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Evershed RP, Davey Smith G, Roffet-Salque M, Timpson A, Diekmann Y, Lyon MS, Cramp LJE, Casanova E, Smyth J, Whelton HL, Dunne J, Brychova V, Šoberl L, Gerbault P, Gillis RE, Heyd V, Johnson E, Kendall I, Manning K, Marciniak A, Outram AK, Vigne JD, Shennan S, Bevan A, Colledge S, Allason-Jones L, Amkreutz L, Anders A, Arbogast RM, Bălăşescu A, Bánffy E, Barclay A, Behrens A, Bogucki P, Carrancho Alonso Á, Carretero JM, Cavanagh N, Claßen E, Collado Giraldo H, Conrad M, Csengeri P, Czerniak L, Dębiec M, Denaire A, Domboróczki L, Donald C, Ebert J, Evans C, Francés-Negro M, Gronenborn D, Haack F, Halle M, Hamon C, Hülshoff R, Ilett M, Iriarte E, Jakucs J, Jeunesse C, Johnson M, Jones AM, Karul N, Kiosak D, Kotova N, Krause R, Kretschmer S, Krüger M, Lefranc P, Lelong O, Lenneis E, Logvin A, Lüth F, Marton T, Marley J, Mortimer R, Oosterbeek L, Oross K, Pavúk J, Pechtl J, Pétrequin P, Pollard J, Pollard R, Powlesland D, Pyzel J, Raczky P, Richardson A, Rowe P, Rowland S, Rowlandson I, Saile T, Sebők K, Schier W, Schmalfuß G, Sharapova S, Sharp H, Sheridan A, Shevnina I, Sobkowiak-Tabaka I, Stadler P, Stäuble H, Stobbe A, Stojanovski D, Tasić N, van Wijk I, Vostrovská I, Vuković J, Wolfram S, Zeeb-Lanz A, Thomas MG. Dairying, diseases and the evolution of lactase persistence in Europe. Nature 2022; 608:336-345. [PMID: 35896751 PMCID: PMC7615474 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05010-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2021] [Accepted: 06/22/2022] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
In European and many African, Middle Eastern and southern Asian populations, lactase persistence (LP) is the most strongly selected monogenic trait to have evolved over the past 10,000 years1. Although the selection of LP and the consumption of prehistoric milk must be linked, considerable uncertainty remains concerning their spatiotemporal configuration and specific interactions2,3. Here we provide detailed distributions of milk exploitation across Europe over the past 9,000 years using around 7,000 pottery fat residues from more than 550 archaeological sites. European milk use was widespread from the Neolithic period onwards but varied spatially and temporally in intensity. Notably, LP selection varying with levels of prehistoric milk exploitation is no better at explaining LP allele frequency trajectories than uniform selection since the Neolithic period. In the UK Biobank4,5 cohort of 500,000 contemporary Europeans, LP genotype was only weakly associated with milk consumption and did not show consistent associations with improved fitness or health indicators. This suggests that other reasons for the beneficial effects of LP should be considered for its rapid frequency increase. We propose that lactase non-persistent individuals consumed milk when it became available but, under conditions of famine and/or increased pathogen exposure, this was disadvantageous, driving LP selection in prehistoric Europe. Comparison of model likelihoods indicates that population fluctuations, settlement density and wild animal exploitation-proxies for these drivers-provide better explanations of LP selection than the extent of milk exploitation. These findings offer new perspectives on prehistoric milk exploitation and LP evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard P Evershed
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
| | - George Davey Smith
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
- NIHR Bristol Biomedical Research Centre, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
| | | | - Adrian Timpson
- Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, UK
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Yoan Diekmann
- Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, UK
- Palaeogenetics Group, Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution (iomE), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Matthew S Lyon
- MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- NIHR Bristol Biomedical Research Centre, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Lucy J E Cramp
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Emmanuelle Casanova
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Jessica Smyth
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - Helen L Whelton
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Julie Dunne
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Veronika Brychova
- Department of Dairy, Fat and Cosmetics, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
- Nuclear Dosimetry Department, Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Lucija Šoberl
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Pascale Gerbault
- Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, UK
- School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London, UK
| | - Rosalind E Gillis
- Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnement (UMR 7209), CNRS-Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle-Sorbonne Universités, Paris, France
- ICArEHB, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Universidade do Algarve, Faro, Portugal
| | - Volker Heyd
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- Department of Cultures, Section of Archaeology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | - Emily Johnson
- Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
- Archaeology South-East, UCL Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Iain Kendall
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Katie Manning
- Department of Geography, King's College London, London, UK
| | | | - Alan K Outram
- Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | - Jean-Denis Vigne
- Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnement (UMR 7209), CNRS-Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle-Sorbonne Universités, Paris, France
| | - Stephen Shennan
- UCL Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Andrew Bevan
- UCL Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Sue Colledge
- UCL Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, UK
| | | | - Luc Amkreutz
- National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Alexandra Anders
- Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | | | - Adrian Bălăşescu
- Department of Bioarchaeology, 'Vasile Pârvan' Institute of Archaeology, Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania
| | - Eszter Bánffy
- Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, Centre of Excellence of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
- Römisch-Germanische Kommission, Frankfurt, Germany
| | | | - Anja Behrens
- German Archaeological Institute, Berlin, Germany
| | - Peter Bogucki
- School of Engineering and Applied Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
| | - Ángel Carrancho Alonso
- Área de Prehistoria, Departamento de Historia, Geografía y Comunicación, University of Burgos, Burgos, Spain
| | - José Miguel Carretero
- Laboratorio Evolución Humana, University of Burgos, Burgos, Spain
- Centro Mixto UCM-ISCIII de Evolución y Comportamiento Humana, Madrid, Spain
| | | | - Erich Claßen
- LVR-State Service for Archaeological Heritage, Bonn, Germany
| | - Hipolito Collado Giraldo
- Patrimonio & Arte Research Group, Extremadura University, Badajoz and Cáceres, Badajoz, Spain
- Geosciences Centre, Coimbra University, Coimbra, Portugal
| | | | | | - Lech Czerniak
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland
| | - Maciej Dębiec
- Institute of Archaeology, University Rzeszów, Rzeszów, Poland
| | | | | | | | - Julia Ebert
- Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Christopher Evans
- Cambridge Archaeological Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | | | - Detlef Gronenborn
- Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Leibniz Research Institute for Archaeology, Mainz, Germany
| | - Fabian Haack
- Archaeological Department, Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart, Germany
| | | | - Caroline Hamon
- UMR 8215, Trajectoires, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France
| | - Roman Hülshoff
- State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology, Saxony Anhalt/State Museum of Prehistory, Halle/Saale, Germany
| | - Michael Ilett
- UMR 8215, Trajectoires, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France
| | - Eneko Iriarte
- Laboratorio Evolución Humana, University of Burgos, Burgos, Spain
| | - János Jakucs
- Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, Centre of Excellence of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
| | | | | | - Andy M Jones
- Cornwall Archaeological Unit, Cornwall Council, Truro, UK
| | | | - Dmytro Kiosak
- 'I.I. Mechnikov', Odessa National University, Odessa, Ukraine
- Ca' Foscari, University of Venice, Venice, Italy
| | - Nadezhda Kotova
- Institute of Archaeology of Academy of Science of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine
| | - Rüdiger Krause
- Prehistory Department, Institut of Archaeology, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt, Germany
| | | | - Marta Krüger
- Department of Archaeology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
| | - Philippe Lefranc
- UMR 7044, INRAP Grand-Est Sud, University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France
| | - Olivia Lelong
- GUARD Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
- Eunomia Research & Consulting, Bristol, UK
| | - Eva Lenneis
- Department of Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | | | | | - Tibor Marton
- Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, Centre of Excellence of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
| | | | | | - Luiz Oosterbeek
- Geosciences Centre, Coimbra University, Coimbra, Portugal
- Polytechnic Institute of Tomar, Tomar, Portugal
- Terra e Memória Institute, Mação, Portugal
| | - Krisztián Oross
- Institute of Archaeology, Research Centre for the Humanities, Eötvös Loránd Research Network, Centre of Excellence of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
| | | | - Joachim Pechtl
- Kelten Römer Museum Manching, Manching, Germany
- Department of Archaeology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Pierre Pétrequin
- MSHE C.N. Ledoux, CNRS & University of Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
| | - Joshua Pollard
- Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
| | | | | | - Joanna Pyzel
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland
| | - Pál Raczky
- Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | | | - Peter Rowe
- Tees Archaeology, Hartlepool, UK
- North Yorkshire County Council HER, Northallerton, UK
| | | | | | - Thomas Saile
- Institute of History, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany
| | - Katalin Sebők
- Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Wolfram Schier
- Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | | | | | - Helen Sharp
- Leicestershire County Council Museums, Leicestershire, UK
| | | | | | - Iwona Sobkowiak-Tabaka
- Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznań, Poland
- Faculty of Archaeology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
| | - Peter Stadler
- Department of Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | | | - Astrid Stobbe
- Prehistory Department, Institut of Archaeology, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Darko Stojanovski
- Geology Department, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal
- Department of Humanistic Studies, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
| | | | - Ivo van Wijk
- Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Ivana Vostrovská
- Institute of Archaeology and Museology, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
- Department of History, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
| | | | | | - Andrea Zeeb-Lanz
- Generaldirektion Kulturelles Erbe Rheinland-Pfalz, Dir. Landesarchäologie, Speyer, Germany
| | - Mark G Thomas
- Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, London, UK.
- UCL Genetics Institute, University College London, London, UK.
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Casanova E, Knowles TDJ, Bayliss A, Dunne J, Barański MZ, Denaire A, Lefranc P, di Lernia S, Roffet-Salque M, Smyth J, Barclay A, Gillard T, Claßen E, Coles B, Ilett M, Jeunesse C, Krueger M, Marciniak A, Minnitt S, Rotunno R, van de Velde P, van Wijk I, Cotton J, Daykin A, Evershed RP. Accurate compound-specific 14C dating of archaeological pottery vessels. Nature 2020; 580:506-510. [PMID: 32322061 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2178-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2019] [Accepted: 02/13/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Pottery is one of the most commonly recovered artefacts from archaeological sites. Despite more than a century of relative dating based on typology and seriation1, accurate dating of pottery using the radiocarbon dating method has proven extremely challenging owing to the limited survival of organic temper and unreliability of visible residues2-4. Here we report a method to directly date archaeological pottery based on accelerator mass spectrometry analysis of 14C in absorbed food residues using palmitic (C16:0) and stearic (C18:0) fatty acids purified by preparative gas chromatography5-8. We present accurate compound-specific radiocarbon determinations of lipids extracted from pottery vessels, which were rigorously evaluated by comparison with dendrochronological dates9,10 and inclusion in site and regional chronologies that contained previously determined radiocarbon dates on other materials11-15. Notably, the compound-specific dates from each of the C16:0 and C18:0 fatty acids in pottery vessels provide an internal quality control of the results6 and are entirely compatible with dates for other commonly dated materials. Accurate radiocarbon dating of pottery vessels can reveal: (1) the period of use of pottery; (2) the antiquity of organic residues, including when specific foodstuffs were exploited; (3) the chronology of sites in the absence of traditionally datable materials; and (4) direct verification of pottery typochronologies. Here we used the method to date the exploitation of dairy and carcass products in Neolithic vessels from Britain, Anatolia, central and western Europe, and Saharan Africa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emmanuelle Casanova
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Timothy D J Knowles
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.,Bristol Radiocarbon Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Alex Bayliss
- Scientific Dating, Historic England, London, UK.,Biological & Environmental Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, UK
| | - Julie Dunne
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Marek Z Barański
- Faculty of Architecture and Design, Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, Gdańsk, Poland
| | | | | | - Savino di Lernia
- Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità, Sapienza, Università di Roma, Rome, Italy.,GAES, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
| | | | - Jessica Smyth
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.,School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | | | - Toby Gillard
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Erich Claßen
- LVR-State Service for Archaeological Heritage, Bonn, Germany
| | - Bryony Coles
- Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
| | - Michael Ilett
- Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, UMR 8215 Trajectoires, Nanterre, France
| | | | - Marta Krueger
- Institute of Archaeology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland
| | | | | | - Rocco Rotunno
- Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Antichità, Sapienza, Università di Roma, Rome, Italy
| | | | - Ivo van Wijk
- Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | | | - Andy Daykin
- Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA), London, UK
| | - Richard P Evershed
- Organic Geochemistry Unit, School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. .,Bristol Radiocarbon Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
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