Zingale, Stefania; Laffranchi, Zita; Paladin, Alice; Lösch, Sandra; Dori, Irene; Müller, Felix; Kaeser, Marc-Antoine; Coia, Valentina; Milella, Marco; Zink, Albert (2023). GENETIC HISTORY OF LATE IRON AGE (4TH – 1ST CENTURY BCE) HUMAN GROUPS FROM BOTH SIDES OF THE ALPS (Unpublished). In: 29th EAA Annual Meeting. Belfast. 29.08-02.09.2023.
During the Late Iron Age (La Tène, 4th-1st centuries BCE), various human groups sharing cultural elements, commonly
referred to as “Celts”, were involved in migration processes and settled in the Italian Peninsula after crossing the
Alps. The current knowledge of these people is largely drawn from osteological, isotopic, archaeological, and historical
evidence. However, the genetic history of these groups from both north and south of the Alps remains unexplored.
This paleogenomic study aims to analyze if the cultural similarity of these people is reflected in their genomic makeup.
Moreover, it intends to study the genetic relationships between different La Tène groups from north and south of the
Alps, and other ancient and present-day populations from Europe.
We performed molecular analyses (shotgun and nuclear capture data – approx. 1.3 mio SNPs) on 194 individuals from
13 Swiss and North Italian Late Iron Age archaeological contexts. Ancient DNA data allows to determine the genetic
sex in 119 individuals, comprising 76 XX and 43 XY, including 52 subadults. With the additional support of mitochondrial
DNA data, we detected genetic relatedness among three individual pairs within two different Swiss archeological
sites, and one case in the North-Italian site of Seminario Vescovile.
Comparative analyses show a genetic similarity between the ancient Swiss and Italian individuals. Additionally, their
genomic diversity overlaps with that of especially western and south-western European present-day populations.
However, the results suggest a genetic discontinuity between Late Iron Age individuals from Northern Italy and present-
day populations from the same geographic area. On the other hand, the comparison with published data infers a
stronger genetic affinity among European Iron Age groups.
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 |
UniBE Contributor: |
Laffranchi, Zita |
Subjects: |
600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health 300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Zita Laffranchi |
Date Deposited: |
22 Sep 2023 08:29 |
Last Modified: |
22 Sep 2023 08:29 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/186412 |
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