Genetic Discontinuity Between Local Hunter-Gatherers and Central Europe’s First Farmers

TLDR

The origins of early European farmers—whether they arose from local hunter‑gatherers adopting agriculture or from migrants from the Near East—remain debated. Bramanti et al. investigated the genetic relationship among European Ice Age hunter‑gatherers, the continent’s first farmers, and modern Europeans. They analyzed ancient hunter‑gatherer skeletal DNA spanning 13,400 to 2,300 BCE.

Abstract

Cultivating Farmers Were the ancestors of modern Europeans the local hunter-gatherers who assimilated farming practices from neighboring cultures, or were they farmers who migrated from the Near East in the early Neolithic? By analyzing ancient hunter-gatherer skeletal DNA from 2300 to 13,400 B.C.E. Bramanti et al. (p. 137 , published online 3 September) investigated the genetic relationship of European Ice Age hunter-gatherers, the first farmers of Europe, and modern Europeans. The results reject the hypothesis of direct continuity between hunter-gatherers and early farmers and between hunter-gatherers and modern Europeans. Major parts of central and northern Europe were colonized by incoming farmers 7500 years ago, who were not descended from the resident hunter-gatherers. Thus, migration rather than cultural diffusion was the driver of farming communities in Europe.