TY - JOUR
T1 - Unraveling ancestry, kinship, and violence in a Late Neolithic mass grave
AU - Schroeder, Hannes
AU - Margaryan, Ashot
AU - Szmyt, Marzena
AU - Theulot, Bertrand
AU - Włodarczak, Piotr
AU - Rasmussen, Simon
AU - Gopalakrishnan, Shyam
AU - Szczepanek, Anita
AU - Konopka, Tomasz
AU - Jensen, Theis Z. T.
AU - Witkowska, Barbara
AU - Wilk, Stanisław
AU - Przybyła, Marcin M
AU - Pospieszny, Łukasz
AU - Sjögren, Karl-Göran
AU - Belka, Zdzislaw
AU - Olsen, Jesper
AU - Kristiansen, Kristian
AU - Willerslev, Eske
AU - Frei, Karin M.
AU - Sikora, Martin
AU - Johannsen, Niels N.
AU - Allentoft, Morten E.
N1 - Copyright © 2019 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.
PY - 2019/5/28
Y1 - 2019/5/28
N2 - The third millennium BCE was a period of major cultural and demographic changes in Europe that signaled the beginning of the Bronze Age. People from the Pontic steppe expanded westward, leading to the formation of the Corded Ware complex and transforming the genetic landscape of Europe. At the time, the Globular Amphora culture (3300-2700 BCE) existed over large parts of Central and Eastern Europe, but little is known about their interaction with neighboring Corded Ware groups and steppe societies. Here we present a detailed study of a Late Neolithic mass grave from southern Poland belonging to the Globular Amphora culture and containing the remains of 15 men, women, and children, all killed by blows to the head. We sequenced their genomes to between 1.1- and 3.9-fold coverage and performed kinship analyses that demonstrate that the individuals belonged to a large extended family. The bodies had been carefully laid out according to kin relationships by someone who evidently knew the deceased. From a population genetic viewpoint, the people from Koszyce are clearly distinct from neighboring Corded Ware groups because of their lack of steppe-related ancestry. Although the reason for the massacre is unknown, it is possible that it was connected with the expansion of Corded Ware groups, which may have resulted in competition for resources and violent conflict. Together with the archaeological evidence, these analyses provide an unprecedented level of insight into the kinship structure and social behavior of a Late Neolithic community.
AB - The third millennium BCE was a period of major cultural and demographic changes in Europe that signaled the beginning of the Bronze Age. People from the Pontic steppe expanded westward, leading to the formation of the Corded Ware complex and transforming the genetic landscape of Europe. At the time, the Globular Amphora culture (3300-2700 BCE) existed over large parts of Central and Eastern Europe, but little is known about their interaction with neighboring Corded Ware groups and steppe societies. Here we present a detailed study of a Late Neolithic mass grave from southern Poland belonging to the Globular Amphora culture and containing the remains of 15 men, women, and children, all killed by blows to the head. We sequenced their genomes to between 1.1- and 3.9-fold coverage and performed kinship analyses that demonstrate that the individuals belonged to a large extended family. The bodies had been carefully laid out according to kin relationships by someone who evidently knew the deceased. From a population genetic viewpoint, the people from Koszyce are clearly distinct from neighboring Corded Ware groups because of their lack of steppe-related ancestry. Although the reason for the massacre is unknown, it is possible that it was connected with the expansion of Corded Ware groups, which may have resulted in competition for resources and violent conflict. Together with the archaeological evidence, these analyses provide an unprecedented level of insight into the kinship structure and social behavior of a Late Neolithic community.
U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1820210116
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1820210116
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 31061125
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 116
SP - 10705
EP - 10710
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 22
ER -
