry were assessed in Finnish populations. The distribution of these uniparental markers revealed a northeastern bias for hunter-gatherer haplogroups, while haplogroups associated with the farming lifestyle clustered in the southwest. In addition, a correlation could be observed between more ancient mitochondrial haplogroup age and eastern concentration. These results coupled with prior archeological evidence suggest the genetic northeast/southwest division observed in contemporary Finland represents an ancient vestigial border between Mesolithic and Neolithic populations undetectable in most other regions of Europe.
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Jerardino A, Fort J, Isern N, Rondelli B. Cultural diffusion was the main driving mechanism of the Neolithic transition in southern Africa. PLoS One 2014; 9:e113672. [PMID: 25517968 PMCID: PMC4269434 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0113672] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2014] [Accepted: 10/27/2014] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
It is well known that the Neolithic transition spread across Europe at a speed of about 1 km/yr. This result has been previously interpreted as a range expansion of the Neolithic driven mainly by demic diffusion (whereas cultural diffusion played a secondary role). However, a long-standing problem is whether this value (1 km/yr) and its interpretation (mainly demic diffusion) are characteristic only of Europe or universal (i.e. intrinsic features of Neolithic transitions all over the world). So far Neolithic spread rates outside Europe have been barely measured, and Neolithic spread rates substantially faster than 1 km/yr have not been previously reported. Here we show that the transition from hunting and gathering into herding in southern Africa spread at a rate of about 2.4 km/yr, i.e. about twice faster than the European Neolithic transition. Thus the value 1 km/yr is not a universal feature of Neolithic transitions in the world. Resorting to a recent demic-cultural wave-of-advance model, we also find that the main mechanism at work in the southern African Neolithic spread was cultural diffusion (whereas demic diffusion played a secondary role). This is in sharp contrast to the European Neolithic. Our results further suggest that Neolithic spread rates could be mainly driven by cultural diffusion in cases where the final state of this transition is herding/pastoralism (such as in southern Africa) rather than farming and stockbreeding (as in Europe).
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonieta Jerardino
- ICREA/Department of Experimental & Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, CaSEs Research Group, Ramon Trias Fargas 25-27, 08005 Barcelona, Spain
- * E-mail:
| | - Joaquim Fort
- Complex Systems Lab, Department of Physics, University of Girona, C/. M Aurèlia Capmany 61, 17071 Girona, Catalonia, Spain
| | - Neus Isern
- Laboratori d'Arqueologia Quantitativa (LAQU), Departament de Prehistòria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
| | - Bernardo Rondelli
- CaSEs Research Group, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Institució Milà i Fontanals, Spanish National Research Council (IMF-CSIC), C/Egipcíaques, 15, 08001 Barcelona, Spain
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Abstract
We use two coupled equations to analyze the space/time dynamics of two interacting languages. First, we introduce a cohabitation model, which is more appropriate for human populations than classical (noncohabitation) models. Second, using numerical simulations, we find the front speed of a new language spreading into a region in which another language was previously used. Third, for a special case, we derive an analytical formula that makes it possible to check the validity of our numerical simulations. Finally, as an example, we find that the observed front speed for the spread of the English language into Wales in the period 1961 through 1981 is consistent with the model predictions. We also find that the effects of linguistic parameters are much more important than the effects of parameters related to population dispersal and reproduction. If the initial population densities of both languages are similar, they have no effect on the front speed. We outline the potential of the new model to analyze relationships between language replacement and genetic replacement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joaquim Fort
- Complex Systems Laboratory and Departament de Física, Universitat de Girona, Catalonia, Spain.
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Gangal K, Sarson GR, Shukurov A. The near-eastern roots of the Neolithic in South Asia. PLoS One 2014; 9:e95714. [PMID: 24806472 PMCID: PMC4012948 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0095714] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2013] [Accepted: 03/28/2014] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
The Fertile Crescent in the Near East is one of the independent origins of the Neolithic, the source from which farming and pottery-making spread across Europe from 9,000 to 6,000 years ago at an average rate of about 1 km/yr. There is also strong evidence for causal connections between the Near-Eastern Neolithic and that further east, up to the Indus Valley. The Neolithic in South Asia has been far less explored than its European counterpart, especially in terms of absolute (14C) dating; hence, there were no previous attempts to assess quantitatively its spread in Asia. We combine the available 14C data with the archaeological evidence for early Neolithic sites in South Asia to analyze the spatio-temporal continuity of the Neolithic dispersal from the Near East through the Middle East and to the Indian subcontinent. We reveal an approximately linear dependence between the age and the geodesic distance from the Near East, suggesting a systematic (but not necessarily uniform) spread at an average speed of about 0.65 km/yr.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kavita Gangal
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
| | - Graeme R. Sarson
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
| | - Anvar Shukurov
- School of Mathematics and Statistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
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Abstract
Language diversity has become greatly endangered in the past centuries owing to processes of language shift from indigenous languages to other languages that are seen as socially and economically more advantageous, resulting in the death or doom of minority languages. In this paper, we define a new language competition model that can describe the historical decline of minority languages in competition with more advantageous languages. We then implement this non-spatial model as an interaction term in a reaction–diffusion system to model the evolution of the two competing languages. We use the results to estimate the speed at which the more advantageous language spreads geographically, resulting in the shrinkage of the area of dominance of the minority language. We compare the results from our model with the observed retreat in the area of influence of the Welsh language in the UK, obtaining a good agreement between the model and the observed data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neus Isern
- Quantitative Archaeology Laboratory, Departament de Prehistòria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, , 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
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Abstract
Biological dispersal shapes species' distribution and affects their coexistence. The spread of organisms governs the dynamics of invasive species, the spread of pathogens, and the shifts in species ranges due to climate or environmental change. Despite its relevance for fundamental ecological processes, however, replicated experimentation on biological dispersal is lacking, and current assessments point at inherent limitations to predictability, even in the simplest ecological settings. In contrast, we show, by replicated experimentation on the spread of the ciliate Tetrahymena sp. in linear landscapes, that information on local unconstrained movement and reproduction allows us to predict reliably the existence and speed of traveling waves of invasion at the macroscopic scale. Furthermore, a theoretical approach introducing demographic stochasticity in the Fisher-Kolmogorov framework of reaction-diffusion processes captures the observed fluctuations in range expansions. Therefore, predictability of the key features of biological dispersal overcomes the inherent biological stochasticity. Our results establish a causal link from the short-term individual level to the long-term, broad-scale population patterns and may be generalized, possibly providing a general predictive framework for biological invasions in natural environments.
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von Cramon-Taubadel N, Stock JT, Pinhasi R. Skull and limb morphology differentially track population history and environmental factors in the transition to agriculture in Europe. Proc Biol Sci 2013; 280:20131337. [PMID: 23902904 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.1337] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The Neolithic transition in Europe was a complex mosaic spatio-temporal process, involving both demic diffusion from the Near East and the cultural adoption of farming practices by indigenous hunter-gatherers. Previous analyses of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and Early Neolithic farmers suggest that cranial shape variation preserves the population history signature of the Neolithic transition. However, the extent to which these same demographic processes are discernible in the postcranium is poorly understood. Here, for the first time, crania and postcranial elements from the same 11 prehistoric populations are analysed together in an internally consistent theoretical and methodological framework. Results show that while cranial shape reflects the population history differences between Mesolithic and Neolithic lineages, relative limb dimensions exhibit significant congruence with environmental variables such as latitude and temperature, even after controlling for geography and time. Also, overall limb size is found to be consistently larger in hunter-gatherers than farmers, suggesting a reduction in size related to factors other than thermoregulatory adaptation. Therefore, our results suggest that relative limb dimensions are not tracking the same demographic population history as the cranium, and point to the strong influence of climatic, dietary and behavioural factors in determining limb morphology, irrespective of underlying neutral demographic processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel
- Department of Anthropology, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NR, UK.
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Van Arsdale AP. A Shifting Theoretical Framework for Biological Anthropology in 2012. AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 2013. [DOI: 10.1111/aman.12008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/16/2023]
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