The genomic ancestry of the Scandinavian Battle Axe Culture people and their relation to the broader Corded Ware horizonShow others and affiliations
2019 (English)In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences, ISSN 0962-8452, E-ISSN 1471-2954, Vol. 286, no 1912, p. 1-8, article id 20191528Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The Neolithic period is characterized by major cultural transformations and human migrations, with lasting effects across Europe. To understand the population dynamics in Neolithic Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea area, we investigate the genomes of individuals associated with the Battle Axe Culture (BAC), a Middle Neolithic complex in Scandinavia resembling the continental Corded Ware Culture (CWC). We sequenced 11 individuals (dated to 3330-1665 calibrated before common era (cal BCE)) from modern-day Sweden, Estonia, and Poland to 0.26-3.24x coverage. Three of the individuals were from CWC contexts and two from the central-Swedish BAC burial 'Bergsgraven'. By analysing these genomes together with the previously published data, we show that the BAC represents a group different from other Neolithic populations in Scandinavia, revealing stratification among cultural groups. Similar to continental CWC, the BAC-associated individuals display ancestry from the Pontic-Caspian steppe herders, as well as smaller components originating from hunter-gatherers and Early Neolithic farmers. Thus, the steppe ancestry seen in these Scandinavian BAC individuals can be explained only by migration into Scandinavia. Furthermore, we highlight the reuse of megalithic tombs of the earlier Funnel Beaker Culture (FBC) by people related to BAC. The BAC groups likely mixed with resident middle Neolithic farmers (e.g. FBC) without substantial contributions from Neolithic foragers.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Royal Society , 2019. Vol. 286, no 1912, p. 1-8, article id 20191528
Keywords [en]
ancient DNA, Battle Axe Culture, Corded Ware Culture, demography, European Neolithic, migration
National Category
Archaeology
Research subject
Humanities, Archaeology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-89866DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2019.1528ISI: 000490551300007PubMedID: 31594508Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85073079106OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-89866DiVA, id: diva2:1366920
2019-10-312019-10-312023-03-17Bibliographically approved