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Friday, February 10, 2017

Lots of ancient mtDNA from Iberia


A new preprint on the maternal genetic history of the Iberian Peninsula has just appeared at bioRxiv. In all likelihood, it's a precursor to another paper focusing on genome-wide data from most of the same samples. Looks like we shouldn't expect any Yamnaya-related admixture in ancient Iberians until after the Early Bronze Age, unless it's all male mediated, which is possible but unlikely.

Abstract: Agriculture first reached the Iberian Peninsula around 5700 BCE. However, little is known about the genetic structure and changes of prehistoric populations in different geographic areas of Iberia. In our study, we focused on the maternal genetic make-up of the Neolithic (~ 5500-3000 BCE), Chalcolithic (~ 3000-2200 BCE) and Early Bronze Age (~ 2200-1500 BCE). We report ancient mitochondrial DNA results of 213 individuals (151 HVS-I sequences) from the northeast, middle Ebro Valley, central, southeast and southwest regions and thus on the largest archaeogenetic dataset from the Peninsula to date. Similar to other parts of Europe, we observe a discontinuity between hunter-gatherers and the first farmers of the Neolithic, however the genetic contribution of hunter-gatherers is generally higher and varies regionally, being most pronounced in the inland middle Ebro Valley and in southwest Iberia. During the subsequent periods, we detect regional continuity of Early Neolithic lineages across Iberia, parallel to an increase of hunter-gatherer genetic ancestry. In contrast to ancient DNA findings from Central Europe, we do not observe a major turnover in the mtDNA record of the Iberian Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, suggesting that the population history of the Iberian Peninsula is distinct in character.

Anna Szecsenyi-Nagy et al., The maternal genetic make-up of the Iberian Peninsula between the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age, bioRxiv, Posted February 10, 2017, doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/106963

68 comments:

Olympus Mons said...

Co-author is Christina Roth. So all this was addressed in her paper to was commented earlier.

and yes, I think male lineage arrival at Iberia between 3500-3000 BC, some very warrior like, needs still to be cleared. Those warrior like were a continuity from the battles, fights and ambushes, depicted in north Africa (like Tassili n'Ajjer) rock art prior to it.


capra internetensis said...

I was hoping for new samples but I think they're all the same ones (didn't check super closely). The presentation is much clearer and more detailed though with archaeological context for all the samples in the supplementary info.

Davidski said...

@OM

It's going to be fun watching you all dazed and confused when practically nothing that you've predicted is confirmed when the Bell Beaker paper comes out.

It'll be an important life lesson for you though. So it's not all bad.

Olympus Mons said...

@Davidski...
So I have heard from you...in the last year...over and over....

You could have told me though that I had to wait seated. so I could have gotten a chair to sit on while those papers don't come out.

Olympus Mons said...

@Davidski...
And I don't think you have a clue about what I predicted or not. your are not in the business of listening. Or learn for that matter.

alobrix said...

Nowadays:

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0159735

Rob said...

Perhaps it would be no surprise if events in Iberia merely evolved from local MN- Chalcolithic

Olympus Mons said...

"....Haplogroup U5a appears first in the 4000-3000 BCE period of southwest Iberia, and persists in the
following central Iberian Chalcolithic"

Anyone have a clue how U5a arrived in Portugal by 3800bc and onwards?

As W shows up in Northeast spain. Who could have brought W?

Davidski said...

@Al

When is the BB behemoth coming out?

Not sure, but not for a little while at least. Apparently Reich is doing a presentation on the results from the paper next month, so don't expect to see it before then.

Olympus Mons said...


@AL,

"When is the BB behemoth coming out?Heyd"

Apparently some had found out everything about BB... until they compare with others, like guys in Copenhagen, that also had found out everything about BB just that apparently completely different one from the other. they arguing who was right.

Olympus Mons said...

...oh yes... and also arrived North African L1b. lets not forget that one. and that L1b was a Bell beaker. So some population with U5a, W and L1b arrived. what a strange combination of bed fellows.

Al Bundy said...

Thanks Davidski,and Reich and his team have their own behemoth coming out too I understand.Great news,it seems like all the huge stuff comes out in odd not even years.Can't wait

Al Bundy said...

Bell Beaker and more Yamnaya plus Mycenean too? Hold on tight.

capra internetensis said...

@BBB

I checked, all 213 samples from Table 3 of the new paper are in Roth's thesis.

@alobrix

Thanks, never saw that one before

Al Bundy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bellbeakerblogger said...

CI,
That's right, I remember now. Got fixated on the Beaker samples from the Mesetas.

Olympus Mons said...

"We found the persistence of ‘hunter-gatherer’
mtDNA haplogroups in the Neolithic to be particularly strong in the middle Ebro Valley and in
southwest Iberia"


I do remember that a while back the long discussions were about the resurgence of WHG admix in europe during Chalcolithic/copper age... So, the oldest sites of Bell Beakers, southwest Iberia, ie Portugal, was packed with WHG dna? - Yeah, scare to death of Davidski references to papers that are about to be publish and never are.


Unknown said...

OM,

You had better hold on. You, Maju, and Gioiello. You're all wrong. Someday, you guys might actually listen and learn. But, I doubt that day will come.

Grey said...

"Looks like we shouldn't expect any Yamnaya-related admixture in ancient Iberians until after the Early Bronze Age, unless it's all male mediated, which is possible but unlikely."

my pet theory of island hopping steppe copper miners survives another day

Olympus Mons said...

@Chad,
Apparently not. -- Apart from spooky things thrown at some from the great beyond (papers that never get published) the reality is that everybody seems to be both right and wrong at different proportions. - And looks like steppe junkies are in for a surprise.

Olympus Mons said...

@grey,
Yes no steppe in Iberia... but even those German half breeds Bell beakers do show a very large component of Iberia chalcolithic, dont they?

Unknown said...

LOL. You clearly have no idea. It's all over.

Olympus Mons said...

@Chad... like I said. --- the big Kauna papers is coming from the afterlife to punish us all. LOl indeed.

I am waiting on Reich to show me, and Johannes krause for that matter, a BB from Iberia that is packed with Steppe admix. Lol, it will never happen.


Unknown said...

Oh, to be a fly on your wall when it comes out.

Davidski said...

@OM

Apparently some had found out everything about BB... until they compare with others, like guys in Copenhagen, that also had found out everything about BB just that apparently completely different one from the other. they arguing who was right.

One of the few interesting comments you've made on this blog.

Where did you hear this?

Unknown said...

I've always claimed first Iberian Beakers are MN, with no R1b-L51 or steppe admixture.

Olympus Mons said...

heard it from the big Kauna.

Unknown said...

He doesn't know anything. His "thesis" proved that.

Samuel Andrews said...

@alobrix,
"Nowadays:

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0159735"

I'm almost done going through all the samples in that study. Sadly a decent amount of mtDNA(1,000+ samples) has been tested for only a small minority of modern human populations. That study adds Spanish to that small minority.

I'll post a mtDNA comparison of modern to ancient Iberians at my blog.

Olympus Mons said...

@Chad,
As if reich, haak or anyone else has any dna from the original Leceia Bell beakers!- Not until 2018 I guess.

Anyway, any bell beaker dated 2600BC and older, bellow or near parallel 45 will do the trick.

Unknown said...

The trick in showing your R1b idea is complete bull. Too late for that. Already knew it.

Olympus Mons said...

@chad,
Wait until the German Archaeological Institute starts publishing their results... then you will see about my thesis.

Unknown said...

Haha. You're wrong. I'll leave it at that.

Olympus Mons said...

@Chad. you are small. tiny and cognitively irrelevant.

lets just ignore each other.

Rob said...

@ OM

I agree that fikirtepe represents an interesting phenomenon, perhaps a different Neolithic arm into Europe . No issues there
But isn't Barcin close by ? It looked like vanilla ANF .


As for U5a in coppper age Iberia - I think from north Europe down the Atlantic coast. Indeed, a ew stray battle axes have been found in pre-BB contexts in northern Spain

Davidski said...

Yep, I remember Chad saying he doesn't think there will be any steppe admix or R1b-L51 in Iberian Beakers. It's somewhere in the comments here.

I never had a strong opinion on the matter either way, and quite frankly I don't care how the story turns out. I have zero emotional investment in this thing.

One thing I do know, however, is that Olympus Mons' epic tale of a migration of proto-Beakers from the Caucasus to Egypt, and west across the Sahara into Iberia, is about as likely as Bell Beaker origins in Sub-Saharan Africa. Or the Arctic, for that matter.

Olympus Mons said...

So, apart from the bullshit of the latest comments, davidski included... who has something interesting to say?

any opinions on how/who introduce U5a into Portugal in 3600BC?

Olympus Mons said...

@Rob,
Yes. that is possible.

Fikirtepe - yes. next to Barcin. but there was a forest between then. so genetic flow not that fluid. Fikertepe was barely, if any, farmers. And had lots of traits seen only later in SS.

Davidski said...

any opinions on how/who introduce U5a into Portugal in 3600BC?

Either some sort of steppe-related incursion, like by proto-Beakers, or U5a had a wider range during the Mesolithic than we might think? But the steppe-related incursion theory also explains the presence of the W lineage.

Only way to find out what this means is to see the genome-wide data for these samples, and maybe even a decent range of Mesolithic Iberian genomes.

Olympus Mons said...

@Davidski.
Wait until Germans publish dna from Fayum, regretfully not yet Merimde and El-omari, of those tall, sturdy, Meso to Brachy guys.

anyway, it just blows my mind that if North Africa was a highway of pastoral life into south Europe, all the way from the Caucasus, how would that be a surprise.

Unknown said...

Irrelevant? LOL. Name one time I was dead wrong about something here. Your days of spouting nonsense are numbered.

Rob said...

There is no U5a to date in any of the Magdalenians or Azillians, but does appear jn Mesolithic France and Germany.


The earliest Iberian with EHG shift is ATP 9. In line with Davidskis earlier analysis, Yamnaya isn't the chosen fit for this, but is something currently being captured by Latvia and Ukraine HG

Samuel Andrews said...

@Olympus,

U5a existed all over Europe and North Asia during the Mesolithic....but different regions had very different frequencies of U5a.

But.....The fact is U5a was much much more frequent in Eastern Europe and Siberia than in Western Europe during the Mesolithic and even nowadays. A few U5as from Neolithic Portugal don't disprove this fact.

Look at these stats...
Germany/Spain/Italy late Paleolithic: U5a 0%, U5b 39%
German/French Mesolithic: U5a 23%, U5b 62%
Swedish, Latvian Mesolithic: U5a 39%, U5b 30%
Russia/Ukraine Mesolithic: U5a 28%. U5b 4%
Western Siberian Hunter Gatherers: U5a 11.5%, U5b 0%

Iberian Neolithic: U5a 0%, U5b 14%
German Middle Neolithic: U5a 2%, U5b 8%
Yamnaya: U5a 18.4%, U5b 2%

Samuel Andrews said...

U5a today peaks in Baltic, Russia, Western Siberia. U5b today peaks in Iberia, Northern Europe.

capra internetensis said...

Where's the W from? I missed that one.

Samuel Andrews said...

@Capra,

David is right that W is sort of frequent in Steppe samples so far. But it also existed in different subclades in Neolithic Germany and Hungary(but not Spain).

Ryan said...

My wild ass guess: Bell Beakers even in Iberia will have some "steppe" (ie mammoth steppe ANE) ancestry, but Yamnaya and CWC will be a poor fit for it.

Aram said...

I am really confused by the mtdna H in pre Neolithic Iberia. So Iberians HGs had H while all other Europe non?

Davidski said...

There is some H in Mesolithic Europe, like in Karelia. So there might be some in Iberia. But most of the Mesolithic mtDNA lineages in Iberia are likely to turn out U5b in surveys based on reliable methods and samples.

Gioiello said...

@ Chad Rohlfsen

"OM, You had better hold on. You, Maju, and Gioiello"

I thank you for your attention and I have to read the paper yet, but I'd be glad understanding in what I was wrong, except that your friend Reich (if he is a friend of yours) showed you the 1000 samples tested so far and hidden in his lab.

Gioiello said...

@ Aram

"I am really confused by the mtdna H in pre Neolithic Iberia. So Iberians HGs had H while all other Europe non?"

I, and some friends, am saying that mt hg. H was born in Europe and not in Middle East, and I lasted three years in finding the parents of an American adopted through 23andMe, Barbara Ann Lewis, because she has the most varied hg. H, and she resulted full blooded Italian.

Gioiello said...

@ Samuel Andrews
"Samuel Andrews said... @Capra, David is right that W is sort of frequent in Steppe samples so far. But it also existed in different subclades in Neolithic Germany and Hungary (but not Spain)".

Of course mt hg. W was born around India or Southern Asia, but there are samples old in Europe. Marco Grassi tested a friend of his in Eastern Liguria through 23andMe, and he resulted W6b, with mutations that demonstrate that he descends from a clade present Westward the Caucasus from thousands of years... thus all what people thinks is worth nothing, because Italy, for instance, is a little tested, and each people we test is a surprise, with the oldest hts both in the mt and the Y.

Alberto said...

In Iberia I would expect that the early BB samples might be MN/ChL and no R1b. That would be 2700-2400 BC. But from 2400, and specially 2200 BC, we're talking about full BB package, with the same single burials and grave goods.

So it would be surprising if those full BB samples are MN/ChL. Was it just a cultural transmission without any migration? Or was the transmission the other way, from MN/ChL groups to steppe-like groups? (But female mediated??).

And if not with BB, how did R1b and steppe-like ancestry arrive to Iberia? There's the Atlantic Bronze Age, but otherwise... Neither Urnfield, nor Celts would explain it well.

I hope they start to sample France too. Groups like Artenac or Fontbouisse are difficult to catalogue in how their genetic makeup will turn out. And in general, more coastal DNA from along the Baltic and Atlantic (presumably WHG/SHG rich?), but also Mediterranean (South Italy, Sardinia, Crete...)

Though my #1 wish and petition to the guys working on aDNA: please show us the origin of R1a-M417 and R1b-M269/L23 soon!

Simon_W said...

ATP9, which is called Iberia_BA in David's PCA plots, does have a slight autosomal steppe shift, but less than modern Basques. The sample is dated to 1750-1618 calBC, the end of the early Bronze Age IIRC.

Samuel Andrews said...

Ancient and Modern European mHG frequencies.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sUEn8VzWv-48bCXQHaOSrFqLmdaewuc4jiiBipNtjls/edit#gid=2051444765

I won't reveal too much but there are obvious trends. Neolithic mtDNA and genomes from Eastern Europe or just outside of Eastern Germany, Hungary, and Spain are needed.

Olympus Mons said...

@Alberto
What this paper is postulating, as roth paper also on mtdna or J Desideri in nmdental traits since those are a good proxy for genetics, is that no such back flow into iberia never occurred. So dna is good when confirms our bias but to ignore if contradictory to those believes?

Olympus Mons said...

@Samuel
About U5a. It arrived to portugal from somewhere. Strontium always makes those samples as Roaming people.
However this paper makes a mistake on bundling all samples from 4500bc to 3000 as MLN or whatever. Because 4th millennia saw the arrival o lots of people to Iberia and they should have had that in mind and not bundle all samples.

Regarding those We are talking about large amounts of people and many stood in perdigoes in south portugal. They are picking samples like crazy there to figure who they were from 3400 Bc to 1900 Bc. For starters the first ones found were H, U4 (interesting)and u6.

Rob said...

@ Alberto

If ATP is the earliest individual to date with steppe ancestry, in light of more recent samples was interesting.

Iberia_BA:ATP9
Barcin_Neolithic:I1099 34.65 %
Remedello_BA:RISE489 23.80 %
Ukraine_N1:StPet12 29.20 %
CHG 3.7 %

As if an EHG -admixed Balkan group moving through Copper Age Italy. Basically no CHG, which is curious.

Davidski said...

Most of the CHG is probably being eaten up by Barcin Neolithic.

I'd model ATP9 as LBK_EN, Western_HG and Yamnaya_Samara.

Rob said...

Fair enough. Although that doesn't usually happen, and Yamnaya was included there. It just did not show, but it obviously does in CWC / Latvia LN.
Interestingly, IIR 2200 BC seems to have been a time when colonies appear to be established in south Iberia (El Agar, etc).

Olympus Mons said...

@davidski and rob.
How would you model Barcin?

Davidski said...

Basically, Epipaleolithic Central Anatolians with some admix from the Neolithic Levant.

Boncuklu_EN + Levant_N > Barcin_N f3 -0.005525 Z -2.62

See here...

http://eurogenes.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/pca-analysis-neolithic-central.html

They have some minor CHG-like stuff as well.

http://eurogenes.blogspot.com.au/2016/02/chg-admixture-in-early-western.html

Matt said...

@ Rob, why model with Barcin rather than Iberia_EN, Iberia_Chal or Iberia_MN? Unless you did and Barcin was preferred.

(I'm not still sure Globe10 has enough space for precision between lots of closely related HG and Early Neolithic populations though. Its dimensions seem to give you the main Neolithic contrast and the intra contrasts between East and West variants, then within CHG vs Iran_Hotu but not as much detail as required further).

For a test I've just done, using the hybrid sheet of Days of High Adventure+Globe 10 with Chalcolithic / Early Bronze Age references, plus two simulated populations to cover gaps (Late Neolithic Germany and a population I think might match to Late Copper Age Ukraine), I get the following for Iberia_BA:

Iberia_BA: Iberia_Chalcolithic 67.5, "90% Hungary_CA + 10% UkraineN1" 14.95, Yamnaya_Samara 13.5, Latvia_LN1:ZVEJ28 4.05 (Hungary_CA 0, German_MN 0, German_LN_Simulated 0 ) - distance = 0.9526

For how that runs populations for modern and other ancient populations:
Table: http://i.imgur.com/VWJnlxf.png

Clustering based on table: http://i.imgur.com/ruuzKQY.png, PCA based on table: http://i.imgur.com/biwe14V.png

(Davidski has said this approach may be overfitted, etc. so take with caution).

Matt said...

Same thing as above including Maros, Vatya and Nordic_LBA: Table - http://i.imgur.com/JXP2Uta.png, Cluster - http://i.imgur.com/YWbWMTi.png, PCA - http://i.imgur.com/WjsZoRZ.png

Grey said...

OM

"any opinions on how/who introduce U5a into Portugal in 3600BC?"

the Atlantic megalith culture centered in southern Portugal is overlooked imo - early farming as similar latitude for the neolithic package with a coastal settlement expansion up the Atlantic coast to the Baltic (for amber i assume)

my pet theory was a steppe hare and tortoise scenario with the tortoise being the main steppe expansion through central europe blocked by LBK and the hare being a maritime artisanal scale expansion island hopping down the med from one metal source to another e.g. Crete -> Sardinia -> Iberia etc

however given the latest about the Baltic maybe another version is the tortoise part being the same but the "hare" part being the route north of the Carpathians along the northern edge of LBK to the Baltic and hooking up with the Atlantic megalith culture in Scandinavia somewhere

Grey said...

according to wiki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalith#European_megaliths

megalith construction reached scandinavia c. 3400bc

Olympus Mons said...

@grey.
Could be. However against it and so many other, is the fact that that samples like Atp3 or U5a are found in a context of familiarity or ingroup with very non eastern or north european populations. That is the draw back. Exogenous polulations dont just arrive and share context with others. That is the weak part of all those theories of riding man from the steppe or whatever.

Grey said...

OM

"Exogenous polulations dont just arrive and share context with others. That is the weak part of all those theories of riding man from the steppe or whatever."

Right - a situation like that (if it was correct) would imply artisans or traders rather than invaders.