RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The Arrival of Steppe and Iranian Related Ancestry in the Islands of the Western Mediterranean
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 584714
DO 10.1101/584714
A1 Daniel M. Fernandes
A1 Alissa Mittnik
A1 Iñigo Olalde
A1 Iosif Lazaridis
A1 Olivia Cheronet
A1 Nadin Rohland
A1 Swapan Mallick
A1 Rebecca Bernardos
A1 Nasreen Broomandkhoshbacht
A1 Jens Carlsson
A1 Brendan J. Culleton
A1 Matthew Ferry
A1 Beatriz Gamarra
A1 Martina Lari
A1 Matthew Mah
A1 Megan Michel
A1 Alessandra Modi
A1 Mario Novak
A1 Jonas Oppenheimer
A1 Kendra A. Sirak
A1 Kirstin Stewardson
A1 Stefania Vai
A1 Edgard Camarós
A1 Carla Calò
A1 Giulio Catalano
A1 Marian Cueto
A1 Vincenza Forgia
A1 Marina Lozano
A1 Elisabetta Marini
A1 Margherita Micheletti
A1 Roberto M. Miccichè
A1 Maria R. Palombo
A1 Damià Ramis
A1 Vittoria Schimmenti
A1 Pau Sureda
A1 Luís Teira
A1 Maria Teschler-Nicola
A1 Douglas J. Kennett
A1 Carles Lalueza-Fox
A1 Nick Patterson
A1 Luca Sineo
A1 David Caramelli
A1 Ron Pinhasi
A1 David Reich
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/03/21/584714.abstract
AB A series of studies have documented how Steppe pastoralist-related ancestry reached central Europe by at least 2500 BCE, while Iranian farmer-related ancestry was present in Aegean Europe by at least 1900 BCE. However, the spread of these ancestries into the western Mediterranean where they have contributed to many populations living today remains poorly understood. We generated genome-wide ancient DNA from the Balearic Islands, Sicily, and Sardinia, increasing the number of individuals with reported data from these islands from 3 to 52. We obtained data from the oldest skeleton excavated from the Balearic islands (dating to ∼2400 BCE), and show that this individual had substantial Steppe pastoralist-derived ancestry; however, later Balearic individuals had less Steppe heritage reflecting geographic heterogeneity or immigration from groups with more European first farmer-related ancestry. In Sicily, Steppe pastoralist ancestry arrived by ∼2200 BCE and likely came at least in part from Spain as it was associated with Iberian-specific Y chromosomes. In Sicily, Iranian-related ancestry also arrived by the Middle Bronze Age, thus revealing that this ancestry type, which was ubiquitous in the Aegean by this time, also spread further west prior to the classical period of Greek expansion. In Sardinia, we find no evidence of either eastern ancestry type in the Nuragic Bronze Age, but show that Iranian-related ancestry arrived by at least ∼300 BCE and Steppe ancestry arrived by ∼300 CE, joined at that time or later by North African ancestry. These results falsify the view that the people of Sardinia are isolated descendants of Europe’s first farmers. Instead, our results show that the island’s admixture history since the Bronze Age is as complex as that in many other parts of Europe.