Archaeogenomic insights into commensalism and regional variation in pig management in Neolithic northwest Europe

Abstract

The genomic makeup of pigs changed rapidly after their introduction from southwest Asia to Europe, with domestic southwest Asian ancestry largely replaced by European wild boar ancestry. The role of humans in this process remains elusive. To address this, we sequenced Mesolithic boar and Neolithic pigs from northwest Europe. Neolithic pig management was not uniform but ranged from closed husbandry to free-ranging commensal relationships. Despite this, southwest Asian ancestry preserved suggesting genetic continuity. Genomic changes between Neolithic European pigs and modern boar indicate strong selective pressures counteracting wild gene flow. Altogether, our data from the earliest dated northwest European farming settlement of Swifterbant indicate the recruitment of local wild boar into the anthropogenic niche through the commensal pathway.