RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Genomic and dietary transitions during the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic in Sicily
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.03.11.986158
DO 10.1101/2020.03.11.986158
A1 Marieke S. van de Loosdrecht
A1 Marcello A. Mannino
A1 Sahra Talamo
A1 Vanessa Villalba-Mouco
A1 Cosimo Posth
A1 Franziska Aron
A1 Guido Brandt
A1 Marta Burri
A1 Cäcilia Freund
A1 Rita Radzeviciute
A1 Raphaela Stahl
A1 Antje Wissgott
A1 Lysann Klausnitzer
A1 Sarah Nagel
A1 Matthias Meyer
A1 Antonio Tagliacozzo
A1 Marcello Piperno
A1 Sebastiano Tusa
A1 Carmine Collina
A1 Vittoria Schimmenti
A1 Rosaria Di Salvo
A1 Kay Prüfer
A1 Jean-Jacques Hublin
A1 Stephan Schiffels
A1 Choongwon Jeong
A1 Wolfgang Haak
A1 Johannes Krause
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/03/12/2020.03.11.986158.abstract
AB Southern Italy is a key region for understanding the agricultural transition in the Mediterranean due to its central position. We present a genomic transect for 19 prehistoric Sicilians that covers the Early Mesolithic to Early Neolithic period. We find that the Early Mesolithic hunter-gatherers (HGs) are a highly drifted sister lineage to Early Holocene western European HGs, whereas a quarter of the Late Mesolithic HGs ancestry is related to HGs from eastern Europe and the Near East. This indicates substantial gene flow from (south-)eastern Europe between the Early and Late Mesolithic. The Early Neolithic farmers are genetically most similar to those from the Balkan and Greece, and carry only a maximum of ∼7% ancestry from Sicilian Mesolithic HGs. Ancestry changes match changes in dietary profile and material culture, except for two individuals who may provide tentative initial evidence that HGs adopted elements of farming in Sicily.One-sentence summary Genome-wide and isotopic data from prehistoric Sicilians reveal a pre-farming connection to (south-) eastern Europe, and tentative initial evidence that hunter-gatherers adopted some Neolithic aspects prior to near-total replacement by early farmers.