Cited by 278Forensic and Genetic ResearchGenetic diversity and population structureArchaeology and ancient environmental studies

Ancient genomes link early farmers from Atapuerca in Spain to modern-day Basques

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Günther, Torsten, Valdiosera, Cristina, Malmström, Helena, Ureña, Irene, Rodriguez-Varela, Ricardo, Sverrisdóttir, Óddny Osk, Daskalaki, Evangelia A., Skoglund, Pontus +11 more·2015·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Abstract

The consequences of the Neolithic transition in Europe--one of the most important cultural changes in human prehistory--is a subject of great interest. However, its effect on prehistoric and modern-day people in Iberia, the westernmost frontier of the European continent, remains unresolved. We present, to our knowledge, the first genome-wide sequence data from eight human remains, dated to between 5,500 and 3,500 years before present, excavated in the El Portalón cave at Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain. We show that these individuals emerged from the same ancestral gene pool as early farmers in other parts of Europe, suggesting that migration was the dominant mode of transferring farming practices throughout western Eurasia. In contrast to central and northern early European farmers, the Chalcolithic El Portalón individuals additionally mixed with local southwestern hunter-gatherers. The proportion of hunter-gatherer-related admixture into early farmers also increased over the course of two millennia. The Chalcolithic El Portalón individuals showed greatest genetic affinity to modern-day Basques, who have long been considered linguistic and genetic isolates linked to the Mesolithic whereas all other European early farmers show greater genetic similarity to modern-day Sardinians. These genetic links suggest that Basques and their language may be linked with the spread of agriculture during the Neolithic. Furthermore, all modern-day Iberian groups except the Basques display distinct…

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Crossref · 10.1073/pnas.1509851112

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  • The dataset combines the newly reported ancient individuals with previously published ancient data to form a dataset of 281 ancient individuals.

    “We combined our data with previously published ancient data7,8,9,10,8,10-15 to form a dataset of 281 ancient individuals.”

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Authors
Günther, T., Valdiosera, C., Malmström, H., Ureña, I., Rodriguez-Varela, R., Sverrisdóttir, Ó. O., Daskalaki, E. A., Skoglund, P., Naidoo, T., Svensson, E. M., Bermúdez de Castro, J. M., Carbonell, E., Dunn, M., Storå, J., Iriarte, E., Arsuaga, J. L., Carretero, J.-M., Götherström, A., & Jakobsson, M.
Affiliations
  • Uppsala University (SE)
  • Universidad Complutense de Madrid (ES)
  • Centro Mixto, Universidad Complutense de Madrid–Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Evolución y Comportamiento Humano, 28029 Madrid, Spain;
  • Department of Evolutionary Biology, Uppsala University, 75236 Uppsala, Sweden;
  • Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana, 09002 Burgos, Spain;
  • Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (ES)
  • Stockholm University (SE)
  • Universidad de Burgos (ES)
Venue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2015-09-08
Volume
112
Issue
38
Pages
11917-11922
ISSN
  • 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-6490
OpenAlex
W1862136328
Cited by
278
References
54
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 46 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 42 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 34 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 4
FWCI
19.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Forensic and Genetic Research
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic diversity and population structure
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
Keywords
Neolithic transition, early farmers, Atapuerca, Chalcolithic, Basques, prehistoric migration, Iberian Peninsula prehistory, ancient genomes, genetic affinity, Sardinians, prehistoric demography
MeSH terms
Farmers, DNA, Gene Pool, Geography, Humans, Population Dynamics, Spain, Genome, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Principal Component Analysis, History, Ancient

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