The genomic origins of the world's first farmers

AI interpretationAI-generated

Ancient DNA reveals how Europe's first farmers mixed and drifted into existence.

This study uses high-quality ancient genomes to model where the first Neolithic farmers of Anatolia and Europe came from. It finds they formed through multiple phases of mixing between a Southwest Asian population and a strongly bottlenecked western hunter-gatherer group after the last glacial maximum. As these early farmers expanded westward, they passed through a period of extreme genetic drift, which made them genetically very distinct. The work clarifies the demographic roots of the Neolithic transition.

• Early Anatolian and European farmers arose from multiphase mixing of a Southwest Asian population with a strongly bottlenecked western hunter-gatherer population after the last glacial maximum.
• The ancestors of these first farmers experienced extreme genetic drift during their westward expansion, which strongly shaped their genetic distinctiveness.
• The study provides a spatial interpretation of population history in Southwest Asia and Europe during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene.

Sample interpretation

The site sample set includes 9 ancient individuals with resolved Y lineages. Y haplogroups are dominated by G subclades (G-L140, G-Z39332, G-PF4202, G-PF3345, G-BY133179) plus R-Y127541 and two C lineages (C-F16270, C-FT59486). Mitochondrial lineages include N1a1a1, U5a1c1, U5a2-C16294T, H3, U5b2c1, and HV-T16311C!. Most samples come from VLASA7 (5) and ESS7 (2), with BAR25 and ASP6 adding one each.

For genealogy enthusiasts

For ancestry enthusiasts, this supports the view that early European farmers were not a single pure source but a mixed, drift-shaped population. The G-rich Y diversity and U5/N1a maternal lines in these samples fit a Southwest Asian plus western hunter-gatherer origin story.