Ancient genome-wide DNA from France highlights the complexity of interactions between Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers

Maïté Rivollat (1) , Choongwon Jeong (2) , Stephan Schiffels (2) , İşil Küçükkalipçi (2) , Marie-Hélène Pemonge (1) , Adam Benjamin Rohrlach (2) , Kurt Alt (3) , Didier Binder (4) , Susanne Friederich (5) , Emmanuel Ghesquière (6, 7) , Detlef Gronenborn (8) , Luc Laporte (7) , Philippe Lefranc (6) , Harald Meller (9) , Hélène Réveillas (1) , Eva Rosenstock (10) , Stéphane Rottier (1) , Chris Scarre (11) , Ludovic Soler (1) , Joachim Wahl (12) , Johannes Krause (2) , Marie-France Deguilloux (1) , Wolfgang Haak (2)

1 PACEA - De la Préhistoire à l'Actuel : Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie
2 MPI-SHH - Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
3 Danube Private University
4 CEPAM - Culture et Environnements, Préhistoire, Antiquité, Moyen-Age
5 State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt - State Museum of Prehistory
6 Inrap - Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives
7 CReAAH - Centre de Recherche en Archéologie, Archéosciences, Histoire
8 Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Archäologie
9 State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology Saxony-Anhalt - State Museum of Prehistory
10 Freie Universität Berlin
11 Durham University
12 University of Tübingen

Starting from 12,000 years ago in the Middle East, the Neolithic lifestyle spread across Europe via separate continental and Mediterranean routes. Genomes from early European farmers have shown a clear Near Eastern/Anatolian genetic affinity with limited contribution from hunter-gatherers. However, no genomic data are available from modern-day France, where both routes converged, as evidenced by a mosaic cultural pattern. Here, we present genome-wide data from 101 individuals from 12 sites covering today’s France and Germany from the Mesolithic (N = 3) to the Neolithic (N = 98) (7000–3000 BCE). Using the genetic substructure observed in European hunter-gatherers, we characterize diverse patterns of admixture in different regions, consistent with both routes of expansion. Early western European farmers show a higher proportion of distinctly western hunter-gatherer ancestry compared to central/southeastern farmers. Our data highlight the complexity of the biological interactions during the Neolithic expansion by revealing major regional variations.

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Archaeology and Prehistory

Maïté Rivollat, Choongwon Jeong, Stephan Schiffels, İşil Küçükkalipçi, Marie-Hélène Pemonge, et al.. Ancient genome-wide DNA from France highlights the complexity of interactions between Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers. Science Advances , 2020, 6 (22), pp.eaaz5344. ⟨10.1126/sciadv.aaz5344⟩. ⟨hal-02881954⟩