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Population genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia

Author

Listed:
  • Morten E. Allentoft

    (Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen)

  • Martin Sikora

    (Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen)

  • Karl-Göran Sjögren

    (University of Gothenburg)

  • Simon Rasmussen

    (Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Technical University of Denmark)

  • Morten Rasmussen

    (Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen)

  • Jesper Stenderup

    (Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen)

  • Peter B. Damgaard

    (Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen)

  • Hannes Schroeder

    (Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen
    Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University)

  • Torbjörn Ahlström

    (Lund University)

  • Lasse Vinner

    (Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen)

  • Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas

    (Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen)

  • Ashot Margaryan

    (Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen)

  • Tom Higham

    (Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford)

  • David Chivall

    (Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford)

  • Niels Lynnerup

    (Unit of Forensic Anthropology, University of Copenhagen)

  • Lise Harvig

    (Unit of Forensic Anthropology, University of Copenhagen)

  • Justyna Baron

    (Institute of Archaeology, University of Wrocław)

  • Philippe Della Casa

    (Archaeological Institute, University of Zurich)

  • Paweł Dąbrowski

    (Wrocław Medical University)

  • Paul R. Duffy

    (University of Toronto)

  • Alexander V. Ebel

    (Gorno-Altaisk State University)

  • Andrey Epimakhov

    (South Ural State University)

  • Karin Frei

    (Environmental Research and Material Science and Centre for Textile Research, The National Museum of Denmark)

  • Mirosław Furmanek

    (Institute of Archaeology, University of Wrocław)

  • Tomasz Gralak

    (Institute of Archaeology, University of Wrocław)

  • Andrey Gromov

    (Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) RAS)

  • Stanisław Gronkiewicz

    (Polish Academy of Sciences)

  • Gisela Grupe

    (Biocentre of the Ludwig-Maximilian-University München)

  • Tamás Hajdu

    (Institute of Biology, Eötvös Loránd University
    Hungarian Natural History Museum)

  • Radosław Jarysz

    (The Archaeological Museum of Wrocław)

  • Valeri Khartanovich

    (Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) RAS)

  • Alexandr Khokhlov

    (Samara State Academy of Social Science and Humanities)

  • Viktória Kiss

    (Institute of Archaeology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Research Center for the Humanities)

  • Jan Kolář

    (Institute of Archaeology and Museology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University
    Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences)

  • Aivar Kriiska

    (University of Tartu)

  • Irena Lasak

    (Institute of Archaeology, University of Wrocław)

  • Cristina Longhi

    (Archaeological Superintendence of Lombardy)

  • George McGlynn

    (Biocentre of the Ludwig-Maximilian-University München)

  • Algimantas Merkevicius

    (University of Vilnius)

  • Inga Merkyte

    (The SAXO Institute, University of Copenhagen)

  • Mait Metspalu

    (Estonian Biocentre and University of Tartu)

  • Ruzan Mkrtchyan

    (Yerevan State University)

  • Vyacheslav Moiseyev

    (Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) RAS)

  • László Paja

    (Hungarian National Museum
    University of Szeged)

  • György Pálfi

    (University of Szeged)

  • Dalia Pokutta

    (University of Gothenburg)

  • Łukasz Pospieszny

    (Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences)

  • T. Douglas Price

    (Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison)

  • Lehti Saag

    (Estonian Biocentre and University of Tartu)

  • Mikhail Sablin

    (Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences)

  • Natalia Shishlina

    (State Historical Museum)

  • Václav Smrčka

    (Institute for History of Medicine and Foreign Languages of the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University)

  • Vasilii I. Soenov

    (Research Center for the History and Culture of the Turkic Peoples, Gorno-Altaisk State University)

  • Vajk Szeverényi

    (Institute of Archaeology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Research Center for the Humanities)

  • Gusztáv Tóth

    (Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Eötvös Loránd University)

  • Synaru V. Trifanova

    (Research Center for the History and Culture of the Turkic Peoples, Gorno-Altaisk State University)

  • Liivi Varul

    (University of Tartu)

  • Magdolna Vicze

    (Matrica Museum)

  • Levon Yepiskoposyan

    (Laboratory of Ethnogenomics, Institute of Molecular Biology, National Academy of Sciences)

  • Vladislav Zhitenev

    (Faculty of History, Moscow State University)

  • Ludovic Orlando

    (Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen)

  • Thomas Sicheritz-Pontén

    (Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Technical University of Denmark)

  • Søren Brunak

    (Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Technical University of Denmark
    Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, University of Copenhagen)

  • Rasmus Nielsen

    (Center for Theoretical Evolutionary Genetics, University of California)

  • Kristian Kristiansen

    (University of Gothenburg)

  • Eske Willerslev

    (Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen)

Abstract

The Bronze Age of Eurasia (around 3000–1000 BC) was a period of major cultural changes. However, there is debate about whether these changes resulted from the circulation of ideas or from human migrations, potentially also facilitating the spread of languages and certain phenotypic traits. We investigated this by using new, improved methods to sequence low-coverage genomes from 101 ancient humans from across Eurasia. We show that the Bronze Age was a highly dynamic period involving large-scale population migrations and replacements, responsible for shaping major parts of present-day demographic structure in both Europe and Asia. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesized spread of Indo-European languages during the Early Bronze Age. We also demonstrate that light skin pigmentation in Europeans was already present at high frequency in the Bronze Age, but not lactose tolerance, indicating a more recent onset of positive selection on lactose tolerance than previously thought.

Suggested Citation

  • Morten E. Allentoft & Martin Sikora & Karl-Göran Sjögren & Simon Rasmussen & Morten Rasmussen & Jesper Stenderup & Peter B. Damgaard & Hannes Schroeder & Torbjörn Ahlström & Lasse Vinner & Anna-Sapfo , 2015. "Population genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia," Nature, Nature, vol. 522(7555), pages 167-172, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:522:y:2015:i:7555:d:10.1038_nature14507
    DOI: 10.1038/nature14507
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    Cited by:

    1. Grasgruber, P. & Sebera, M. & Hrazdíra, E. & Cacek, J. & Kalina, T., 2016. "Major correlates of male height: A study of 105 countries," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 172-195.
    2. Andaine Seguin-Orlando & Richard Donat & Clio Der Sarkissian & John Southon & Catherine Thèves & Claire Manen & Yaramila Tchérémissinoff & Eric Crubézy & Beth Shapiro & Jean-François Deleuze & Love Da, 2021. "Heterogeneous Hunter-Gatherer and Steppe-Related Ancestries in Late Neolithic and Bell Beaker Genomes from Present-Day France," Post-Print hal-03150872, HAL.

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