Ancient DNA, pig domestication, and the spread of the Neolithic into Europe

^aDepartment of Zoology, Henry Wellcome Ancient Biomolecules Centre, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, United Kingdom;
^bDepartment of Archaeology, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3L, United Kingdom;
^dDepartment of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, Northgate House, West Street, Sheffield S1 4ET, United Kingdom;
^fInstitute for Prehistory and Archaeological Science, Basel University, Spalenring 145, CH-4055 Basel, Switzerland;
^gDepartment of Ecology and Biodiversity Management, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Unite Mixte de Recherche 5197, Bâtiment 56, 57 rue Cuvier, F-75231 Paris Cedex 05, France;
^hMolecular Population Genetics, Smurfit Institute, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland;
ⁱDepartment of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, 1180 Observatory Drive, 5240 Social Science Building, Madison, WI 53706;
^jNational History Museum of Romania, National Center of Pluridisciplinary Research, 12 Calea Victoriei, 30026 Bucharest, Romania;
^kAustralian Centre for Ancient DNA, University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia;
^lSoprintendenza Speciale al Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico L. Pigorini, Sezione di Paleontologia del Quaternario e Archeozoologia, Piazzale G. Marconi 14, 00144 Rome, Italy;
^mInstitute of Zoology, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, 7, Sevag str, Yerevan 375014, Armenia;
ⁿDepartment of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ, United Kingdom;
^oAmsterdam Archaeological Center, University of Amsterdam, Turfdraagsterpad 9, 1012 XT, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and
^pDipartimento di Biologia Animale e Genetica “Leo Pardi” dell'Università di Firenze, Laboratori di Antropologia, 50121 Firenze, Italy

Edited by Ofer Bar-Yosef, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and approved July 27, 2007 (received for review April 13, 2007)

Abstract

The Neolithic Revolution began 11,000 years ago in the Near East and preceded a westward migration into Europe of distinctive cultural groups and their agricultural economies, including domesticated animals and plants. Despite decades of research, no consensus has emerged about the extent of admixture between the indigenous and exotic populations or the degree to which the appearance of specific components of the “Neolithic cultural package” in Europe reflects truly independent development. Here, through the use of mitochondrial DNA from 323 modern and 221 ancient pig specimens sampled across western Eurasia, we demonstrate that domestic pigs of Near Eastern ancestry were definitely introduced into Europe during the Neolithic (potentially along two separate routes), reaching the Paris Basin by at least the early 4th millennium B.C. Local European wild boar were also domesticated by this time, possibly as a direct consequence of the introduction of Near Eastern domestic pigs. Once domesticated, European pigs rapidly replaced the introduced domestic pigs of Near Eastern origin throughout Europe. Domestic pigs formed a key component of the Neolithic Revolution, and this detailed genetic record of their origins reveals a complex set of interactions and processes during the spread of early farmers into Europe.

Footnotes

^cTo whom correspondence may be sent at the present address:
Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala Biomedical Center, Box 597, S-751 24 Uppsala, Sweden.
E-mail: greger.larson{at}imbim.uu.se
^eTo whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: k.m.dobney{at}durham.ac.uk
Author contributions: G.L., U.A., K.D., and P.R.-C. designed research; G.L., U.A., K.D., P.R.-C., J.S., A. Tresset, J.-D.V., C.J.E., A.S., A.D., A.B., G.D., A. Tagliacozzo, N.M., P.M., L.V.W.-B., M.M., and A.C. performed research; G.L., U.A., K.D., P.R.-C., J.S., A. Tresset, J.-D.V., C.J.E., A.S., A.D., A.B., G.D., A. Tagliacozzo, N.M., P.M., L.V.W.-B., M.M., and A.C. analyzed data; and G.L., U.A., K.D., P.R.-C., J.S., A. Tresset, J.-D.V., C.J.E., A.S., A.D., A.B., G.D., D.G.B., and A.C. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
Data deposition: The sequences reported in this paper have been deposited in the GenBank database (accession nos. DQ872931–DQ873203).
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0703411104/DC1.
Abbreviation:

LBK,

Linearbandkeramik.
Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.