Ancient DNA from Chalcolithic Israel reveals the role of population mixture in cultural transformation

Éadaoin Harney (), Hila May (), Dina Shalem, Nadin Rohland, Swapan Mallick, Iosif Lazaridis, Rachel Sarig, Kristin Stewardson, Susanne Nordenfelt, Nick Patterson, Israel Hershkovitz and David Reich
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Éadaoin Harney: Harvard University
Hila May: Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University
Dina Shalem: The Institute for Galilean Archaeology, Kinneret Academic College
Nadin Rohland: Harvard Medical School
Swapan Mallick: Harvard Medical School
Iosif Lazaridis: Harvard Medical School
Rachel Sarig: Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Steinhardt Natural History Museum, Tel Aviv University
Kristin Stewardson: Harvard Medical School
Susanne Nordenfelt: Harvard Medical School
Nick Patterson: Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Israel Hershkovitz: Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University
David Reich: Harvard Medical School

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract The material culture of the Late Chalcolithic period in the southern Levant (4500–3900/3800 BCE) is qualitatively distinct from previous and subsequent periods. Here, to test the hypothesis that the advent and decline of this culture was influenced by movements of people, we generated genome-wide ancient DNA from 22 individuals from Peqi’in Cave, Israel. These individuals were part of a homogeneous population that can be modeled as deriving ~57% of its ancestry from groups related to those of the local Levant Neolithic, ~17% from groups related to those of the Iran Chalcolithic, and ~26% from groups related to those of the Anatolian Neolithic. The Peqi’in population also appears to have contributed differently to later Bronze Age groups, one of which we show cannot plausibly have descended from the same population as that of Peqi’in Cave. These results provide an example of how population movements propelled cultural changes in the deep past.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05649-9

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