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Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Mitogenomes from the Iron Age South Baltic (Stolarek et al. 2018)


Over at Scientific Reports at this LINK. And yes, full genomes of many of the samples are on the way. Emphasis is mine:

Abstract: Despite the increase in our knowledge about the factors that shaped the genetic structure of the human population in Europe, the demographic processes that occurred during and after the Early Bronze Age (EBA) in Central-East Europe remain unclear. To fill the gap, we isolated and sequenced DNAs of 60 individuals from Kowalewko, a bi-ritual cemetery of the Iron Age (IA) Wielbark culture, located between the Oder and Vistula rivers (Kow-OVIA population). The collected data revealed high genetic diversity of Kow-OVIA, suggesting that it was not a small isolated population. Analyses of mtDNA haplogroup frequencies and genetic distances performed for Kow-OVIA and other ancient European populations showed that Kow-OVIA was most closely linked to the Jutland Iron Age (JIA) population. However, the relationship of both populations to the preceding Late Neolithic (LN) and EBA populations were different. We found that this phenomenon is most likely the consequence of the distinct genetic history observed for Kow-OVIA women and men. Females were related to the Early-Middle Neolithic farmers, whereas males were related to JIA and LN Bell Beakers. In general, our findings disclose the mechanisms that could underlie the formation of the local genetic substructures in the South Baltic region during the IA.

Stolarek et al., A mosaic genetic structure of the human population living in the South Baltic region during the Iron Age, Scientific Reportsvolume 8, Article number: 2455 (2018) doi:10.1038/s41598-018-20705-6

9 comments:

zardos said...

Do they mean local mixture of male newcomers or do they describe just the general impression and proportions?

Rob said...

These findings suggest that after the EBA, there were significant demographic changes in Central Europe and, consequently, changes in the genetic structure of the Central Europe population”

I trust young Rookies are paying attention here :)

Joshua Lipson said...

There's my (Ashkenazi) mtDNA haplogroup, J1c7a. Deep Baltic roots, so it seems.

Davidski said...

The results in this paper flesh out more detail about the "bounce back" process that has been discussed for a while now, mostly in regards to the bounce back of forager ancestry in much of Europe after the Neolithic migrations, but also in regards to farmer or Old Europe ancestry after the steppe migrations.

Really nothing new, but nevertheless interesting.

Simon_W said...

The high differentiation between males and females is remarkable, as males get their mtDNA from females. And moreover according to the paper this differentiation was stable and maintained across 8 generations. They theorize that one group of sex was repeatedly exchanged, possibly the warriors.

The similarity of the males with the Jutland Iron Age would of course gel well with a Germanic ethnic affiliation of these guys, as could be expected. Unfortunately the paper doesn't include Iron Age populations from east of the Vistula, in theory they might be even more similar, but then again their increased affinity to Bell Beaker compared to Corded Ware and Unetice is strongly suggestive of a west European-related influence.

The relationship between Unetice and the Jutland Iron Age the authors point out is also interesting. This doesn't necessarily mean that the Jutlandish genepool was formed after the Bronze Age. After all the Nordic Bronze Age proper started well after the Unetice culture.

weure said...

@Simon W

"The relationship between Unetice and the Jutland Iron Age the authors point out is also interesting. This doesn't necessarily mean that the Jutlandish genepool was formed after the Bronze Age. After all the Nordic Bronze Age proper started well after the Unetice culture."

Indeed the impact of Unetice for the development Nordic Bronze Age can not be underestimated, Sögel-Wohlde and the Elp culture ate it's offshoot.

This formed all along out most continental NW Europe a kind of basic layer for the modern genepool in the area's.


Unknown said...

Hi @Davidski do you think there is any possibility of adding the Cheddar Man's DNA to GEDmatch admixtures at some point? I read recently how they used his DNA & made a 3D model of his face & it is fascinating! I know a lot of GEDmatch users would be interested in comparing their DNA to Cheddar Man. I would be grateful if it was made available ;-)
Thanks, Ruth

Davidski said...

@Ruth

Cheddar Man's genome hasn't been published yet. It'll be available once the relevant paper comes out in a journal, and I can imagine that it'll appear at GEDmatch soon after that.

But rumor has it that Cheddar Man is very similar to La Brana 1, basically just a Western Hunter-Gatherer (WHG) with essentially the same Y-haplogroup and pigmentation markers. There's already at least one sequence of La Brana 1 at GEDmatch.

Unknown said...

@Davidski Thanks for your quick reply! So interesting!! I will have another look at that over on GEDmatch.
Hopefully they publish soon ;-)
Keep well,
Ruth