. 2015 Jun 11;522(7555):167-72.

doi: 10.1038/nature14507.

Population genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia

Morten E Allentoft¹, Martin Sikora¹, Karl-Göran Sjögren², Simon Rasmussen³, Morten Rasmussen¹, Jesper Stenderup¹, Peter B Damgaard¹, Hannes Schroeder⁴, Torbjörn Ahlström⁵, Lasse Vinner¹, Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas¹, Ashot Margaryan¹, Tom Higham⁶, David Chivall⁶, Niels Lynnerup⁷, Lise Harvig⁷, Justyna Baron⁸, Philippe Della Casa⁹, Paweł Dąbrowski¹⁰, Paul R Duffy¹¹, Alexander V Ebel¹², Andrey Epimakhov¹³, Karin Frei¹⁴, Mirosław Furmanek⁸, Tomasz Gralak⁸, Andrey Gromov¹⁵, Stanisław Gronkiewicz¹⁶, Gisela Grupe¹⁷, Tamás Hajdu¹⁸, Radosław Jarysz¹⁹, Valeri Khartanovich¹⁵, Alexandr Khokhlov²⁰, Viktória Kiss²¹, Jan Kolář²², Aivar Kriiska²³, Irena Lasak⁸, Cristina Longhi²⁴, George McGlynn¹⁷, Algimantas Merkevicius²⁵, Inga Merkyte²⁶, Mait Metspalu²⁷, Ruzan Mkrtchyan²⁸, Vyacheslav Moiseyev¹⁵, László Paja²⁹, György Pálfi³⁰, Dalia Pokutta², Łukasz Pospieszny³¹, T Douglas Price³², Lehti Saag²⁷, Mikhail Sablin³³, Natalia Shishlina³⁴, Václav Smrčka³⁵, Vasilii I Soenov³⁶, Vajk Szeverényi²¹, Gusztáv Tóth³⁷, Synaru V Trifanova³⁶, Liivi Varul²³, Magdolna Vicze³⁸, Levon Yepiskoposyan³⁹, Vladislav Zhitenev⁴⁰, Ludovic Orlando¹, Thomas Sicheritz-Pontén³, Søren Brunak⁴¹, Rasmus Nielsen⁴², Kristian Kristiansen², Eske Willerslev¹

Affiliations

¹ Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, 1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark.
² Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden.
³ Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs Lyngby, Denmark.
⁴ 1] Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, 1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark [2] Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, 2300 Leiden, The Netherlands.
⁵ Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund University, 221 00 Lund, Sweden.
⁶ Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK.
⁷ Unit of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁸ Institute of Archaeology, University of Wrocław, 50-139 Wrocław, Poland.
⁹ Archaeological Institute, University of Zurich, CH-8006, Zurich, Switzerland.
¹⁰ Department of Anatomy, Wrocław Medical University, 50-368 Wrocław, Poland.
¹¹ Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto ONM5S 2S2, Canada.
¹² Department of Archeology and General History, Gorno-Altaisk State University, 649000 Gorno-Altaisk, Russia.
¹³ Institute of History and Archaeology RAS (South Ural Department), South Ural State University, 454080 Chelyabinsk, Russia.
¹⁴ Environmental Research and Material Science and Centre for Textile Research, The National Museum of Denmark, 1471 Copenhagen K, Denmark.
¹⁵ Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) RAS, 199034 St Petersburg, Russia.
¹⁶ Department of Anthropology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 50-449 Wrocław, Poland.
¹⁷ Biocentre of the Ludwig-Maximilian-University München, 82152 Munich, Germany.
¹⁸ 1] Department of Biological Anthropology, Institute of Biology, Eötvös Loránd University, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary [2] Department of Anthropology, Hungarian Natural History Museum, H-1083 Budapest, Hungary.
¹⁹ The Archaeological Museum of Wrocław, 50-077 Wrocław, Poland.
²⁰ Samara State Academy of Social Science and Humanities, 443099 Samara, Russia.
²¹ Institute of Archaeology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Research Center for the Humanities, H-1250 Budapest, Hungary.
²² 1] Institute of Archaeology and Museology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, CZ-602 00 Brno, Czech Republic [2] Department of Vegetation Ecology, Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, CZ-602 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
²³ Department of Archaeology, University of Tartu, 51003 Tartu, Estonia.
²⁴ Archaeological Superintendence of Lombardy, 20123 Milano, Italy.
²⁵ Department of Archaeology, University of Vilnius, LT-01513 Vilnius, Lithuania.
²⁶ The SAXO Institute, University of Copenhagen, 2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark.
²⁷ Department of Evolutionary Biology, Estonian Biocentre and University of Tartu, 51010 Tartu, Estonia.
²⁸ Department of History, Yerevan State University, 0025 Yerevan, Armenia.
²⁹ 1] Hungarian National Museum, H-1083 Budapest, Hungary [2] Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Szeged, H-6726 Szeged, Hungary.
³⁰ Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Szeged, H-6726 Szeged, Hungary.
³¹ Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 61-612 Poznań, Poland.
³² Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.
³³ Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 199034 St Petersburg, Russia.
³⁴ Department of Archaeology, State Historical Museum, 109012 Moscow, Russia.
³⁵ Institute for History of Medicine and Foreign Languages of the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, 121 08 Prague, Czech Republic.
³⁶ Research Center for the History and Culture of the Turkic Peoples, Gorno-Altaisk State University, 649000 Gorno-Altaisk, Russia.
³⁷ Department of Pre- and Early History, Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Eötvös Loránd University, H-1088 Budapest, Hungary.
³⁸ Matrica Museum, 2440 Százhalombatta, Hungary.
³⁹ Laboratory of Ethnogenomics, Institute of Molecular Biology, National Academy of Sciences, 0014 Yerevan, Armenia.
⁴⁰ Department of Archaeology, Faculty of History, Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia.
⁴¹ 1] Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs Lyngby, Denmark [2] Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁴² Center for Theoretical Evolutionary Genetics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-3140, USA.

PMID: 26062507
DOI: 10.1038/nature14507

Population genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia

Morten E Allentoft et al. Nature. 2015.

. 2015 Jun 11;522(7555):167-72.

doi: 10.1038/nature14507.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, 1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark.
² Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden.
³ Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs Lyngby, Denmark.
⁴ 1] Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, 1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark [2] Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, 2300 Leiden, The Netherlands.
⁵ Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lund University, 221 00 Lund, Sweden.
⁶ Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK.
⁷ Unit of Forensic Anthropology, Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁸ Institute of Archaeology, University of Wrocław, 50-139 Wrocław, Poland.
⁹ Archaeological Institute, University of Zurich, CH-8006, Zurich, Switzerland.
¹⁰ Department of Anatomy, Wrocław Medical University, 50-368 Wrocław, Poland.
¹¹ Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto ONM5S 2S2, Canada.
¹² Department of Archeology and General History, Gorno-Altaisk State University, 649000 Gorno-Altaisk, Russia.
¹³ Institute of History and Archaeology RAS (South Ural Department), South Ural State University, 454080 Chelyabinsk, Russia.
¹⁴ Environmental Research and Material Science and Centre for Textile Research, The National Museum of Denmark, 1471 Copenhagen K, Denmark.
¹⁵ Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) RAS, 199034 St Petersburg, Russia.
¹⁶ Department of Anthropology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 50-449 Wrocław, Poland.
¹⁷ Biocentre of the Ludwig-Maximilian-University München, 82152 Munich, Germany.
¹⁸ 1] Department of Biological Anthropology, Institute of Biology, Eötvös Loránd University, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary [2] Department of Anthropology, Hungarian Natural History Museum, H-1083 Budapest, Hungary.
¹⁹ The Archaeological Museum of Wrocław, 50-077 Wrocław, Poland.
²⁰ Samara State Academy of Social Science and Humanities, 443099 Samara, Russia.
²¹ Institute of Archaeology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Research Center for the Humanities, H-1250 Budapest, Hungary.
²² 1] Institute of Archaeology and Museology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, CZ-602 00 Brno, Czech Republic [2] Department of Vegetation Ecology, Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, CZ-602 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
²³ Department of Archaeology, University of Tartu, 51003 Tartu, Estonia.
²⁴ Archaeological Superintendence of Lombardy, 20123 Milano, Italy.
²⁵ Department of Archaeology, University of Vilnius, LT-01513 Vilnius, Lithuania.
²⁶ The SAXO Institute, University of Copenhagen, 2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark.
²⁷ Department of Evolutionary Biology, Estonian Biocentre and University of Tartu, 51010 Tartu, Estonia.
²⁸ Department of History, Yerevan State University, 0025 Yerevan, Armenia.
²⁹ 1] Hungarian National Museum, H-1083 Budapest, Hungary [2] Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Szeged, H-6726 Szeged, Hungary.
³⁰ Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Szeged, H-6726 Szeged, Hungary.
³¹ Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 61-612 Poznań, Poland.
³² Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA.
³³ Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 199034 St Petersburg, Russia.
³⁴ Department of Archaeology, State Historical Museum, 109012 Moscow, Russia.
³⁵ Institute for History of Medicine and Foreign Languages of the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, 121 08 Prague, Czech Republic.
³⁶ Research Center for the History and Culture of the Turkic Peoples, Gorno-Altaisk State University, 649000 Gorno-Altaisk, Russia.
³⁷ Department of Pre- and Early History, Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Eötvös Loránd University, H-1088 Budapest, Hungary.
³⁸ Matrica Museum, 2440 Százhalombatta, Hungary.
³⁹ Laboratory of Ethnogenomics, Institute of Molecular Biology, National Academy of Sciences, 0014 Yerevan, Armenia.
⁴⁰ Department of Archaeology, Faculty of History, Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia.
⁴¹ 1] Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs Lyngby, Denmark [2] Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, University of Copenhagen, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁴² Center for Theoretical Evolutionary Genetics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-3140, USA.

PMID: 26062507
DOI: 10.1038/nature14507

Abstract

The Bronze Age of Eurasia (around 3000-1000 BC) was a period of major cultural changes. However, there is debate about whether these changes resulted from the circulation of ideas or from human migrations, potentially also facilitating the spread of languages and certain phenotypic traits. We investigated this by using new, improved methods to sequence low-coverage genomes from 101 ancient humans from across Eurasia. We show that the Bronze Age was a highly dynamic period involving large-scale population migrations and replacements, responsible for shaping major parts of present-day demographic structure in both Europe and Asia. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesized spread of Indo-European languages during the Early Bronze Age. We also demonstrate that light skin pigmentation in Europeans was already present at high frequency in the Bronze Age, but not lactose tolerance, indicating a more recent onset of positive selection on lactose tolerance than previously thought.

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Human evolution: ancient DNA steps into the language debate.
Novembre J. Novembre J. Nature. 2015 Jun 11;522(7555):164-5. doi: 10.1038/522164a. Nature. 2015. PMID: 26062506 No abstract available.
Four-thousand-year-old genomes show deep roots of social inequality.
Callaway E. Callaway E. Nature. 2019 Oct;574(7778):304-305. doi: 10.1038/d41586-019-03046-w. Nature. 2019. PMID: 31616086 No abstract available.

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Population genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia

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