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Edited by Ofer Bar-Yosef, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and approved September 29, 2011 (received for review August 9, 2011)
Abstract
The impact of the Neolithic dispersal on the western European populations is subject to continuing debate. To trace and date genetic lineages potentially brought during this transition and so understand the origin of the gene pool of current populations, we studied DNA extracted from human remains excavated in a Spanish funeral cave dating from the beginning of the fifth millennium B.C. Thanks to a “multimarkers” approach based on the analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA (autosomes and Y-chromosome), we obtained information on the early Neolithic funeral practices and on the biogeographical origin of the inhumed individuals. No close kinship was detected. Maternal haplogroups found are consistent with pre-Neolithic settlement, whereas the Y-chromosomal analyses permitted confirmation of the existence in Spain approximately 7,000 y ago of two haplogroups previously associated with the Neolithic transition: G2a and E1b1b1a1b. These results are highly consistent with those previously found in Neolithic individuals from French Late Neolithic individuals, indicating a surprising temporal genetic homogeneity in these groups. The high frequency of G2a in Neolithic samples in western Europe could suggest, furthermore, that the role of men during Neolithic dispersal could be greater than currently estimated.
Footnotes
- ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: lacan.marie{at}netcourrier.com.
Author contributions: M.L. designed research; M.L. performed research; J.T. and A.B. contributed new reagents/analytic tools; M.L. analyzed data; and M.L., C.K., F.-X.R., N.B., J.G., E.C., and B.L. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1113061108/-/DCSupplemental.
Ancient DNA suggests the leading role played by men in the Neolithic dissemination
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