The genomic history of southeastern Europe

Abstract

115 Farming was first introduced to Europe in the mid-7th millennium BCE–associated with 116 migrants from Anatolia who settled in the Southeast before spreading throughout 117 Europe. To understand the dynamics of this process, we analyzed genome-wide ancient 118 DNA data from 225 individuals who lived in southeastern Europe and surrounding 119 regions between 12,000 and 500 BCE. We document a West-East cline of ancestry in 120 indigenous hunter-gatherers and–in far-eastern Europe–early stages in the formation of 121 Bronze Age Steppe ancestry. We show that the first farmers of northern and western 122 Europe passed through southeastern Europe with limited hunter-gatherer admixture, 123 but that some groups that remained mixed extensively, without the male-biased hunter- 124 gatherer admixture that prevailed later in the North and West. Southeastern Europe 125 continued to be a nexus between East and West, with intermittent genetic contact with 126 the Steppe up to 2000 years before the migrations that replaced much of northern 127 Europe’s population. 128 129