Saturday, November 28, 2015

Ancient DNA from Neolithic Greece and Anatolia

Investigators have managed to get right to the source of the European Neolithic Revolution with ancient DNA from Greece and Anatolia, which is described in two new papers.

Like all other Early European Farmers, genetically, they are quite similar to modern day Sardinians and lack the European and Central Asian steppe contribution that is ubiquitous in most modern European populations.

The Y-DNA in the Neolithic Greeks and Anatolians was, unsurprisingly G2a2.  The mtDNA of two Mesolithic individuals was K1c and the mtDNA of two Neolithic individuals was K1a2.

Of course, their genes look quite unlike modern Greeks and Turks.

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