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In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international research team led by the University of Uppsala, has discovered kinship relationships between stone age individuals buried in megalithic tombs in Ireland and Sweden.
Kinship relationships may have been sought for more than ten generations and suggest that megaliths were tombs for related groups in Stone Age Stone Europe.
Agriculture has spread with Fertile Crescent migrants to Europe around 9,000 BCE, reaching northwest Europe at 4,000 BC. Around 4,500 BCE, a new phenomenon of megalithic monument construction, especially for funeral practices, emerged along the Atlantic coast. These constructions were enigmatic for the scientific community, and the origin and social structure of the groups that erected them remained largely unknown. The international team sequenced and analyzed the genomes of the human remains of 24 individuals from five megalithic burial sites, encompassing the widespread tradition of megalithic construction in northern and western Europe.
The team collected the human remains of 24 people from megaliths of Ireland, Scotland and the Baltic island of Gotland, Sweden. The remains were radiocarbon dated between 3 800 and 2 600 BC. DNA has been extracted from bones and teeth for sequencing of the genome. The team compared genomic data with genetic variation of stone age groups and individuals from other parts of Europe. Individuals of the megaliths were closely related to Neolithic farmers in northern and western Europe, as well as to some groups in the Iberian Peninsula, but less related to farmer groups. Central Europe.
The team discovered an overrepresentation of men over women in the megaliths of the British Isles.
"We have found paternal continuity over time, including the fact that the same Y chromosome haplotypes breed again and again," said archaeogeneticist Helena Malmström of Uppsala University. and co-first author. "However, female members of the same family were not excluded from megalith burials, as three of the six kinship relationships in these megaliths involved women."
Genetic data show close kinship relationships between individuals buried in megaliths. A probable parent-child relationship was found for individuals from Listhogil's grave at the Carrowmore site and Grave 1 of Primrose Grange, distant about 2 km apart. "It was a surprise. It seems that these Neolithic societies were closely linked by very close kinship ties across the burial sites, "says population geneticist Federico Sanchez-Quinto of Uppsala University and co-prime author.
The Ansarve site, located on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, is located in an area where most hunter-gatherers were concentrated at the time. "The people buried in Ansarve's grave are remarkably different genetically from contemporary individuals exhumed in hunter-gatherer contexts, which shows that the funerary tradition of this megalithic tomb, which lasted more than 700 years, was carried out by separate groups. with roots in European Neolithic expansion, "says archaeogeneticist Magdalena Fraser of the University of Uppsala and co-first author.
"That we find distinct paternal lineages among the inhabitants of the megaliths, an overrepresentation of men in some tombs, and that clear kinship relationships indicate that individuals are part of a patrilineal segment of society rather than representing a Random sample of a larger number. Neolithic peasant community, "says Mattias Jakobsson, population geneticist at the University of Uppsala and senior author of the study.
"Our study demonstrates the potential of archaeogenetics to reveal large-scale migrations, but also to inform about Stone Age societies and the role of particular phenomena at that time, such as megaliths, "says Federico Sanchez-Quinto.
"The models we observe could be unique to the burials of Primrose, Carrowmore and Ansarve, and future studies on other megaliths are needed to determine whether there is a general pattern for the burials of megaliths, "says osteoarchaeologist Jan Storå of Stockholm University.
UPPSALA UNIVERSITY
Header Image – The Ansarve site on the Baltic Sea island of Gotland is located in an area where most hunter-gatherers were concentrated at the time. Credit: Magdalena Fraser
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