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    PublicationOpen Access
    Archaeogenetic analysis of Neolithic sheep from Anatolia suggests a complex demographic history since domestication
    (Nature Portfolio, 2021) Yurtman, Erinç; Özer, Onur; Yüncü, Eren; Dağtaş, Nihan Dilşad; Koptekin, Dilek; Çakan, Yasin Gökhan; Özkan, Mustafa; Akbaba, Ali; Kaptan, Damla; Atağ, Gözde; Vural, Kıvılcım Başak; Gündem, Can Yümni; Martin, Louise; Kılınç, Gülşah Merve; Ghalichi, Ayshin; Açan, Sinan Can; Yaka, Reyhan; Sağlıcan, Ekin; Lagerholm, Vendela Kempe; Krzewinska, Maja; Gunther, Torsten; Miranda, Pedro Morell; Pişkin, Evangelia; Sevketoğlu, Müge; Bilgin, C. Can; Atakuman, Ciğdem; Erdal, Yılmaz Selim; Sürer, Elif; Altınışık, N. Ezgi; Lenstra, Johannes A.; Yorulmaz, Sevgi; Abazari, Mohammad Foad; Hoseinzadeh, Javad; Baird, Douglas; Bıcakcı, Erhan; Çevik, Özlem; Gerritsen, Fokke; Gotherstrom, Anders; Somel, Mehmet; Togan, İnci; Özer, Füsun; Department of Archeology and History of Art; Özbal, Rana; Faculty Member; Department of Archeology and History of Art; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; 55583
    Sheep were among the first domesticated animals, but their demographic history is little understood. Here we analyzed nuclear polymorphism and mitochondrial data (mtDNA) from ancient central and west Anatolian sheep dating from Epipaleolithic to late Neolithic, comparatively with modern-day breeds and central Asian Neolithic/Bronze Age sheep (OBI). Analyzing ancient nuclear data, we found that Anatolian Neolithic sheep (ANS) are genetically closest to present-day European breeds relative to Asian breeds, a conclusion supported by mtDNA haplogroup frequencies. In contrast, OBI showed higher genetic affinity to present-day Asian breeds. These results suggest that the east-west genetic structure observed in present-day breeds had already emerged by 6000 BCE, hinting at multiple sheep domestication episodes or early wild introgression in southwest Asia. Furthermore, we found that ANS are genetically distinct from all modern breeds. Our results suggest that European and Anatolian domestic sheep gene pools have been strongly remolded since the Neolithic.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Bioarchaeology of Neolithic Çatalhöyük reveals fundamental transitions in health, mobility, and lifestyle in early farmers
    (National Academy of Sciences, 2019) Department of Archeology and History of Art; Haddow, Scott Donald; Department of Archeology and History of Art; Graduate School of Social Sciences and Humanities
    The transition from a human diet based exclusively on wild plants and animals to one involving dependence on domesticated plants and animals beginning 10,000 to 11,000 y ago in Southwest Asia set into motion a series of profound health, lifestyle, social, and economic changes affecting human populations throughout most of the world. However, the social, cultural, behavioral, and other factors surrounding health and lifestyle associated with the foraging-to-farming transition are vague, owing to an incomplete or poorly understood contextual archaeological record of living conditions. Bioarchaeological investigation of the extraordinary record of human remains and their context from Neolithic Çatalhöyük (7100–5950 cal BCE), a massive archaeological site in south-central Anatolia (Turkey), provides important perspectives on population dynamics, health outcomes, behavioral adaptations, interpersonal conflict, and a record of community resilience over the life of this single early farming settlement having the attributes of a protocity. Study of Çatalhöyük human biology reveals increasing costs to members of the settlement, including elevated exposure to disease and labor demands in response to community dependence on and production of domesticated plant carbohydrates, growing population size and density fueled by elevated fertility, and increasing stresses due to heightened workload and greater mobility required for caprine herding and other resource acquisition activities over the nearly 12 centuries of settlement occupation. These changes in life conditions foreshadow developments that would take place worldwide over the millennia following the abandonment of Neolithic Çatalhöyük, including health challenges, adaptive patterns, physical activity, and emerging social behaviors involving interpersonal violence.
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    Publication
    From bowls to pots: the dairying revolution in northwest Turkey, a view from Barcın Höyük, 6600 to 6000 BCE
    (Public Library Science, 2024) Ozbal, Hadi; Thissen, Laurens; Gerritsen, Fokke; van den Bos, Elisha; Galik, Alfred; DoÄźan, Turhan; Cergel, Muhiddin; ĹžimĹźek, Adnan; Turkekul, Ayla; Department of Archeology and History of Art; Breu, Adria; Ă–zbal, Rana; Department of Archeology and History of Art;  ; College of Social Sciences and Humanities;  
    Research has identified Northwest Turkey as a key region for the development of dairying in the seventh millennium BCE, yet little is known about how this practice began or evolved there. This research studies Barc and imath;n H and ouml;y and uuml;k, a site located in Bursa's Yeni and scedil;ehir Valley, which ranges chronologically from 6600 BCE, when the first evidence of settled life appears in the Marmara Region, to 6000 BCE, when Neolithic habitation at the site ceases. Using pottery sherds diagnostic by vessel category and type, this paper aims at identifying which ones may have been primarily used to store, process, or consume dairy products. Organic residue analysis of selected samples helped address the process of adoption and intensification of milk processing in this region over time. The lipid residue data discussed in this paper derive from 143 isotopic results subsampled from 173 organic residues obtained from 805 Neolithic potsherds and suggest that bowls and four-lugged pots may have been preferred containers for processing milk. The discovery of abundant milk residues even among the earliest ceramics indicates that the pioneer farmers arrived in the region already with the knowhow of dairying and milk processing. In fact, these skills and the reliance on secondary products may have given them one of the necessary tools to successfully venture into the unfarmed lands of Northwest Anatolia in the first place.
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    Publication
    Pottery spilled the beans: patterns in the processing and consumption of dietary lipids in Central Germany from the Early Neolithic to the Bronze Age
    (Public Library of Science, 2024) Risch, Roberto; Molina, Elena; Friederich, Susanne; Meller, Harald; Knoll, Franziska; Department of Archeology and History of Art; Breu, Adria; Department of Archeology and History of Art; College of Social Sciences and Humanities
    The need to better understand economic change and the social uses of long-ago established pottery types to prepare and consume food has led to the study of 124 distinct ceramic vessels from 17 settlement and funerary sites in Central Germany (present day Saxony-Anhalt). These, dated from the Early Neolithic (from 5450 cal. BCE onwards) to the Late Bronze Age (1300-750 cal. BCE;youngest sample ca. 1000 BCE), include vessels from the Linear Pottery (LBK), Schiepzig/Sch & ouml;ningen groups (SCHIP), Baalberge (BAC), Corded Ware (CWC), Bell Beaker (BBC), and & Uacute;n & ecaron;tice (UC) archaeological cultures. Organic residue analyses performed on this assemblage determined the presence of vessel contents surviving as lipid residues in 109 cases. These were studied in relation to the changing use of settlement and funerary pottery types and, in the case of burials, to the funerary contexts in which the vessels had been placed. The obtained results confirmed a marked increase in the consumption of dairy products linked to innovations in pottery types (e.g., small cups) during the Funnel Beaker related Baalberge Culture of the 4th millennium BCE. Although the intensive use of dairy products may have continued into the 3rd millennium BCE, especially amongst Bell Beaker populations, Corded Ware vessels found in funerary contexts suggest an increase in the importance of non-ruminant products, which may be linked to the production of specific vessel shapes and decoration. In the Early Bronze Age circum-Harz & Uacute;n & ecaron;tice group (ca. 2200-1550 BCE), which saw the emergence of a highly hierarchical society, a greater variety of animal and plant derived products was detected in a much more standardised but, surprisingly, more multifunctional pottery assemblage. This long-term study of lipid residues from a concise region in Central Europe thus reveals the complex relationships that prehistoric populations established between food resources and the main means to prepare, store, and consume them.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Using Y-chromosome capture enrichment to resolve haplogroup H2 shows new evidence for a two-path Neolithic expansion to Western Europe
    (Nature Publishing Group (NPG), 2021) Rohrlach, A.B.; Papac, L.; Childebayeva, A.; Rivollat, M.; Villalba Mouco, V.; Neumann, G.U.; Penske, S.; Skourtanioti, E.; van de Loosdrecht, M.; Akar, M.; Boyadzhiev, K.; Boyadzhiev, Y.; Deguilloux, M.F.; Dobes, M.; Erdal, Y.S.; Ernée, M.; Frangipane, M.; Furmanek, M.; Friederich, S.; Ghesquière, E.; Ha?uszko, A.; Hansen, S.; Küßner, M.; Mannino, M.; Reinhold, S.; Rottier, S.; Salazar García, D.C.; Diaz, J.S.; Stockhammer, P.W.; de Togores Muñoz, C.R.; Yener, K.A.; Posth, C.; Krause, J.; Herbig, A.; Haak, W.; Department of Archeology and History of Art; Özbal, Rana; Faculty Member; Department of Archeology and History of Art; College of Social Sciences and Humanities; 55583
    Uniparentally-inherited markers on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the non-recombining regions of the Y chromosome (NRY), have been used for the past 30 years to investigate the history of humans from a maternal and paternal perspective. Researchers have preferred mtDNA due to its abundance in the cells, and comparatively high substitution rate. Conversely, the NRY is less susceptible to back mutations and saturation, and is potentially more informative than mtDNA owing to its longer sequence length. However, due to comparatively poor NRY coverage via shotgun sequencing, and the relatively low and biased representation of Y-chromosome variants on capture assays such as the 1240 k, ancient DNA studies often fail to utilize the unique perspective that the NRY can yield. Here we introduce a new DNA enrichment assay, coined YMCA (Y-mappable capture assay), that targets the ""mappable"" regions of the NRY. We show that compared to low-coverage shotgun sequencing and 1240 k capture, YMCA significantly improves the mean coverage and number of sites covered on the NRY, increasing the number of Y-haplogroup informative SNPs, and allowing for the identification of previously undiscovered variants. To illustrate the power of YMCA, we show that the analysis of ancient Y-chromosome lineages can help to resolve Y-chromosomal haplogroups. As a case study, we focus on H2, a haplogroup associated with a critical event in European human history: the Neolithic transition. By disentangling the evolutionary history of this haplogroup, we further elucidate the two separate paths by which early farmers expanded from Anatolia and the Near East to western Europe.