Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Science, cilt.388, sa.6754, 2025 (SCI-Expanded)
INTRODUCTION: Neolithic farming cultures first developed in the Fertile Crescent around 10,000 years ago and later spread into Europe through the Aegean. How the Neolithic lifeways emerged in the Aegean, and particularly West Anatolia, has remained unknown, obscured by a lack of human ancient DNA from pre-Neolithic times. RATIONALE: We studied population and cultural history of the Aegean using 30 new paleogenomes, including a 10,000-year-old individual from West Anatolia, combined with 408 published genomes. We also compiled a digitalized material culture that included 54 cultural traits from 16 sites from around 9000 years ago and joined this with 104 genomes from the same sites. This allowed us to reconstruct mobility and cultural change during the Neolithic transition in the Aegean. RESULTS: We found at least 6000 years of genetic continuity in West Anatolia during the early Holocene, before the arrival of farming villages there. During this time, West Anatolians were in cultural exchange with their eastern neighbors from the Fertile Crescent, exploring sedentary lifeways. But these West Anatolians did not genetically mix with their neighbors in this early phase. Things changed around 9000 years ago, when full-scale farming settlements began spreading across the Aegean. Our paleogenomic data show that this did not occur because of waves of migrant farmers from the east creating farming colonies in the Aegean and replacing local foragers. Rather, the transition unfolded as a fusion: Incoming groups of eastern origin joined together and genetically mixed with the descendants of the local foragers in the newly established villages. This was likely a complex process of coexistence and mutual innovation as well as eventual mixing. It further gave rise to the now-famous “Anatolian Farmer” genetic profile, which subsequently spread across the Aegean Sea and later throughout Europe. In this case, admixture with locals appears more limited and sporadic. We further performed a comparative study of cultural and genetic data, asking whether cultural similarities among the 16 Neolithic settlements may be explained by their genetic similarities, which would be expected if culture was shaped by large-scale mobility and admixture history. We found that cultural similarities among villages could simply be explained by their geographic proximity, whereas their population genetic similarities did not have any explanatory power, implying that ideas mixed faster than people in this region. CONCLUSION: The spread of Neolithic cultures in West Eurasia involved distinct mechanisms, from pure cultural adoption to mobility and admixture between incoming farmers and local foragers to rapid migration and spread. Further, cultural similarities among settlements were not shaped by large-scale mobility (as reflected in genetic data) but rather through background mobility. Our results thus challenge the widespread assumption that cultural entities frequently correspond to genetically homogeneous populations, supporting the archaeological adage, “pots don’t equal people.” Our study presents a fresh look at mechanisms of cultural change during one of humanity’s most transformative periods.