Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 342, Issue 6157, Pages 479-481Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.1245049
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Funding
- German Research Foundation [DFG: Or 98/6-1, NE1666/1-1]
- BEAN project of the Marie Curie Initial Training Networks Theme [289966]
- Max Planck Society
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- European Union [226506]
- University of Mainz
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Debate on the ancestry of Europeans centers on the interplay between Mesolithic foragers and Neolithic farmers. Foragers are generally believed to have disappeared shortly after the arrival of agriculture. To investigate the relation between foragers and farmers, we examined Mesolithic and Neolithic samples from the Blatterhohle site. Mesolithic mitochondrial DNA sequences were typical of European foragers, whereas the Neolithic sample included additional lineages that are associated with early farmers. However, isotope analyses separate the Neolithic sample into two groups: one with an agriculturalist diet and one with a forager and freshwater fish diet, the latter carrying mitochondrial DNA sequences typical of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. This indicates that the descendants of Mesolithic people maintained a foraging lifestyle in Central Europe for more than 2000 years after the arrival of farming societies.
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