For ease of reference:
In this Admixture analysis, the Anatolia Neolithic appears to be a mix of Levant Neolithic, as defined as south Levant Neolithic (Jordan/Palestine),
Iranian Neolithic, and some WHG.
By the time we get to the Anatolian Chalcolithic, or Copper Age, which some researchers call the Late Neolithic, we have an increase in the Iranian Neolithic, a bit of EHG, and a corresponding slight decrease in the WHG and Levant Neolithic. Yes?
How are we supposed to interpret this in light of the fact that the authors say these are genetically distinct populations? Is it partly a function of the time periods in question?
These are the dates provided in the paper itself for these samples:
"The samples include Epipaleolithic Natufian hunter-gatherers from Raqefet 125 Cave in the Levant (12,000-9,800 BCE); a likely Mesolithic individual from Hotu Cave in the 126 Alborz mountains of Iran (probable date of 9,100-8,600 BCE);
Pre-Pottery Neolithic farmers 127 from ‘Ain Ghazal and Motza in the southern Levant (8,300-6,700 BCE); and
early farmers 128 from Ganj Dareh in the Zagros mountains of western Iran (8,200-7,600 BCE). The samples 129 also include
later Neolithic, Chalcolithic (~4,800-3,700 BCE), and
Bronze Age (~3,350- 130 1,400 BCE) individuals.
I haven't gotten to the supplement yet. Does anyone know if all the Anatolian samples they used are from about 4800 BCE or later? If they are, there's a few thousand years for some admixture to have already occurred.
I'm not sure what to make of the Armenia Chalcolithic. Yes, they have some EHG and WHG, but so did the even earlier CHG hunter-gatherer. Indeed, so did the Iran_HotuIIIb sample. Then in the Early Bronze Age, the EHG decreases, probably as the result of further movement from the south, only for the EHG to increase again in the Middle Bronze Age.
Far from being a barrier to gene flow, the Caucasus range seems to have been remarkably porous. In that regard, perhaps some of this incoming EHG was by way of bride exchange between the Caucasus and steppe groups? So, no, I hate to dash anyone's fantasies, but probably not he-men steppe cowboys riding into the Caucasus to raid and steal wives.
Speaking of the steppe, this shows not only Iranian Neolithic genes on the steppe in the Early/Middle Bronze Age, but a bit of Levant Neolithic and WHG, which increases in the Middle/Late Bronze Age. So, did the latter two come with the people who came onto the steppe from the West Asian Highlands, or is it being picked up from people moving east from "Old Europe", since European EN here appears to be a three way mix of Iranian Neolithic, Levant Neolithic and WHG?
In Europe, the transition from the MiddleN/Chal to LN/Bronze sees the arrival of EHG, and a corresponding decrease in WHG and Levant Neolithic, but Iranian Neolithic stays the same.
I hate to be greedy when there is such a wealth of information here, but the only place from which we don't have farmer dna is precisely the area from which we know, or think we know, from the archaeology, that farmers set out for Cyprus, and, it was thought, other islands in the Aegean, and that is the area between southeast Anatolia and the northern Levant, approximately the area around northern Syria. I wonder if they would have been intermediate between northwest Anatolian farmers and Levant farmers?
This is probably why the authors are careful to say that there was no direct input from south Levant farmers into Europe. It was mediated by more northerly groups.
"To the west, the 270 early farmers of mainland Europe were descended from a population related to Neolithic northwestern Anatolians8 271 . This is consistent with an Anatolian origin of farming in Europe, 272 but does not reject other sources, since the spatial distribution of the Anatolian/European-like 273 farmer populations is unknown. We can rule out the hypothesis that European farmers stem directly from a population related to the ancient farmers of the southern Levant30,31 274 , however,"
@Epoch,
Maybe they were rushed because the paper had been leaked...