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Hunter Gatherers

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Ancient Siberian plague outbreaks traced to Lake Baikal hunter-gatherers via ancient DNA
archaeology22 days ago

Ancient Siberian plague outbreaks traced to Lake Baikal hunter-gatherers via ancient DNA

A Nature study of ancient DNA from 46 individuals buried near Lake Baikal reveals two previously unknown Yersinia pestis strains, indicating two plague outbreaks about 5,600–5,300 and 5,100–4,900 years ago among hunter-gatherers. About 40% of the individuals carried plague DNA, suggesting significant mortality in small communities likely caused by pneumonic plague transmitted person-to-person; marmots may have been the reservoir. This pushes plague's emergence far earlier than previously thought and shows epidemics affected hunter-gatherer groups before farming communities appeared.

via Archaeology News Online Magazine|
#ancient-dna#archaeology#hunter-gatherers
Ancient Baikal Plague Outbreaks Push Origins of Yersinia pestis Back to Mid-Holocene
science24 days ago

Ancient Baikal Plague Outbreaks Push Origins of Yersinia pestis Back to Mid-Holocene

Two waves of lethal Yersinia pestis outbreaks occurred among mid-Holocene hunter-gatherers near Lake Baikal around 5,500 years ago, with a 39% plague detection rate across four cemeteries. The Baikal strains are basal to known plague lineages and lack flea-transmission genes, implying rapid human-to-human spread (likely pneumonic) rather than flea-borne transmission. Outbreaks disproportionately affected children, clustered within tight radiocarbon date ranges, and kin groups show contemporaneous deaths, suggesting swift transmission within mobile communities. These findings push the plague’s origin earlier than Europe’s Neolithic cases and point to longstanding marmot/rodent reservoirs driving recurrent spillovers in Asia.

via Nature|
#ancientdna#baikal#hunter-gatherers
Ancient hunter-gatherer DNA linked to centenarian longevity
science2 months ago

Ancient hunter-gatherer DNA linked to centenarian longevity

An Italian study links extreme longevity to inherited DNA from Ice Age Western Hunter-Gatherers, finding centenarians more likely to carry this ancestry and reporting a 38% higher odds of centenarians with that ancestry; paleogenomics shows this pattern, but researchers caution that ancestry alone isn’t a predictor of aging and call for further biological follow-up.

via Earth.com|
#ancient-dna#centenarians#hunter-gatherers
Ancient DNA shows farming spread into Europe came through women joining hunter-gatherer groups
archaeology4 months ago

Ancient DNA shows farming spread into Europe came through women joining hunter-gatherer groups

New ancient-DNA findings from Belgium, the Netherlands and Rhine-Meuse wetlands reveal that Neolithic farming spread into hunter-gatherer Europe largely via women marrying into forager communities, supporting a permeable frontier model. Over time, later migrations such as Corded Ware from the steppe reshaped the region’s ancestry, leading to populations with mixed hunter-gatherer and farmer lineages rather than a simple farmer replacement.

via Live Science|
#ancient-dna#archaeology#europe
Northwestern Europe’s Hunter-Gatherers Outlasted Farming by Millennia, DNA Reveals
science4 months ago

Northwestern Europe’s Hunter-Gatherers Outlasted Farming by Millennia, DNA Reveals

Ancient DNA from individuals in the Belgium–Netherlands region dating 8,500–1,700 BCE shows hunter-gatherers persisted thousands of years after farming arrived (~4,500 BCE), with only limited genetic input from incoming farmers. The farmer influx was largely women marrying into local communities, enabling a gradual cultural transition rather than a rapid population turnover, and hunter-gatherer ancestry remained common until about 2,500 BCE when new populations fully mixed. The study, part of a Reich Lab collaboration, was published in Nature and underscores the strong, gender-skewed role in knowledge transfer during Europe’s Neolithic transition.

via SciTechDaily|
#ancientdna#european-history#farming
Cross-channel exchange: 7,500-year-old deer skull headdress links Europe’s hunter-gatherers with early farmers
archaeology5 months ago

Cross-channel exchange: 7,500-year-old deer skull headdress links Europe’s hunter-gatherers with early farmers

Archaeologists excavating a Linearbandkeramik (LBK) Neolithic village at Eilsleben, Germany, uncovered a roe deer skull headdress and accompanying antler tools dating ~7,500 years ago. The finds suggest Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and early farmers interacted and exchanged not only material goods but also symbolic ideas, indicating a complex, two-way cultural transfer at Europe’s early farming frontier.

via Live Science|
#archaeology#hunter-gatherers#lbk