Friday, November 24, 2017

DNA - Globular Amphora Culture

Bernard has a summary of this paper by Tassi et al, 2017 called "Genome Diversity in the Neolithic Globular Amphorae and the spread of the Indo-European languages".

GAC burial by G. Osipowicz via (Message to Eagle)


These particular genomes come from a megalithic grave in Northeastern Poland.  One thing to keep in mind is that very little is known about the GAC, and secondly what is known is that there is some regional diversity in economy and burial practices.  A single individual in this group appears to have some amount of steppe-related DNA, which is only surprising to those who might have expected more.

The GAC individuals, minus the one, are notable for having elevated HG ancestry of similar proportions to Middle Neolithic Sweden, Hungary and Iberia Chalcolithic.  But they don't not seem to share a composition similar to local populations.

In fact, if GAC migrated from anywhere, it seems that they migrated from the West to the East including some analysis of rare ancestry, but certainly their maternal profiles.
"The GAC samples are clearly separated from those populations, and show instead a closer relationship with the western, Late Neolithic, Bell Beaker population (electronic supplementary material, figure S12).

The median-joining network [34] (electronic supplemen- tary material, figure S13) shows GAC sequences falling in haplogroups H, J, K, U and W. The relationships between the GAC and other populations of the same time period are evi- dent (electronic supplementary material, figure S14, inset d), especially with the population from Sweden and, although less so, with the Baalberge population from Germany."
Violet Volken from Northern France?  (Genetically speaking; the earliest GAC dates are from Poland and have steppe cultural influences)  Clearly they are not derived from the steppe region as once believed by Gimbutas and many others.  Interestingly though, these very 'Western' looking people do end up in the Northern Pontic Steppe, or at least their influences do.  This would presumably mean that GAC was intrusive.

Another thing that's puzzling is their highly mobile economy.  Maybe another time.

And a strange comment:
"However, in this case, the substantial contribution of males should at least result in some degree of similarity between GAC and Yamnaya at the nuclear level, which did not emerge in this study. In both cases, a trans- mission of cultural traits from the Pontic steppes to the GAC, and later further West, is conceivable and not ruled out by our data; further archaeological work, including studies of other GAC sites, may shed additional light on this."
If I were to assume they had y-chromosomal DNA of these GAC individuals, and they are looking at disparity between nuclear DNA and paternal haplogroups of Yamnaya and GAC, then what are they looking at?

13 comments:

  1. Cool paper
    They're not "western" western. But from kuyavia
    Curiously many of their lineages (I2a2) variety are similar to some seen in pre-Beaker Britain
    Err so they're western hehe

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  2. Their mobile economy isn't puzzling at all, if one discards the nescient narratives of Gimbutaists who think everything came from the steppe

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    1. I'm puzzled by the last quote. It seems to imply that they have detected R1 lineages in these individuals but without steppe ancestry. Maybe I'm reading to far into this.

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    2. I just think that they're implying that CWC and BB got their MNE from females. Nothing new imo

      But back to pastoralism, this just confirms that it all really began in the Carpathian-Danube region and spread to the steppe . There was then a migration back of steppians who by adoption and admixture had become pastoral themselves

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    3. "It seems to imply that they have detected R1 lineages in these individuals but without steppe ancestry."

      That is how I read it and it is consistent with prior data.

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    4. The same samples are in the Mathieson et al. 2017 preprint. All the males belong to I2.

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    5. "I just think that they're implying that CWC and BB got their MNE from females. Nothing new imo"

      That's no entirely clear for Bell Beakers. Mathieson has the Anatolian Neolithic component in German Bell Beakers as female-biased but the WHG component is balanced.

      Globular Amphora was close to balanced on the WHG side actually to. Only Iberia_MN and Malak_Preslavets share that.

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    6. @ Rob "But back to pastoralism, this just confirms that it all really began in the Carpathian-Danube region and spread to the steppe . There was then a migration back of steppians who by adoption and admixture had become pastoral themselves" I am interested to know more about this. Can you direct me to more information?

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  3. Same individuals, different samples and analysis...

    http://polishgenes.blogspot.com.au/2017/05/globular-amphora-people-starkly.html

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  4. Tks BBB,
    "Nobody" else is touching this paper. Not even with a 10 foot pole. Delicious.

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  5. regarding the paragraph...I think you are reading to much into it. :) what they are saying is that if Mtdna unaltered and if hypothetical migration of males occurred, then a deeper similarity should be seen. Its just a sentence that shows their frustration for GAC being westerner and not steppe. no big deal.

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    1. Maybe they're surprised by the degree of genetic separation. Not quite sure.

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