Genetic transition in the Swiss Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age

Siebke, Inga; Lösch, Sandra (5 September 2019). Genetic transition in the Swiss Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (Unpublished). In: Annual Meeting of the European Archaeological Association. Bern. 4.9-7.9.2019.

Major genetic changes in European populations occurred at the beginning as well as final stages of the Neolithic period as shown by recent genetic studies. The transition from hunter-gatherers to agriculturalists and farmers in the 6th millennium BCE coincided with a human migration from the Near East. A second migration into Central Europe occurred originating from the Pontic steppe in the 3rd millennium BCE and was linked to the spread of the Corded Ware Culture which ranged as far southwest as modern-day Western Switzerland. These genetic processes are well studied, for example for the Middle-Elbe-Saale region in Germany, however, little is known from the regions that connect Central and Southern Europe.
In this study, we investigate genome-wide data from 97 individuals from the Swiss Plateau, Southern Germany and the Alsace Region in France that span the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age (4500 to 2000 BCE). Our results show a similar genetic process as reported for the Middle-Elbe-Saale region suggesting that the migration from the Pontic steppe reached all the way into the Swiss Plateau. However, our evidence suggests that the onset of that transition may have started even earlier in Switzerland compared to the Middle-Elbe-Saale region.
The existence of core families within multiple burials and the determination, quantification and the estimated dates of arrival of different ancestry components in this region were analysed. Our data represent the first comprehensive genome wide dataset from Neolithic individuals from the Swiss Plateau and provide the first insights into the genetic history of this region.

Item Type:

Conference or Workshop Item (Speech)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute of Legal Medicine
04 Faculty of Medicine > Service Sector > Institute of Legal Medicine > Anthropology

Graduate School:

Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences (GCB)

UniBE Contributor:

Siebke, Inga Katharina Elisabeth, Lösch, Sandra

Subjects:

500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology
900 History > 930 History of ancient world (to ca. 499)

Funders:

[42] Schweizerischer Nationalfonds

Language:

English

Submitter:

Sandra Lösch

Date Deposited:

17 Sep 2019 10:10

Last Modified:

02 Mar 2023 23:32

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/133227

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