New DNA study refines links into the cultural and genetic development of Europeans over several thousand years

A new DNA study refines the picture of how different groups mixed during the European Stone Age, but also how certain groups of people were isolated. The study has been carried out by researchers at Uppsala University together with an international research team that produced new genetic data from 56 Central and Eastern European individuals from the Stone Age. The results are published in the journal Communications Biology.

– In order to carry out studies like this, a broad interdisciplinary discussion is required. In this study, it has been exceptionally fruitful, says Tiina Mattila, population geneticist at Uppsala University and the study’s first author.

Over the past 15 years, previous DNA research has piece by piece built up a picture of European Stone Age history. Before agriculture spread to Europe, in different parts of Eurasia there were different groups of hunters and gatherers, who also mixed with each other. This study shows that the mixing of these hunter-gatherer lineages was strongly linked to geography.

Several previous dna studies on European prehistory have also shown that the spread of agriculture was strongly linked to gene flow from Anatolia. This group was very different – ​​genetically and culturally – from the European hunter-gatherers. However, agriculture spreads in different ways in different geographical areas. This led to the people groups being mixed in different ways in different parts of Europe.

– These differences in the mix of lineages and cultures can tell us about the power relations between different groups, says Tiina Mattila.

The new study also looked at close relatives.

– Common graves are often assumed to be family graves, but in our study this was not always the case. This shows that already during the Stone Age, other social factors also played a role in burial practices, says Helena Malmström, archaeogeneticist at Uppsala University.

A comprehensive picture of the genetic history of Stone Age Europeans has emerged. The new study adds further details to this puzzle.

– We can show that certain parts of Europe – such as the area around the Dnipro river delta – were populated by a group of hunters and gatherers for many thousands of years. This despite the fact that many other parts of Europe changed their way of life in connection with the arrival of new groups who produced food by farming the land, says Mattias Jakobsson, professor of genetics at Uppsala University.