New findings tell a different story of the often tense relationship between Europe’s Stone Age hunter-gatherers and early farmers in the Neolithic. This study emphasizes a slow process of shared coexistence and genetic blending between the two groups. Collaborators on the study, led by Mathias Currat, made the discovery. They created thousands of genetic possibilities to interpret data from 67 ancient individuals in areas where the two populations encountered one another. These results show that the beginnings of the shift to agriculture were well underway almost 9,000 years ago. The shift was more than an alteration in lifestyle; it accompanied a drastic demographic transformation along the Danube route.
The study’s main goal was to determine how these populations converged over time. Researchers discovered that while the initial genetic mixing between farmers and hunter-gatherers was rare, it increased gradually as both groups cohabitated. Neolithization was marked by contact and mutual collaboration between groups. This resulted in a significant mixing of different lineages, calling into question previous expectations that agriculture was adopted as abruptly in Europe.
The Role of Geography in Neolithic Expansion
The study highlights the role of geographic corridors in the expansion of farming into Northern Europe. Early farmers spread from the Aegean region and from western Anatolia, what is now modern-day Turkey. They traveled a well-trodden path that came to be called the “Danube route.” This route enabled them to get into Central Europe, inside of which were areas that are now northern Germany.
Mathias Currat’s group was the first to use highly sophisticated computer models to reconstitute this Neolithic expansion. These models included terms for different geographic locations and biological factors, as well as interaction terms that affected the extent to which populations interacted. The simulations showed that a minority of the farmers took exceptionally long-distance migration leaps that dramatically sped their advance into central Europe.
Such findings are a compelling example of the multifaceted impacts of agricultural expansion. These weren’t one-way cultural exchanges of farming practices. Rather, both groups exerted a strong, active effect on one another in a multifaceted, often contradictory interaction.
Increasing Admixture Over Time
The two-year study uncovers a shocking truth. The degree of genetic mixing between incoming farmers and resident hunter-gatherers was high within the local region but became pronounced only over time. In doing so these early farmers made sure their maize retained a distinctive genetic identity. In contrast, their effective population size was roughly five times larger than hunter-gatherers. With the advent of settled agriculture, contact between the two groups promoted even more genetic mixing.
It is with great thanks that we acknowledge Alexandros Tsoupas and his team for their significant contributions in analyzing this genetic data. By analyzing a total of 67 paleogenomes from prehistoric individuals, they filled in a much clearer picture of how these populations evolved in concert with one another. Climate-smart farming practices have a history of proliferating. As the so-called Celtic expansion took place, interbreeding resumed between the two groups with the effect of mixing up their respective genetic legacies even more throughout Europe.
This more nuanced view provides an answer to the centuries‐old argument over how Neolithization took place across Europe. Culturally speaking, the research points to the fact that this transition is not an instant trade in of one culture for another. Rather, it is a longer-term process propelled by interaction and partnership.