Origin and Mobility of Iron Age Gaulish Groups in Present-day France Revealed Through Archaeogenomics

The Iron Age period occupies an important place in French history because the Gauls are regularly presented as the direct ancestors of the extant French population. We documented here the genomic diversity of Iron Age communities originating from six French regions. The 49 acquired genomes permitted us to highlight an absence of discontinuity between Bronze Age and Iron Age groups in France, lending support to a cultural transition linked to progressive local economic changes rather than to a massive influx of allochthone groups. Genomic analyses revealed strong genetic homogeneity among the regional groups associated with distinct archaeological cultures. This genomic homogenization appears to be linked to individuals' mobility between regions and gene flow with neighbouring groups from England and Spain. Thus, the results globally support a common genomic legacy for the Iron Age population of modern-day France that could be linked to recurrent gene flow between culturally differentiated communities.

Citing Articles

Continental influx and pervasive matrilocality in Iron Age Britain.

Cassidy L, Russell M, Smith M, Delbarre G, Cheetham P, Manley H Nature. 2025; 637(8048):1136-1142.

PMID: 39814899 PMC: 11779635. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08409-6.

The genomic portrait of the Picene culture provides new insights into the Italic Iron Age and the legacy of the Roman Empire in Central Italy.

Ravasini F, Kabral H, Solnik A, de Gennaro L, Montinaro F, Hui R Genome Biol. 2024; 25(1):292.

PMID: 39567978 PMC: 11580440. DOI: 10.1186/s13059-024-03430-4.

Pervasive findings of directional selection realize the promise of ancient DNA to elucidate human adaptation.

Akbari A, Barton A, Gazal S, Li Z, Kariminejad M, Perry A bioRxiv. 2024; .

PMID: 39314480 PMC: 11419161. DOI: 10.1101/2024.09.14.613021.

Low Genetic Impact of the Roman Occupation of Britain in Rural Communities.

Scheib C, Hui R, Rose A, DAtanasio E, Inskip S, Dittmar J Mol Biol Evol. 2024; 41(9).

PMID: 39268685 PMC: 11393495. DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msae168.

Ancient DNA sheds light on the funerary practices of late Neolithic collective burial in southern France.

Arzelier A, De Belvalet H, Pemonge M, Garberi P, Binder D, Duday H Proc Biol Sci. 2024; 291(2029):rspb20241215.

PMID: 39191285 PMC: 11349438. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2024.1215.

References

Rivollat M, Jeong C, Schiffels S, Kucukkalipci I, Pemonge M, Rohrlach A . Ancient genome-wide DNA from France highlights the complexity of interactions between Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers. Sci Adv. 2020; 6(22):eaaz5344. PMC: 7259947. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz5344. View

Mittnik A, Massy K, Knipper C, Wittenborn F, Friedrich R, Pfrengle S . Kinship-based social inequality in Bronze Age Europe. Science. 2019; 366(6466):731-734. DOI: 10.1126/science.aax6219. View

OSullivan N, Posth C, Coia V, Schuenemann V, Price T, Wahl J . Ancient genome-wide analyses infer kinship structure in an Early Medieval Alemannic graveyard. Sci Adv. 2018; 4(9):eaao1262. PMC: 6124919. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aao1262. View

Novembre J, Johnson T, Bryc K, Kutalik Z, Boyko A, Auton A . Genes mirror geography within Europe. Nature. 2008; 456(7218):98-101. PMC: 2735096. DOI: 10.1038/nature07331. View

Rohland N, Harney E, Mallick S, Nordenfelt S, Reich D . Partial uracil-DNA-glycosylase treatment for screening of ancient DNA. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2014; 370(1660):20130624. PMC: 4275898. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2013.0624. View

Mathieson I, Alpaslan-Roodenberg S, Posth C, Szecsenyi-Nagy A, Rohland N, Mallick S . The genomic history of southeastern Europe. Nature. 2018; 555(7695):197-203. PMC: 6091220. DOI: 10.1038/nature25778. View

Nunez C, Baeta M, Cardoso S, Palencia-Madrid L, Garcia-Romero N, Llanos A . Mitochondrial DNA Reveals the Trace of the Ancient Settlers of a Violently Devastated Late Bronze and Iron Ages Village. PLoS One. 2016; 11(5):e0155342. PMC: 4866787. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155342. View

Allentoft M, Sikora M, Sjogren K, Rasmussen S, Rasmussen M, Stenderup J . Population genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia. Nature. 2015; 522(7555):167-72. DOI: 10.1038/nature14507. View

Dur A, Huber N, Parson W . Fine-Tuning Phylogenetic Alignment and Haplogrouping of mtDNA Sequences. Int J Mol Sci. 2021; 22(11). PMC: 8198973. DOI: 10.3390/ijms22115747. View

10.

Peltzer A, Jager G, Herbig A, Seitz A, Kniep C, Krause J . EAGER: efficient ancient genome reconstruction. Genome Biol. 2016; 17:60. PMC: 4815194. DOI: 10.1186/s13059-016-0918-z. View

11.

Olalde I, Brace S, Allentoft M, Armit I, Kristiansen K, Booth T . The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe. Nature. 2018; 555(7695):190-196. PMC: 5973796. DOI: 10.1038/nature25738. View

12.

Cassidy L, Maolduin R, Kador T, Lynch A, Jones C, Woodman P . A dynastic elite in monumental Neolithic society. Nature. 2020; 582(7812):384-388. PMC: 7116870. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2378-6. View

13.

Li H, Durbin R . Fast and accurate long-read alignment with Burrows-Wheeler transform. Bioinformatics. 2010; 26(5):589-95. PMC: 2828108. DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btp698. View

14.

Ringbauer H, Novembre J, Steinrucken M . Parental relatedness through time revealed by runs of homozygosity in ancient DNA. Nat Commun. 2021; 12(1):5425. PMC: 8440622. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25289-w. View

15.

Meyer M, Kircher M . Illumina sequencing library preparation for highly multiplexed target capture and sequencing. Cold Spring Harb Protoc. 2010; 2010(6):pdb.prot5448. DOI: 10.1101/pdb.prot5448. View

16.

Furtwangler A, Rohrlach A, Lamnidis T, Papac L, Neumann G, Siebke I . Ancient genomes reveal social and genetic structure of Late Neolithic Switzerland. Nat Commun. 2020; 11(1):1915. PMC: 7171184. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-15560-x. View

17.

Schiffels S, Haak W, Paajanen P, Llamas B, Popescu E, Loe L . Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon genomes from East England reveal British migration history. Nat Commun. 2016; 7:10408. PMC: 4735688. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10408. View

18.

Haak W, Lazaridis I, Patterson N, Rohland N, Mallick S, Llamas B . Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe. Nature. 2015; 522(7555):207-11. PMC: 5048219. DOI: 10.1038/nature14317. View

19.

Moorjani P, Sankararaman S, Fu Q, Przeworski M, Patterson N, Reich D . A genetic method for dating ancient genomes provides a direct estimate of human generation interval in the last 45,000 years. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016; 113(20):5652-7. PMC: 4878468. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1514696113. View

20.

Martiniano R, Caffell A, Holst M, Hunter-Mann K, Montgomery J, Muldner G . Genomic signals of migration and continuity in Britain before the Anglo-Saxons. Nat Commun. 2016; 7:10326. PMC: 4735653. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10326. View