Ancient DNA, Strontium isotopes, and osteological analyses shed light on social and kinship organization of the Later Stone Age

Wolfgang Haak; Guido Brandt; Hylke N. de Jong; Christian Meyer; Robert Ganslmeier; Volker Heyd; Chris Hawkesworth; Alistair W. G. Pike; Harald Meller; Kurt W. Alt

doi:10.1073/pnas.0807592105

New Research In

Edited by Richard G. Klein, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, and approved October 3, 2008
↵¹These authors contributed equally to this work. (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.
Data deposition. The sequences in this paper have been deposited in the Genbank database (accession nos. FJ424615–FJ424625).
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/0807592105/DCSupplemental.
© 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA