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. 2022 Mar 16;25(4):104094.
doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104094. eCollection 2022 Apr 15.

Origin and mobility of Iron Age Gaulish groups in present-day France revealed through archaeogenomics

Claire-Elise Fischer  1 , Marie-Hélène Pemonge  1 , Isaure Ducoussau  1 , Ana Arzelier  1 , Maïté Rivollat  1   2 , Frederic Santos  1 , Hélène Barrand Emam  3   4 , Alexandre Bertaud  5 , Alexandre Beylier  6   7 , Elsa Ciesielski  7 , Bernard Dedet  7 , Sophie Desenne  8   9 , Henri Duday  1 , Fanny Chenal  4   8 , Eric Gailledrat  7 , Sébastien Goepfert  3   4 , Olivier Gorgé  10 , Alexis Gorgues  5 , Gertrud Kuhnle  11 , François Lambach  1 , Anthony Lefort  8 , Amandine Mauduit  3 , Florent Maziere  7   8 , Sophie Oudry  8   12 , Cécile Paresys  8   13 , Estelle Pinard  8   9 , Suzanne Plouin  4 , Isabelle Richard  8   13 , Muriel Roth-Zehner  4   14 , Réjane Roure  7 , Corinne Thevenet  8   9 , Yohann Thomas  4   8 , Stéphane Rottier  1 , Marie-France Deguilloux  1 , Mélanie Pruvost  1
Affiliations

Origin and mobility of Iron Age Gaulish groups in present-day France revealed through archaeogenomics

Claire-Elise Fischer et al. iScience. .

Abstract

The Iron Age period occupies an important place in French history because the Gauls are regularly presented as the direct ancestors of the extant French population. We documented here the genomic diversity of Iron Age communities originating from six French regions. The 49 acquired genomes permitted us to highlight an absence of discontinuity between Bronze Age and Iron Age groups in France, lending support to a cultural transition linked to progressive local economic changes rather than to a massive influx of allochthone groups. Genomic analyses revealed strong genetic homogeneity among the regional groups associated with distinct archaeological cultures. This genomic homogenization appears to be linked to individuals' mobility between regions and gene flow with neighbouring groups from England and Spain. Thus, the results globally support a common genomic legacy for the Iron Age population of modern-day France that could be linked to recurrent gene flow between culturally differentiated communities.

Keywords: Biological sciences; Evolutionary biology; Genetics; Genomics; Paleobiology; Paleogenetics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

None
Graphical abstract
Figure 1
Figure 1
Overview of our dataset Each colour represents a region, and each symbol represents a site. (A) Location of samples included in the study. (B) Timeline of BA and IA individuals with genomic data for the territory corresponding to present-day France. Circles without black outline represent previously published samples. (C) Principal component analysis of western samples from the Neolithic until the Iron Age projected onto the genomic variability of present-day populations.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pairwise qpWave testing to detect outliers Grey-coloured models have a p value of less than 0.05 and were rejected, pink-coloured models have a p value of more than 0.05. Orange circles represent outliers from the chronological-cultural group from which they originate (p value <0.05).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Distribution and average level of ancestral components in IA samples from Western Europe Each colour corresponds to a region (France) or a country. (A) Triplot of qpAdm values for the Anatolia Neolithic (NEO), steppe and western Hunter-Gatherer components (WHG) for individuals from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age from France (B) Triplot of qpAdm values for the Anatolia Neolithic (NEO), steppe and western Hunter-Gatherer components (WHG) for individuals from Iron Age from France. (C) Evolution of qpAdm values for the Steppe related ancestry component in southern and northern French regions, between the Bronze and Iron Age periods. (D) Relation between the latitudinal position of the archaeological sites where Western Europe IA individuals were found and PC2 values (PCA calculated on the genetic variation of an HO set of west Eurasians).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Plot results of the f3-outgroup statistic in the form f3 (Mbuti, Outlier, Region), where “Region” corresponds to Iron Age individuals grouped according to their region of origin
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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