G2a didn't have domesticated animals.

LeBrok

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The news comes from this paper:
"Strontium isotopes document greater human mobility at the start of the Balkan Neolithic by Dusan Boric and Douglas Price."

http://www.pnas.org/content/110/9/3298.long

Here is a paragraph describing migration of first Neolithic farmers who came to Hungary, Danubian Gorge area:

"The ensuing period has been referred to as the Final Mesolithic (16) or Mesolithic–Neolithic transformation phase (17, 30) and is currently dated to ∼6200–6000/5950 cal B.C., making this phase in the Danube Gorges entirely contemporary with early Neolithic sites in the Morava, middle Danube, and Tisza valleys (14). Remarkable art in the form of sculpted boulders and innovative architectural features such as red limestone trapezoidal-shaped building floors found at the key site of Lepenski Vir (SI Appendix, section I and Fig. S2) are attributed to this phase (ref. 31 and SI Appendix). This is the phase of cultural hybridity in the Danube Gorges. Early Neolithic pottery (32, 33), polished stone axes (34), nonlocal good quality yellow white-spotted “Balkan” flint from areas 200 km away from the Danube Gorges in northern Bulgaria (35) as well as novel, typical Neolithic morphologies in osseous tools were found associated with trapezoidal buildings at the sites of Lepenski Vir and Padina. At the same time, these buildings harnessed many indigenous architectural and material culture elements, whereas the lack of domesticates (except for dogs) during this phase suggests an unaltered subsistence pattern (30). Mortuary practices were still characterized by extended supine burials during this period (SI Appendix, Fig"

I have to admit I made a little assumption that these first Neolithic Farmers in Hungary were G2a. I'm not sure if DNA from Lepenski Vir site skeletons were sequenced. However most of Early Neolithic farmers from Europe were G2a carriers, so it is most likely these folks were G2a too.

The news is very surprising that the First Neolithic Farmers, EEF bearers, didn't have domesticated animals but dogs!
I always thought about them as the first farmers/herders from East Turkey and Caucasus area.
 
I allready mentioned this study here : http://www.eupedia.com/forum/thread...-in-prehistory?p=463097&viewfull=1#post463097
I don't think these people were EEF G2a, I think they were HG I.
HG lived in this area in permanent settlements prior to the arrival of the first farmers.
See http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.125.8817&rep=rep1&type=pdf maps page 2 & 3 : Djerdap Group
The Danube Gorge was a very rich fishing ground.
Sturgeon came to spawn here every year.
Afaik no skeletons have been sequenced yet. It would be interesting.
 
bicicleur said:
I allready mentioned this study here : http://www.eupedia.com/forum/thread...-in-prehistory?p=463097&viewfull=1#post463097
I don't think these people were EEF G2a, I think they were HG I.
HG lived in this area in permanent settlements prior to the arrival of the first farmers.
See http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.125.8817&rep=rep1&type=pdf maps page 2 & 3 : Djerdap Group
The Danube Gorge was a very rich fishing ground.
Sturgeon came to spawn here every year.
Afaik no skeletons have been sequenced yet. It would be interesting.
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Actually the scientists refer to these sites as Early Neolithic, as first farming communities. They are sort of mixed sites HGs mixed with these first farmers, like pioneers in Wild West.

They also describe Mesolithic HGs living in this area, hg I:
Archaeology of the Mesolithic–Neolithic Danube Gorges

The earliest radiocarbon dates in the Danube Gorges come from Epipaleolithic levels at the rock-shelter of Cuina Turcului (27) and Climente II Cave (28) (∼13,500–9300 cal B.C.). Possible archaeological evidence for mobility during this period primarily relates to the presence of Cyclope neritea and Dentalium marine shells (27), suggesting long-distance connections.
Early Holocene human adaptations in this particular environment can be traced back to the mid-10th millennium cal B.C. at a number of open-air sites on the Danube shores. The River Danube, which offered Danubian carp, catfish, and sturgeon, was the key to the success of these adaptations in the region where fishing was facilitated by the fast current and irregularities of the riverbed, which created numerous whirlpools and enabled specialized modes of fishing. Formal burials as well as scattered Early to Middle Mesolithic (∼9500–7400 cal B.C.) human remains have been found associated with the sites of Vlasac, Padina A, and Proto-Lepenski Vir. There are currently 14 individuals directly AMS-dated to these early Mesolithic periods. Extended supine inhumations as well as seated burials placed in lotus positions were documented. To date, there is no archaeological evidence for long-distance connections during the Early-Middle Mesolithic periods in the Danube Gorges, possibly suggesting reduced levels of human mobility among different regions of southeastern Europe.
The intensity of occupation in the Late Mesolithic (∼7400–6200 cal B.C.) might have destroyed many Early/Middle Mesolithic features in the Danube Gorges. The frequency of features, burials, and dates associated with this phase indicates successful and long-lasting Late Mesolithic communities across the region. There are currently 32 directly AMS-dated individuals falling into the time brackets of this period, with extended supine inhumations as the dominant burial form and with evidence of secondary mortuary rites, which also included cremations. Archaeological evidence for mobility during this period is based on the presence of marine gastropods Columbella rustica and Cyclope neritea (SI Appendix, Fig. S6), which must have come from coastal regions more than 400 km away from the Danube Gorges (29). This would suggest established interregional information and exchange networks among Late Mesolithic foragers in southeastern Europe.

This sample is representative and illustrative of the underlying pattern, which suggests a limited level of regional mobility characterizing the population in the Danube Gorges throughout the Early, Middle, and Late Mesolithic periods (i.e., from ∼9500 to ∼6200 cal B.C.).
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Now the farmers come, hg G2a:
The ensuing period has been referred to as the Final Mesolithic (16) or Mesolithic–Neolithic transformation phase (17, 30) and is currently dated to ∼6200–6000/5950 cal B.C., making this phase in the Danube Gorges entirely contemporary with early Neolithic sites in the Morava, middle Danube, and Tisza valleys (14). Remarkable art in the form of sculpted boulders and innovative architectural features such as red limestone trapezoidal-shaped building floors found at the key site of Lepenski Vir (SI Appendix, section I and Fig. S2) are attributed to this phase (ref. 31 and SI Appendix). This is the phase of cultural hybridity in the Danube Gorges. Early Neolithic pottery (32, 33), polished stone axes (34), nonlocal good quality yellow white-spotted “Balkan” flint from areas 200 km away from the Danube Gorges in northern Bulgaria (35) as well as novel, typical Neolithic morphologies in osseous tools were found associated with trapezoidal buildings at the sites of Lepenski Vir and Padina. At the same time, these buildings harnessed many indigenous architectural and material culture elements, whereas the lack of domesticates (except for dogs) during this phase suggests an unaltered subsistence pattern (30). Mortuary practices were still characterized by extended supine burials during this period (SI Appendix, Figs. S3 and S4), yet there is unequivocal evidence from new excavations at Vlasac about the adoption of ornaments from Spondylus and stone characterized by typical Neolithic morphologies (ref. 17 and SI Appendix, Figs. S4–S6). There are 25 AMS dates for 21 individuals attributed to this phase from the region, mostly from the site of Lepenski Vir (18 dates for 14 individuals). There are also two AMS-dated burials from the Early Neolithic site of Ajmana that seem to suggest the existence of a newly founded fully Neolithic settlement in the downstream area of the gorges and its contemporaneity with forager sites farther upstream. Further changes in the patterns of habitation in the Danube Gorges can be seen in the period after ∼6000/5950 cal B.C. when the first crouched/flexed inhumations appear at several sites, indicating the spread of typical Neolithic mortuary rites, which, at Lepenski Vir, might have coexisted with the dominant form of Mesolithic burial position—extended supine inhumations placed parallel to the Danube (SI Appendix, section II). There are currently 12 directly AMS-dated burials falling into this period. During this last Neolithic phase, trapezoidal buildings were abandoned at the site of Lepenski Vir, which became dominated by typical Early/Middle Neolithic pattern of habitation, and the current evidence suggests an increase in the number/visibility of settlements across the region as a whole (17).
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PS. Thanks for posting the paper and the link. I found it very interesting, especially the speed of colonization by farmers and lack of domesticated animals. It was also interesting to find out that the only rotten teeth belonged to farmers.
 
Early Farmers had domesicated animals in first colonies on Cyprus:
Beginning in the early 1990s a number of sites have been discovered and excavated on Cyprus that have radically transformed our understanding of Neolithic emergence in the Mediterranean Basin (47). Until the early 1990s Cyprus was thought to have been colonized ca. 8,500 B.P. by a derived offshoot of fully established Neolithic mainland cultures (48). The new sites, however, date 2,000 years earlier (10,500–9,000 B.P.) and document the arrival of early pioneers hypothesized to have originated somewhere in the Northern Levant (Figs. 1 and 2) (47, 49). Traveling the 60 k to Cyprus by boat, these colonists transported the full complement of economically important mainland fauna (50). including all four major livestock species (sheep, goat, cattle, and pig). Early colonists also imported mainland game animals like fallow deer and fox that, although perhaps kept in captivity (48), were never truly domesticated. None of these animals are endemic to Cyprus. Although imported livestock species did not show any of the morphological features traditionally used to mark domestic status when they arrived on the island, demographic profiles of these animals are consistent with human management. In contrast, demographic profiles of the fallow deer are indicative of hunting, suggesting that early colonists were engaged in game stocking and herd management (13, 48). Deep wells constructed at one of these early sites yielded abundant evidence of domesticated einkorn and emmer wheat and lentils, none of which are native to Cyprus, and domestic barley, which in the wild is endemic to the island (26, 51). Other introduced plants include pistachios and flax, as well as figs possibly domesticated in the Levant by this time (28). Thus the initial diffusion of the nascent Neolithic package out of the Fertile Crescent to Cyprus involved the transplant of all aspects of daily life (i.e., subsistence resources, technologies, and, most likely, social networks and belief systems) by seafaring colonists who, for unclear reasons, were seeking a fresh start in a new land (52). Far from being an isolated event, the colonization of Cyprus provides a clear and valuable template for the subsequent diffusion of the Neolithic across the rest of the Mediterranean Basin.
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http://www.pnas.org/content/105/33/11597.full

Why then first farmers in Balkans had spread without domesticated animals? Did they hunt for meat? Did they trade bread for meat with local HGs?
 
Spread of farming:
Domestication and early agriculture in the Mediterranean Basin: Origins, diffusion, and impact



F2.large.jpg

http://www.pnas.org/content/105/33/11597.full

Interestingly, for some reason first farmers lived in Anatolia and Cyprus for 2,000 years before spreading to Europe. Then in next 1,000 years they are all over Europe. Why the pause and why so fast afterwords?!
 
In the same M A Zeder paper we find some explanation:
Recent research has also clarified the spatial and temporal context of the domestication of two other major livestock species in the Near East: pigs and cattle. Archaeological evidence now suggests that pigs were first domesticated somewhere in southeastern Anatolia by 10,500–10,000 B.P. and that the timing of their geographical expansion as domesticates was similar, although perhaps slower, to that of sheep (Fig. 1) (10,14). Morphologically altered domestic pigs are not found in the southern Levant or lowland Iran until ca.8,500–8,000 B.P. Recent demographic evidence suggests that taurine cattle were initially domesticated somewhere in the upper Eu-phrates Valley between ca. 11,000 and 10,000 B.P. (15), but, like sheep and pigs, they arrived relatively late in more distant parts of the Fertile Crescent (Fig. 1). Morphologically altered domestic pigs and cattle are not found in Central Anatolia until after 8,500 B.P.
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This mean there couldn't be any domestic pigs and cattle during Early Neolithic in Balkans. They didn't get there on time. Indeed the First Neolithic Farmers EEF didn't have domesticated animals but dogs.
They needed to hunt by themselves or trade for meat with local HGs!
 
Last edited:
This is interesting:
Genetic studies have subsequently ruled out European ancestry for domestic wheat, barley, and pulses, confirming the Near East as the source of these crops (26, 39). Morphological, cytological, hemoglobin, and, most recently, genetic studies have shown that the “wild” sheep and goats found on Mediterranean islands, once argued to be the descendents of the progenitors of indigenous domestic caprines, are instead the feral descendents of Near Eastern caprines (for a review in chronological order, see refs. 40, 41, 17, and 18).
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There was no domestication of local fauna by HGs. All domesticates were brought by farmers from Near East.

Genetic studies of modern and ancient DNA from Mediterranean Basin livestock species and their progenitors adds further support, and nuance, to this emerging picture. A study of ancient mtDNA has shown that two haplotypes of domestic goats (the A and C lineages) had arrived in southern France by 7,300 B.P., suggesting their dispersal out of the Near East as a single package
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This means that goats arrived 500 years after first neolithic farmers in France.

Were they same G2a people, in case of wheat farmers and herders, or goats and another domesticated animals arrived with people of different haplogroups, E, T, J?
 
In case of cattle:
Genetic data also support a pattern of multiple introductions of cattle into the region. The T3 haplotype of domestic cattle, which dominates among modern and ancient European cattle, seems to have followed a relatively rapid path of expansion around the Mediterranean Basin without any significant introgression with female European aurochsen (refs. 21, 69, and 70 and contra ancient DNA evidence reported in ref. 71). Modern DNA, however, indicates that T and T2 haplotype cattle were included in migratory movements into the Balkans and Central Europe (71). T1 cattle, which dominate among modern North African taurine cattle, were initially argued to represent a separate North African domestication event (21). This lineage now seems more likely to have been brought under domestication with other T haplogroup cattle in the Near East (72) and subsequently radiated across North Africa through trade and human migration. The patchy occurrence of the TI haplotype among modern cattle in the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and central Italy, and the Balkans suggests that T1 cattle entered southern Europe out of North Africa through multiple points of entry (71). It is also possible that T1 cattle traveled overland across the Dardanelles into Eastern Europe. The high-diversity T haplogroup taurine cattle found among modern Tuscan cattle has been linked to a post-Neolithic migration of Etruscans who, based on both historical evidence and modern human genetic data, are believed to have been of Eastern Mediterranean origin (73).
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Did cattle enter Iberian peninsula with E-V13 folks?
 
About pigs:
Pigs tell a different story. Research by Larson et al. (22) has shown that current-day domestic pigs in Europe bear no trace of Middle Eastern ancestry, but instead are most closely related to European wild boar. Subsequent analysis by the same team of mtDNA extracted from archaeological remains has found convincing evidence for the dispersal of Near Eastern pigs into and across Europe between 7,500 and 5,000 B.P. (23). Surprisingly, subsequent to this initial diffusion, Near Eastern swine are later replaced by domestic pigs of European maternal ancestry, even within the Near East. Indigenous domestication of European boar also apparently happened several times, with two major European clades indicative of two separate domestication events, and an additional clade, currently restricted to Italy and Sardinia, representing another (22, 23).
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cattel said:
Check this: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150722144709.htm

The Origin of Cultivation and Proto-Weeds, Long Before Neolithic Farming: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0131422
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Great find cattel. I'm skeptical about deliberate and planned seeding and cultivation of wheat so early. Near Eastern area is known to have natural vast wheat fields even during Ice Age, so cultivation wasn't really necessary. Especially when population of people was low, therefore competition for wheat didn't outstrip its supply. However I suspected that harvesting and consumption of wheat went back to 20 thousands years ago. Now we can push the date to 23 kya. Previous date went 17 kya to Natufiens.
 
bicicleur said:
the Danube Gorge is not the only place where HG survived amidst neolithic farmers :

http://www.researchgate.net/publica...arallel_Societies_in_Stone_Age_Central_Europe

and of course the pitted ware culture in SE Sweden :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitted_Ware_culture

with DNA :

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6080/466
and
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/344/6185/747
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Indeed, the farther North in Europe, the more instances of HGs lasting till Bronze, or late Bronze. The end of it was when Corded Ware overpopulated Northern Europe. Neolithic Farmers always had a problem of spreading far North, with their imperfect wheat for Northern climate. Corded Ware were the perfect mix of farmer/hunter suitable to settle every corner of Northern Europe.
 
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