Ancient DNA maps ‘dawn of farming’

Nature ^

[FarCenter]

Sometime before 12,000 years ago, nomadic hunter-gatherers in the Middle East made one of the most important transitions in human history: they began staying put and took to farming.

A pair of ancient-DNA studies1,2 — including one of the largest assemblages of ancient human genomes yet published — has homed in on the identity of the hunter-gatherers who settled down.

Archaeological and genetic evidence suggests that humans first took to farming in the Middle East. This transition — which also later occurred independently in other parts of the world — is known as the Neolithic revolution, and is linked to the first domestic plants and animals.

Previous ancient-genomics studies3 have hinted at complex origins for Middle Eastern farmers, involving geographically distinct groups of hunter-gatherers with varying genetic legacies.

Europe’s first farming populations descend mostly from farmers in the Anatolian peninsula, in what is now Turkey. “What happened before they started to migrate and propagate farming into Anatolia and Europe?” asks Laurent Excoffier, a population geneticist at the University of Bern.

To tackle this question, a team co-led by Excoffier sequenced the genomes of 15 hunter-gatherers and early farmers who lived in southwest Asia and Europe, along one of the main migration routes early farmers took into Europe — the Danube River. The remains came from several archaeological sites, including some of the first farming villages in western Anatolia.

The researchers generated ‘high coverage’, or high-quality, genomes — a rarity in ancient-genomics work. This allowed them to plumb the data for demographic details, such as shifts in population size, that are ordinarily outside the remit of ancient-DNA studies based on less complete genomes.

[FarCenter]

Farming - the curse of Adam.

It is when man traded the free life of hunting, fishing, and gathering for the drudgery of tilling, cultivating and harvesting. Farmers requires group efforts during certain times of the year. Soon some find that a farmer can be compelled to produce enough food for more than his family by serfdom and slavery. Cities grow.

[PIF]

Soon some find that a farmer can be compelled to produce enough food for more than his family by serfdom and slavery. Cities grow.

—
Women assume power

[Rebelbase]

ping

[Honest Nigerian]

LOL
Dawn of farting?
Did you smell that? Did you hear something?
LOL

[SMARTY]

“...Pontus Skoglund...”??

That's interesting. ‘Pontus’ appears on old maps of Asia Minor, in what is now north central Turkey. It's an area around the southern coast of the Black Sea.

I have some very old text books that still represent the area with the name ‘Pontus’.

[Chode]

BEER!!!

intoxication on fermented grains led to the knowledge that intentionally grown grains would result in endless beer...

[nicollo]

Yes, the evils of farming, but hunter-gatherer societies are/were hardly peaceful.

As for me, I’m allergic to shellfish and tree nuts, so I know I’m genetically neither Middle Eastern nor Polynesian.

Now, I do sunburn pretty bad... so that rules out Eskimo or African and kinda puts Viking into play...

[blam]

7600 years ago when the fresh water Black Sea was flooded with salt water, the Caucasian irrigation farmers who were farming there could no longer live or farm there because of the arid conditions in that whole region and the water supply was now salty.

They migrated up the water ways/rivers entering the Black Sea directly into Europe, taking their farming and their IndoEuropean language with them. Some went into China and are these people, Tocharians.

This flood is also probably the source of Noah's Flood stories. All the oceans of the world were rising, flooding everywhere, because of the end of the Ice Age melt, many islands in the Mediaterranean were submerged, flood refugees were everywhere, the wrath of God had been unleashed...the dam at the Bosporus was broken and the Black Sea Flooded.

Noah saw all this flooding and realized everywhere was going under water so, not knowing how long it would take to flood him out, he began building an arc up on Mt Ararat....it still there somewhere.

[Persevero]

Cain was a farmer. A tiller of the ground. So no it’s not a recent development for mankind. We have farmed all along.

If you count raising livestock then Abel was a farmer too.

[Verginius Rufus]

Pontos is Greek for "sea" and is applied to various seas but especially to the Black Sea. A district of ancient Asia Minor was called Pontus. Its heyday was the reign of its most famous king, Mithridates the Great.

[Neanderthal]

"I have some very old text books that still represent the area with the name ‘Pontus’."

*****************************************************

I believe that pontus might mean bridge in latin. Maybe a reference to the connection between Europe and Asia?

[PapaBear3625]

It is when man traded the free life of hunting, fishing, and gathering for the drudgery of tilling, cultivating and harvesting. Farmers requires group efforts during certain times of the year. Soon some find that a farmer can be compelled to produce enough food for more than his family by serfdom and slavery. Cities grow.

Farming can provide more food per square mile, and thus a higher population density, than the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

Hunter gatherers required lots of land, and this limited the size of the tribe to what could be supported by the food within a reasonable walking distance from the camp. Camps also had to move frequently as hunting depleted the game in the area.

A farming community could sustain a much larger tribe size in a given area, and thus could muster a much larger number of fighters to go after any hunter/gatherer tribe which tried to encroach on their territory.

[gnarledmaw]

Grant harvesting political nonsense right up there with OoA and the Clovis barrier.

[nomorelurker]

“Hunter gatherers required lots of land, and this limited the size of the tribe to what could be supported by the food within a reasonable walking distance from the camp. Camps also had to move frequently as hunting depleted the game in the area.

A farming community could sustain a much larger tribe size in a given area, and thus could muster a much larger number of fighters to go after any hunter/gatherer tribe which tried to encroach on their territory.”

Good points BUT humans are built for the Hunter Gather lifestyle. Can move 20+ miles a day if needed, only humans and some Equines can do that. Once you get Dogs and Horses you get to the Mongol Empire.

[PapaBear3625]

humans are built for the Hunter Gather lifestyle. Can move 20+ miles a day if needed, only humans and some Equines can do that. Once you get Dogs and Horses you get to the Mongol Empire.

Healthy young adults can move 20+ miles per day. Pregnant women carrying toddlers and older members, not so much.

More reasonable would be to move a mile each day, while hunting parties range several miles in either direction perpendicular to the path of migration.

[FarCenter]

Farming can provide more food per square mile, and thus a higher population density, than the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

Which is why the immigrant farming populations of North and South America, Siberia, Southern Africa, and Australia rapidly overwhelmed the natives engaged in hunting and gathering and primitive farming and herding.

[MV=PY]

How the World Really Works (Vaclav Smil)

[momincombatboots]

Lol… um no. Dna can be time tracked based on particular dna clocks.. and their timeline is absolutely wrong. Dr Nathaniel Jensen will see your myth and call it with truth. It was even shocking to me. And as usual, most people can’t handle the truth. His YouTube channel has all the maps n charts you can handle. The Hidden History of the human race.
Unless of course you want to stick with the same “science” that brought us lockdowns and failed at every prediction.

[SunkenCiv]

Nice topic!

The other GGG topics added since the last digest ping:

• An Ancient Roman Cult's Rituals Included Feasting, Fire, and Floor Cleaning (By Mithra!) [05/13/2022]
• Ancient DNA maps 'dawn of farming' [05/13/2022]
• What are the newest discoveries at Pompeii? [05/11/2022]
• The Roman Toilet That Became a Papal Throne [05/10/2022]
• We Thought We Knew What These Ancient Daggers Were Used For, But We Were Wrong [05/10/2022]
• Remains of Aztec dwelling and floating gardens unearthed in Mexico City [05/09/2022]
• Iron Age in Tamil Nadu dates back 4,200 years, oldest in India, excavated implements reveal [05/09/2022]
• Harald Hardrada: King of Norway, and the Battle of Stamford Bridge [05/09/2022]
• Why the Sparta you know Never Existed [05/09/2022]
• The Mysterious History of Cinnamon [05/09/2022]
• Ice Lost, Island Found? Eastern Coast of Antarctica Appears To Have Gained an Island [05/06/2022]
• Siberia's 'doorway to the Underworld' Is Getting So Big It's Uncovering Ancient Forests [02/25/2017]
• Ancient boat shows Jewish maritime life. [01/24/2007]
• Constitutional Convention (Ca. 520 B.C.) [04/24/2005]

[SMARTY]

Right. The people from there call it ‘Pontu’ and emphasize the ‘u’ in pronunciation. It's where all my grandparents are from...the ‘old country’. Of course, when the Romans took it over, they Latinized the pronunciation to, ‘Pontus’.

I have read that, when Alexander the Great got there (about 300 BC), he met Greek-speaking people. So, I know they were there at least that long.

In the end, the Turks took over. Kemal Pasha (Ataturk) threw out all the Greeks and Armenians after WWI.