New Genetic Data on the European Neolithic

I have been writing since I started this blog about the most exciting new development in historical studies, the use of genetics. A large amount of data about the past is coming from genetic studies now, and these data may one day answer questions that have seemed intractable using other methods. Studies of modern populations have told us much, but even more exciting is the ever-growing amount of DNA being extracted from ancient skeletons.

The latest major study looks at DNA from Neolithic burials in Hungary. The study shows that not only were Neolithic Hungarians genetically distinct from both Paleolithic and modern Europeans, they are genetically diverse themselves. Also, these Hungarian skeletons produced genetic types now only known in East Asia. As John Hawks summarizes,

Past populations had incredible dynamism across Eurasia.

Genes were shared from Ireland to Korea across the whole period from 50,000 BC to modern times. In no well-studied locale have the modern inhabitants proved to be the direct descendants of their Paleolithic or Neolithic forbears. (In Eurasia or Africa, anyway.) So far as we know, this result can only be explained by a combination of large-scale movements of people and evolution. Recall that when a new epidemic disease enters a population it may kill up to 90 percent of the inhabitants, creating a major genetic break; the appearance of new traits that improved adaptation to a peasant lifestyle (e.g., that make people able to better digest grain or fight with their neighbors less) may also have led to major genetic shifts. The movements of new groups of people into an area can also cause genetic change. These two processes are related, since sometimes the new people are able to spread because of some genetic advantage, or because the previous inhabitants have been devastated by disease.

The ancient world was not static, but just as full of dramatic population shifts and movements as the modern period has been.