Craniometric Data Supports Demic Diffusion Model for the Spread of Agriculture into Europe

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2009 Aug 27

PMID 19707595

Citations 25

Authors

Ron Pinhasi

Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: The spread of agriculture into Europe and the ancestry of the first European farmers have been subjects of debate and controversy among geneticists, archaeologists, linguists and anthropologists. Debates have centred on the extent to which the transition was associated with the active migration of people as opposed to the diffusion of cultural practices. Recent studies have shown that patterns of human cranial shape variation can be employed as a reliable proxy for the neutral genetic relationships of human populations.

Methodology/principal Findings: Here, we employ measurements of Mesolithic (hunter-gatherers) and Neolithic (farmers) crania from Southwest Asia and Europe to test several alternative population dispersal and hunter-farmer gene-flow models. We base our alternative hypothetical models on a null evolutionary model of isolation-by-geographic and temporal distance. Partial Mantel tests were used to assess the congruence between craniometric distance and each of the geographic model matrices, while controlling for temporal distance. Our results demonstrate that the craniometric data fit a model of continuous dispersal of people (and their genes) from Southwest Asia to Europe significantly better than a null model of cultural diffusion.

Conclusions/significance: Therefore, this study does not support the assertion that farming in Europe solely involved the adoption of technologies and ideas from Southwest Asia by indigenous Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. Moreover, the results highlight the utility of craniometric data for assessing patterns of past population dispersal and gene flow.

Citing Articles

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Impact of cultural and genetic structure on food choices along the Silk Road.

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An integrative skeletal and paleogenomic analysis of stature variation suggests relatively reduced health for early European farmers.

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Climate shaped how Neolithic farmers and European hunter-gatherers interacted after a major slowdown from 6,100 BCE to 4,500 BCE.

Betti L, Beyer R, Jones E, Eriksson A, Tassi F, Siska V Nat Hum Behav. 2020; 4(10):1004-1010.

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Ahedo V, Caro J, Bortolini E, Zurro D, Madella M, Galan J PLoS One. 2019; 14(5):e0216302.

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