The spread of farming into Europe has been linked to a demographic expansion of people from Anatolia. While genetic studies show that Neolithic farmers experienced low levels of admixture with local hunter-gatherer groups in central and western Europe, recent demographic reconstructions suggest that the ancestors of early Anatolian farmers carried substantial amounts of Western Hunter-Gatherer (WHG) ancestry. To further refine the demographic history of early farmers and hunter-gatherers in Europe and investigate modes and timings of dispersals across the Aegean, Balkans, and central and western Europe, we analyzed 89 high-coverage ancient genomes, 40 of which were newly sequenced. We inferred divergence times between ancient populations, their effective sizes, and admixture events, providing new insights into the geographic and genetic origin of early European farmers. Our results suggest that the Neolithic expansion into Greece and along the Danubian corridor occurred through a mixture of short- and long-distance dispersal events, rather than through a linear process in space. This mode of diffusion led to patterns of genomic diversity that depart from theoretical predictions of a classical and progressive range expansion, for instance, by contributing to the maintenance of high levels of diversity among early European farmers. 

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Für Detailinformationen wenden Sie sich bitte an Claudia Gerling (claudia.gerling@unibas.ch).