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bioRxiv · 10.1101/059311

The genetic structure of the world’s first farmers

Iosif Lazaridis·Dani Nadel·Gary Rollefson·Deborah C. Merrett·Nadin Rohland·Swapan Mallick·Daniel Fernandes·Mario Novak·Beatriz Gamarra·Kendra Sirak·Sarah Connell·Kristin Stewardson·Eadaoin Harney·Qiaomei Fu·Gloria Gonzalez-Fortes·Songül Alpaslan Roodenberg·Gyorgy Lengyel·Fanny Bocquentin·Boris Gasparian·Janet M. Monge·Michael Gregg·Vered Eshed·Ahuva-Sivan Mizrahi·Christopher Meiklejohn·Fokke Gerritsen·Luminita Bejenaru·Matthias Blueher·Archie Campbell·Gianpero Cavalleri·David Comas·Philippe Froguel·Edmund Gilbert·Shona M. Kerr·Peter Kovacs·Johannes Krause·Darren McGettigan·Michael Merrigan·D.
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Abstract

We report genome-wide ancient DNA from 44 ancient Near Easterners ranging in time between ~12,000-1,400 BCE, from Natufian hunter-gatherers to Bronze Age farmers. We show that the earliest populations of the Near East derived around half their ancestry from a Basal Eurasian lineage that had little if any Neanderthal admixture and that separated from other non-African lineages prior to their separation from each other. The first farmers of the southern Levant (Israel and Jordan) and Zagros Mountains (Iran) were strongly genetically differentiated, and each descended from local hunter-gatherers. By the time of the Bronze Age, these two populations and Anatolian-related farmers had mixed with each other and with the hunter-gatherers of Europe to drastically reduce genetic differentiation. The impact of the Near Eastern farmers extended beyond the Near East: farmers related to those of Anatolia spread westward into Europe; farmers related to those of the Levant spread southward into East Africa; farmers related to those from Iran spread northward into the Eurasian steppe; and people related to both the early farmers of Iran and to the pastoralists of the Eurasian steppe spread eastward into South Asia.

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Iosif Lazaridis, Dani Nadel, Gary Rollefson, Deborah C. Merrett, Nadin Rohland, Swapan Mallick, Daniel Fernandes, Mario Novak, Beatriz Gamarra, Kendra Sirak, Sarah Connell, Kristin Stewardson, Eadaoin Harney, Qiaomei Fu, Gloria Gonzalez-Fortes, Songül Alpaslan Roodenberg, Gyorgy Lengyel, Fanny Bocquentin, Boris Gasparian, Janet M. Monge, Michael Gregg, Vered Eshed, Ahuva-Sivan Mizrahi, Christopher Meiklejohn, Fokke Gerritsen, Luminita Bejenaru, Matthias Blueher, Archie Campbell, Gianpero Cavalleri, David Comas, Philippe Froguel, Edmund Gilbert, Shona M. Kerr, Peter Kovacs, Johannes Krause, Darren McGettigan, Michael Merrigan, D.. 2016-06-16. The genetic structure of the world’s first farmers. https://doi.org/10.1101/059311

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