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. 2022 Aug 26;377(6609):982-987.
doi: 10.1126/science.abq0762. Epub 2022 Aug 25.

Ancient DNA from Mesopotamia suggests distinct Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic migrations into Anatolia

Iosif Lazaridis #  1   2 Songül Alpaslan-Roodenberg #  2   3 Ayşe Acar  4 Ayşen Açıkkol  5 Anagnostis Agelarakis  6 Levon Aghikyan  7 Uğur Akyüz  8 Desislava Andreeva  9 Gojko Andrijašević  10 Dragana Antonović  11 Ian Armit  12 Alper Atmaca  13 Pavel Avetisyan  7 Ahmet İhsan Aytek  14 Krum Bacvarov  15 Ruben Badalyan  7 Stefan Bakardzhiev  16 Jacqueline Balen  17 Lorenc Bejko  18 Rebecca Bernardos  2 Andreas Bertsatos  19 Hanifi Biber  20 Ahmet Bilir  21 Mario Bodružić  22 Michelle Bonogofsky  23 Clive Bonsall  24 Dušan Borić  25 Nikola Borovinić  26 Guillermo Bravo Morante  3 Katharina Buttinger  3 Kim Callan  2   27 Francesca Candilio  28 Mario Carić  29 Olivia Cheronet  3 Stefan Chohadzhiev  30 Maria-Eleni Chovalopoulou  19 Stella Chryssoulaki  31 Ion Ciobanu  32   33 Natalija Čondić  34 Mihai Constantinescu  35 Emanuela Cristiani  36 Brendan J Culleton  37 Elizabeth Curtis  2   27 Jack Davis  38 Tatiana I Demcenco  39 Valentin Dergachev  40 Zafer Derin  41 Sylvia Deskaj  42 Seda Devejyan  7 Vojislav Djordjević  43 Kellie Sara Duffett Carlson  3 Laurie R Eccles  44 Nedko Elenski  45 Atilla Engin  46 Nihat Erdoğan  47 Sabiha Erir-Pazarcı  48 Daniel M Fernandes  3   49 Matthew Ferry  2   27 Suzanne Freilich  3 Alin Frînculeasa  50 Michael L Galaty  42 Beatriz Gamarra  51   52   53 Boris Gasparyan  7 Bisserka Gaydarska  54 Elif Genç  55 Timur Gültekin  56 Serkan Gündüz  57 Tamás Hajdu  58 Volker Heyd  59 Suren Hobosyan  7 Nelli Hovhannisyan  60 Iliya Iliev  16 Lora Iliev  2   27 Stanislav Iliev  61 İlkay İvgin  62 Ivor Janković  29 Lence Jovanova  63 Panagiotis Karkanas  64 Berna Kavaz-Kındığılı  65 Esra Hilal Kaya  66 Denise Keating  3 Douglas J Kennett  37   67 Seda Deniz Kesici  68 Anahit Khudaverdyan  7 Krisztián Kiss  58   69 Sinan Kılıç  20 Paul Klostermann  70 Sinem Kostak Boca Negra Valdes  68 Saša Kovačević  71 Marta Krenz-Niedbała  72 Maja Krznarić Škrivanko  73 Rovena Kurti  74 Pasko Kuzman  75 Ann Marie Lawson  2   27 Catalin Lazar  76 Krassimir Leshtakov  77 Thomas E Levy  78 Ioannis Liritzis  79   80 Kirsi O Lorentz  81 Sylwia Łukasik  72 Matthew Mah  2   27   82 Swapan Mallick  2   27 Kirsten Mandl  3 Kristine Martirosyan-Olshansky  83 Roger Matthews  84 Wendy Matthews  84 Kathleen McSweeney  24 Varduhi Melikyan  7 Adam Micco  2 Megan Michel  1   2   27 Lidija Milašinović  85 Alissa Mittnik  1   2   86 Janet M Monge  87 Georgi Nekhrizov  15 Rebecca Nicholls  88 Alexey G Nikitin  89 Vassil Nikolov  15 Mario Novak  29 Iñigo Olalde  2   90 Jonas Oppenheimer  2   27 Anna Osterholtz  91 Celal Özdemir  13 Kadir Toykan Özdoğan  3 Nurettin Öztürk  65 Nikos Papadimitriou  92 Niki Papakonstantinou  93 Anastasia Papathanasiou  94 Lujana Paraman  95 Evgeny G Paskary  96 Nick Patterson  1   82 Ilian Petrakiev  45 Levon Petrosyan  7 Vanya Petrova  77 Anna Philippa-Touchais  97 Ashot Piliposyan  98 Nada Pocuca Kuzman  75 Hrvoje Potrebica  99 Bianca Preda-Bălănică  59 Zrinka Premužić  100 T Douglas Price  101 Lijun Qiu  2   27 Siniša Radović  102 Kamal Raeuf Aziz  103 Petra Rajić Šikanjić  29 Kamal Rasheed Raheem  103 Sergei Razumov  104 Amy Richardson  84 Jacob Roodenberg  105 Rudenc Ruka  74 Victoria Russeva  106 Mustafa Şahin  57 Ayşegül Şarbak  107 Emre Savaş  68 Constanze Schattke  3 Lynne Schepartz  108 Tayfun Selçuk  68 Ayla Sevim-Erol  109 Michel Shamoon-Pour  110 Henry M Shephard  111 Athanasios Sideris  112 Angela Simalcsik  32   113 Hakob Simonyan  114 Vitalij Sinika  104 Kendra Sirak  2 Ghenadie Sirbu  115 Mario Šlaus  116 Andrei Soficaru  35 Bilal Söğüt  117 Arkadiusz Sołtysiak  118 Çilem Sönmez-Sözer  109 Maria Stathi  119 Martin Steskal  120 Kristin Stewardson  2   27 Sharon Stocker  38 Fadime Suata-Alpaslan  121 Alexander Suvorov  59 Anna Szécsényi-Nagy  122 Tamás Szeniczey  58 Nikolai Telnov  104 Strahil Temov  123 Nadezhda Todorova  77 Ulsi Tota  74   124 Gilles Touchais  125 Sevi Triantaphyllou  93 Atila Türker  126 Marina Ugarković  71 Todor Valchev  16 Fanica Veljanovska  123 Zlatko Videvski  123 Cristian Virag  127 Anna Wagner  3 Sam Walsh  128 Piotr Włodarczak  129 J Noah Workman  2 Aram Yardumian  130   131 Evgenii Yarovoy  132 Alper Yener Yavuz  133 Hakan Yılmaz  20 Fatma Zalzala  2   27 Anna Zettl  3 Zhao Zhang  2 Rafet Çavuşoğlu  20 Nadin Rohland  2 Ron Pinhasi  3   134 David Reich  1   2   27   82 Ruben Davtyan  7
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Ancient DNA from Mesopotamia suggests distinct Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic migrations into Anatolia

Iosif Lazaridis et al. Science. .

Abstract

We present the first ancient DNA data from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of Mesopotamia (Southeastern Turkey and Northern Iraq), Cyprus, and the Northwestern Zagros, along with the first data from Neolithic Armenia. We show that these and neighboring populations were formed through admixture of pre-Neolithic sources related to Anatolian, Caucasus, and Levantine hunter-gatherers, forming a Neolithic continuum of ancestry mirroring the geography of West Asia. By analyzing Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic populations of Anatolia, we show that the former were derived from admixture between Mesopotamian-related and local Epipaleolithic-related sources, but the latter experienced additional Levantine-related gene flow, thus documenting at least two pulses of migration from the Fertile Crescent heartland to the early farmers of Anatolia.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.. Studied individuals.
(A) Timeframe of Pre-Neolithic, Pre-Pottery Neolithic, and Pottery Neolithic populations in West Asia. (B) Geographical location of populations from panel (A) on the map of West Asia.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.. Overview of Neolithic variation.
(A) Principal component analysis of ancient individuals projected onto West Eurasian variation. (B) Application of 5-way model of (12) on Neolithic populations with Caucasus hunter-gatherer (CHG), Eastern European hunter-gatherer (EHG), Levant Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN), Serbian Iron Gates hunter-gatherer, and NW Anatolian Neolithic from Barcın sources.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.. The Neolithic continuum.
(A) 3-way model of Neolithic admixture with Caucasus hunter-gatherer (CHG) (10) as a source. (B) 3-way model of Neolithic admixture with Ganj Dareh(1) as a source. (C) Caucasus hunter-gatherer and Ganj Dareh admixture proportions from panels A, B are strongly correlated (R2=0.91; p<1e-7). (D) We also modeled Neolithic populations with local, Anatolian (Pınarbaşı(6)) and eastern, Mesopotamian Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN), proximal sources. Both Pre-Pottery Neolithic populations from Anatolia (from Boncuklu(6) and Aşıklı Höyük(8)) have no significant evidence for extra Levantine ancestry. However, all three Pottery Neolithic ones (from Barcın in NW Anatolia and Tepecik-Çiftlik(5) and Çatalhöyük(8) in Central Anatolia) have significant additional Levantine ancestry.
Fig. 4:
Fig. 4:. The dilution of Neolithic ancestry in the Levant.
The trajectory of West Asian components of ancestry in the Levant. (A) Caucasus hunter-gatherer ancestry increased over time, first, by the Chalcolithic period, and furthermore by the Bronze Age, while the local Levantine ancestry (B) was diluted during the last 10,000 years; (C) Anatolian ancestry, like Caucasus hunter-gatherer ancestry, also increased by the Chalcolithic period(28), undergoing fluctuations thereafter.

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