Periodic Reporting for period 3 - NEOGENE (Archaeogenomic analysis of genetic and cultural interactions in Neolithic Anatolian societies)
Reporting period: 2021-06-01 to 2022-11-30
The problem
NEOGENE’s primary goal is to jointly employ genetic and archaeological data to reveal the true story behind one of the most important milestones in human history, the transition from mobile hunting-gathering to settled life and farming about 12,000-6,000 years ago. This transitionary time is known as the Neolithic Period.
In the past, all humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers. Although they were not different from us biologically, they were probably very different from us in their social lives as may be evidenced through the ethnographic studies on the surviving hunter-gatherer groups today. Indeed, the modern-day foragers have dramatically different, usually egalitarian cultures and social organization, when compared to those of the farming-based groups, such as the Hittites, the Aztecs, or modern-day industrial communities.
The transition to settled life and food production thus may have been the most radical change in human history. The nature of daily life changed with the requirements of farming and its labor organization, while new health problems emerged. More importantly, this transformation paved the way to population increase and economic surplus which would eventually become the basis for more complex social organizations and resulting social inequalities. Also, with farming societies, biological kinship seems to have gained importance in social organization, with increasing dominance of patriarchal cultures.
The Neolithic way of life first developed in the eastern Mediterranean and northern Mesopotamia where relatively more sedentary communities started appearing roughly 12 thousand years ago, immediately after the end of the Ice Ages. The first mudbrick houses, wild grain storage pits and stone sickles emerged in this period. Over time, the first domestic wheat and barley evolved, by mutations and selection. People began to control sheep, goat and pig, and eventually to domesticate these animals by breeding. Population size increased in parallel with growing resources.
The Neolithic was not just about food. Across these Neolithic villages separated by thousands of miles, similar customs were often observed, such as burial rites centering on skulls, which also attest to the role of ideologies in the adoption of farming and the settled life.
This new way of life spread to Central Anatolia and to Cyprus by 9,000 BC. By 7000 BC, Neolithic cultures started spreading west, into the Aegean and then to Europe. Over time, the nomadic foraging disappeared in West Eurasia.
Archaeology has been investigating this process of cultural transformation and expansion for nearly a century. However, there remain questions that archaeologists still find difficult to answer. One is about the regional interactions among communities, with regards to the movements of humans, of material, and of ideas. How did the emerging technologies or rituals spread among the villages? Was it important for people to relocate across villages? Another question is about the intra-community relations and the emergence of the house-centered social organization during the transition. For example, were those people living in and being buried together within the mudbrick buildings, biologically related families? What kinship forms existed during this period? Where there gender inequalities? Archaeologists cannot solve these by simply studying material culture. Here is where anthropology and archaeogenomics enter the picture.
Why is what happened 10,000 years ago relevant to us?
The answer is simple. To save us from ignorantly assuming that our modern-day social relationships, traditions, and structures are eternal. In addition, genetic work on demographic history shows that modern-day populations all have mixed histories and ancestries.
Ancient DNA and the goal of the study:
Ancient DNA involves extracting DNA from bones of past organisms, reading the DNA sequence, and comparing it with other DNA sequences. These provide several types of information. First, DNA tells us about the demographic history of populations, such as migrations or population size changes. Second, we find out the patterns of biological kinship among past individuals. In NEOGENE, we are collecting ancient DNA data from hundreds of Neolithic Anatolian individuals who lived in different settlements, between 10,000-5,000 BC. We are then combining this data with archaeological data to understand their traditions and interactions. We are also studying sheep ancient genomes from the same communities, to study how sheep were transported among groups. Sheep was one of the main protein sources in the Neolithic of West Eurasia and was domesticated likely in Anatolia.
NEOGENE’s primary goal is to jointly employ genetic and archaeological data to reveal the true story behind one of the most important milestones in human history, the transition from mobile hunting-gathering to settled life and farming about 12,000-6,000 years ago. This transitionary time is known as the Neolithic Period.
In the past, all humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers. Although they were not different from us biologically, they were probably very different from us in their social lives as may be evidenced through the ethnographic studies on the surviving hunter-gatherer groups today. Indeed, the modern-day foragers have dramatically different, usually egalitarian cultures and social organization, when compared to those of the farming-based groups, such as the Hittites, the Aztecs, or modern-day industrial communities.
The transition to settled life and food production thus may have been the most radical change in human history. The nature of daily life changed with the requirements of farming and its labor organization, while new health problems emerged. More importantly, this transformation paved the way to population increase and economic surplus which would eventually become the basis for more complex social organizations and resulting social inequalities. Also, with farming societies, biological kinship seems to have gained importance in social organization, with increasing dominance of patriarchal cultures.
The Neolithic way of life first developed in the eastern Mediterranean and northern Mesopotamia where relatively more sedentary communities started appearing roughly 12 thousand years ago, immediately after the end of the Ice Ages. The first mudbrick houses, wild grain storage pits and stone sickles emerged in this period. Over time, the first domestic wheat and barley evolved, by mutations and selection. People began to control sheep, goat and pig, and eventually to domesticate these animals by breeding. Population size increased in parallel with growing resources.
The Neolithic was not just about food. Across these Neolithic villages separated by thousands of miles, similar customs were often observed, such as burial rites centering on skulls, which also attest to the role of ideologies in the adoption of farming and the settled life.
This new way of life spread to Central Anatolia and to Cyprus by 9,000 BC. By 7000 BC, Neolithic cultures started spreading west, into the Aegean and then to Europe. Over time, the nomadic foraging disappeared in West Eurasia.
Archaeology has been investigating this process of cultural transformation and expansion for nearly a century. However, there remain questions that archaeologists still find difficult to answer. One is about the regional interactions among communities, with regards to the movements of humans, of material, and of ideas. How did the emerging technologies or rituals spread among the villages? Was it important for people to relocate across villages? Another question is about the intra-community relations and the emergence of the house-centered social organization during the transition. For example, were those people living in and being buried together within the mudbrick buildings, biologically related families? What kinship forms existed during this period? Where there gender inequalities? Archaeologists cannot solve these by simply studying material culture. Here is where anthropology and archaeogenomics enter the picture.
Why is what happened 10,000 years ago relevant to us?
The answer is simple. To save us from ignorantly assuming that our modern-day social relationships, traditions, and structures are eternal. In addition, genetic work on demographic history shows that modern-day populations all have mixed histories and ancestries.
Ancient DNA and the goal of the study:
Ancient DNA involves extracting DNA from bones of past organisms, reading the DNA sequence, and comparing it with other DNA sequences. These provide several types of information. First, DNA tells us about the demographic history of populations, such as migrations or population size changes. Second, we find out the patterns of biological kinship among past individuals. In NEOGENE, we are collecting ancient DNA data from hundreds of Neolithic Anatolian individuals who lived in different settlements, between 10,000-5,000 BC. We are then combining this data with archaeological data to understand their traditions and interactions. We are also studying sheep ancient genomes from the same communities, to study how sheep were transported among groups. Sheep was one of the main protein sources in the Neolithic of West Eurasia and was domesticated likely in Anatolia.
NEOGENE started mid-2018. The first 2 years, we built the team and infrastructure. We helped establish the second aDNA clean-lab in Turkey at the Hacettepe University’s Anthropology Department, our long-term collaborator. We further started producing and analysing ancient genomes, compiling archaeological data, and developing novel research tools.
To date, we have prescreened bone/tooth samples from >500 humans and >200 sheep, by bulk DNA sequencing. Most of this material is Neolithic, and covers all regions of Neolithic Anatolia. Our prescreening-by-sequencing experiments revealed that close to half of the human material, and a lower proportion of sheep, preserved ancient DNA at levels sufficient to produce partial genomes. We are now describing patterns of kinship among individuals co-buried within the same building, as is frequently found in sites like Çatalhöyük. Our preliminary results suggest that burial traditions and/or social organization changed between early and later Neolithic societies.
We have also been studying the population dynamics of this period, as well as later periods. As the Neolithic Transition proceeds, we see evidence for increasing interregional population movement and admixture among Neolithic communities in the Fertile Crescent. Similarly, populations also start expanding. In fact, although hunter-gatherer societies from 10,000 years ago were small and relatively homogeneous, genetic diversity within populations has been increasing ever since the Neolithic Transition, as our data shows.
To date, we have prescreened bone/tooth samples from >500 humans and >200 sheep, by bulk DNA sequencing. Most of this material is Neolithic, and covers all regions of Neolithic Anatolia. Our prescreening-by-sequencing experiments revealed that close to half of the human material, and a lower proportion of sheep, preserved ancient DNA at levels sufficient to produce partial genomes. We are now describing patterns of kinship among individuals co-buried within the same building, as is frequently found in sites like Çatalhöyük. Our preliminary results suggest that burial traditions and/or social organization changed between early and later Neolithic societies.
We have also been studying the population dynamics of this period, as well as later periods. As the Neolithic Transition proceeds, we see evidence for increasing interregional population movement and admixture among Neolithic communities in the Fertile Crescent. Similarly, populations also start expanding. In fact, although hunter-gatherer societies from 10,000 years ago were small and relatively homogeneous, genetic diversity within populations has been increasing ever since the Neolithic Transition, as our data shows.
We have been experimenting on new laboratory techniques, genome data analysis pipelines, and software to jointly analyse material culture and genomic data. These, we will be publishing through the second half of NEOGENE.
Meanwhile, the work on both intra-community kinship patterns and inter-community population interactions will continue, to eventually yield:
- A comprehensive description of social organization and burial customs throughout the Neolithic Transition in Anatolia,
- A temporal and spatial map of social interaction dynamics in effect through the Neolithic Transition in Southwest Asia,
- A qualitative model that links intra-community traditions, inter-community interaction patterns, and subsistence modes, to provide new insights into societies in transition.
Photo credit: Yilmaz Selim Erdal
Meanwhile, the work on both intra-community kinship patterns and inter-community population interactions will continue, to eventually yield:
- A comprehensive description of social organization and burial customs throughout the Neolithic Transition in Anatolia,
- A temporal and spatial map of social interaction dynamics in effect through the Neolithic Transition in Southwest Asia,
- A qualitative model that links intra-community traditions, inter-community interaction patterns, and subsistence modes, to provide new insights into societies in transition.
Photo credit: Yilmaz Selim Erdal