Genetic study Ancestry, admixture, and pathogens in contemporaneous Neolithic farmers and foragers on the Island of Gotland

[Tautalus]

This paper examines the relationship between the Funnelbeaker Culture (TRB) farmers and the Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) hunter-gatherers who coexisted on the island of Gotland between approximately 3300 and 2800 BCE. Although they lived side by side for more than five centuries, they remained genetically distinct: the TRB descended mainly from Early European Farmers, while the PWC retained predominantly Scandinavian hunter-gatherer ancestry.
The paper shows that only limited intermarriage occurred on Gotland, with most farmer / hunter-gatherer admixture having taken place before the two groups settled on the island. Scandinavian Funnelbeaker farmers carried an additional 9–21% Scandinavian hunter-gatherer ancestry, indicating that local admixture was more important than previously believed. Likewise, the Pitted Ware population possessed about 30% farmer-related ancestry (TRB like population that was itself already admixed (EEF + WHG)), although much of this also predated their arrival on Gotland. The Gotland TRB population appears to have been relatively isolated, maintaining close family continuity within the Ansarve dolmen, where evidence of a patrilineal society and even one case of close-kin marriage was identified.
The researchers also discovered the earliest known individual (SE_LN_ans010) with Steppe ancestry on Gotland, dating to the Late Neolithic, indicating that Steppe-related migrations reached the island only after the main Funnelbeaker period.
The paper detected several distinct strains of "Yersinia pestis" (plague) in both farmers and hunter-gatherers, demonstrating that epidemic disease spread across cultural boundaries and may have contributed to the demographic changes that accompanied the decline of the Funnelbeaker Culture.
The paper concludes that Gotland's Neolithic history was shaped primarily by earlier migrations into Scandinavia, followed by centuries of coexistence with only occasional gene flow between culturally distinct populations.​

Abstract
Two archaeological cultural complexes; the Neolithic Funnelbeaker culture (FBC) and the Pitted ware culture (PWC), coexisted on Gotland for over 500 years, between ~3300 and 2800 calBCE. The ancestry of the FBC farmers and PWC marine foragers largely aligns with European Neolithic Farmers and European Mesolithic foragers, respectively, but the direct interactions between the groups on Gotland is not understood. We present a Middle Neolithic (MN) high-coverage genome and a Late Neolithic (LN) low-coverage genome from the Ansarve FBC dolmen. We investigate ancestry, admixture, and pathogens among these MN farmers (n = 6), foragers (n = 19), and the LN individual. We find that recent gene-flow between farmers and foragers could have taken place, although most gene-flow happened prior to their coexistence on the island. We also find evidence of different Yersinia pestis strains in the three cultural groups, showing that the pestis was widespread among groups with different subsistence strategies.

Ancestry, admixture, and pathogens in contemporaneous Neolithic farmers and foragers on the Island of Gotland - Communications Biology

Neolithic farmers and foragers in Gotland coexisted for 500 years, ancient DNA suggests limited intermixing, shared ancestry with mainland groups, isolation, and evidence of distinct Yersinia pestis strains in both populations.

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PCA, admixture and haplogrops

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