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Analysis of ancient human mitochondrial DNA from Verteba Cave, Ukraine: insights into the origins and expansions of the Late Neolithic-Chalcolithic Cututeni-Tripolye Culture

Ken Wakabayashi, Ryan W. Schmidt, Takashi Gakuhari, Kae Koganebuchi, Motoyuki Ogawa, Jordan K. Karsten, Mykhailo Sokhatsky, Hiroki Oota
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/217109
Ken Wakabayashi
1Department of Anatomy, Kitasato University, 1-15-1 Kitsasato, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-0374, Japan
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Ryan W. Schmidt
1Department of Anatomy, Kitasato University, 1-15-1 Kitsasato, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-0374, Japan
2School of Archaeology, Earth Institute, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
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  • For correspondence: schmidtrw@gmail.com hiroki_oota@med.kitasato-u.ac.jp
Takashi Gakuhari
1Department of Anatomy, Kitasato University, 1-15-1 Kitsasato, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-0374, Japan
3Kanazawa University, Center for Cultural Resource Studies, Kakuma, Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920-1164, Japan
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Kae Koganebuchi
1Department of Anatomy, Kitasato University, 1-15-1 Kitsasato, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-0374, Japan
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Motoyuki Ogawa
1Department of Anatomy, Kitasato University, 1-15-1 Kitsasato, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-0374, Japan
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Jordan K. Karsten
4Department of Anthropology and Religious Studies, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI 54901
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Mykhailo Sokhatsky
5Borschiv Regional Museum, Ministry of Culture and Arts, Shevchenka St. 9, Bilche Zolote, Ukraine
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Hiroki Oota
1Department of Anatomy, Kitasato University, 1-15-1 Kitsasato, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-0374, Japan
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  • For correspondence: schmidtrw@gmail.com hiroki_oota@med.kitasato-u.ac.jp
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Abstract

Background The Eneolithic (~ 5,500 yrBP) site of Verteba Cave in Western Ukraine contains the largest collection of human skeletal remains associated with the archaeological Cucuteni-Tripolye Culture. Their subsistence economy is based largely on agro-pastoralism and had some of the largest and most dense settlement sites during the Middle Neolithic in all of Europe. To help understand the evolutionary history of the Tripolye people, we performed mtDNA analyses on ancient human remains excavated from several chambers within the cave.

Results Burials at Verteba Cave are largely commingled and secondary in nature. A total of 68 individual bone specimens were analyzed. Most of these specimens were found in association with well-defined Tripolye artifacts. We determined 28 mtDNA D-Loop (368 bp) sequences and defined 8 sequence types, belonging to haplogroups H, HV, W, K, and T. These results do not suggest continuity with local pre-Eneolithic peoples, but rather complete population replacement. We constructed maximum parsimonious networks from the data and generated population genetic statistics. Nucleotide diversity (π) is low among all sequence types and our network analysis indicates highly similar mtDNA sequence types for samples in chamber G3. Using different sample sizes due to the uncertainly in number of individuals (11, 28, or 15), we found Tajima’s D statistic to vary. When all sequence types are included (11 or 28), we do not find a trend for demographic expansion (negative but not significantly different from zero); however, when only samples from Site 7 (peak occupation) are included, we find a significantly negative value, indicative of demographic expansion.

Conclusions Our results suggest individuals buried at Verteba Cave had overall low mtDNA diversity, most likely due to increased conflict among sedentary farmers and nomadic pastoralists to the East and North. Early Farmers tend to show demographic expansion. We find different signatures of demographic expansion for the Tripolye people that may be caused by existing population structure or the spatiotemporal nature of ancient data. Regardless, peoples of the Tripolye Culture are more closely related to early European farmers and lack genetic continuity with Mesolithic hunter-gatherers or pre-Eneolithic groups in Ukraine.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted November 10, 2017.
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Analysis of ancient human mitochondrial DNA from Verteba Cave, Ukraine: insights into the origins and expansions of the Late Neolithic-Chalcolithic Cututeni-Tripolye Culture
Ken Wakabayashi, Ryan W. Schmidt, Takashi Gakuhari, Kae Koganebuchi, Motoyuki Ogawa, Jordan K. Karsten, Mykhailo Sokhatsky, Hiroki Oota
bioRxiv 217109; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/217109
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Analysis of ancient human mitochondrial DNA from Verteba Cave, Ukraine: insights into the origins and expansions of the Late Neolithic-Chalcolithic Cututeni-Tripolye Culture
Ken Wakabayashi, Ryan W. Schmidt, Takashi Gakuhari, Kae Koganebuchi, Motoyuki Ogawa, Jordan K. Karsten, Mykhailo Sokhatsky, Hiroki Oota
bioRxiv 217109; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/217109

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