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↵1These authors contributed equally to this work.
Edited by Richard G. Klein, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, and approved October 3, 2008 (received for review August 5, 2008)
Abstract
In 2005 four outstanding multiple burials were discovered near Eulau, Germany. The 4,600-year-old graves contained groups of adults and children buried facing each other. Skeletal and artifactual evidence and the simultaneous interment of the individuals suggest the supposed families fell victim to a violent event. In a multidisciplinary approach, archaeological, anthropological, geochemical (radiogenic isotopes), and molecular genetic (ancient DNA) methods were applied to these unique burials. Using autosomal, mitochondrial, and Y-chromosomal markers, we identified genetic kinship among the individuals. A direct child-parent relationship was detected in one burial, providing the oldest molecular genetic evidence of a nuclear family. Strontium isotope analyses point to different origins for males and children versus females. By this approach, we gain insight into a Late Stone Age society, which appears to have been exogamous and patrilocal, and in which genetic kinship seems to be a focal point of social organization.
Footnotes
- 3To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: wolfgang.haak{at}adelaide.edu.au
Author contributions: W.H., A.W.G.P., H.M., and K.W.A. designed research; G.B., H.N.d.J., C.M., and R.G. performed research; W.H., G.B., H.N.d.J., R.G., C.H., and A.W.G.P. analyzed data; and W.H., G.B., C.M., R.G., V.H., C.H., A.W.G.P., H.M., and K.W.A. wrote the paper.
↵2Present address: The Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Adelaide, North Terrace Campus, SA-5005 Adelaide, Australia.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
- © 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
Ancient DNA, Strontium isotopes, and osteological analyses shed light on social and kinship organization of the Later Stone Age
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