Late Pleistocene human genome suggests a local origin for the first farmers of central Anatolia

Michal Feldman; Eva Fernández‐Domínguez; Luke Reynolds; Douglas Baird; Jessica A. Pearson; Israël Hershkovitz; Hila May; A. Nigel Goring‐Morris; Marion Benz; Julia Gresky; Raffaela Angelina Bianco; Andrew Fairbairn; Gökhan Mustafaoğlu; Philipp Wolfgang Stockhammer; Cosimo Posth; Wolfgang Haak; Choongwon Jeong; Johannes Krause

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-09209-7

GeneticsNature CommunicationsMar 19, 2019

Peer-reviewed journal article

Late Pleistocene human genome suggests a local origin for the first farmers of central Anatolia

Michal Feldman iD, Eva Fernández‐Domínguez iD, Luke Reynolds, Douglas Baird iD, Jessica A. Pearson iD, Israël Hershkovitz iD, Hila May iD, A. Nigel Goring‐Morris iD, Marion Benz iD, Julia Gresky iD, Raffaela Angelina Bianco iD, Andrew Fairbairn iD, Gökhan Mustafaoğlu iD, Philipp Wolfgang Stockhammer iD, Cosimo Posth iD, Wolfgang Haak iD, Choongwon Jeong iD, Johannes Krause iD

Abstract

Anatolia was home to some of the earliest farming communities. It has been long debated whether a migration of farming groups introduced agriculture to central Anatolia. Here, we report the first genome-wide data from a 15,000-year-old Anatolian hunter-gatherer and from seven Anatolian and Levantine early farmers. We find high genetic continuity ([~]80-90%) between the hunter-gatherer and early farmers of Anatolia and detect two distinct incoming ancestries: an early Iranian/Caucasus related one and a later one linked to the ancient Levant. Finally, we observe a genetic link between southern Europe and the Near East predating 15,000 years ago that extends to central Europe during the post-last-glacial maximum period. Our results suggest a limited role of human migration in the emergence of agriculture in central Anatolia.

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