Ancient DNA sheds light on Irish origins
Scientists have sequenced the first ancient human genomes from Ireland, shedding light on the genesis of Celtic populations
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The work shows that early Irish farmers were similar to
southern Europeans.
Genetic patterns then changed dramatically in the Bronze Age - as newcomers from the eastern periphery of Europe settled in the Atlantic region.
Team members sequenced the genomes of a 5,200-year-old female farmer from the Neolithic period and three 4,000-year-old males from the Bronze Age.
Opinion has been divided on whether the great transitions in the British Isles, from a hunting lifestyle to one based on agriculture and later from stone to metal use, were due to local adoption of new ways by indigenous people or attributable to large-scale population movements.
The ancient Irish genomes show unequivocal evidence for mass migration in both cases.
Wave of change
DNA analysis of the Neolithic woman from Ballynahatty, near Belfast, reveals that she was most similar to modern people from Spain and Sardinia. But her ancestors ultimately came to Europe from the Middle East, where agriculture was invented.
The males from Rathlin Island, who lived not long after metallurgy was introduced, showed a different pattern to the Neolithic woman. A third of their ancestry came from ancient sources in the Pontic Steppe - a region now spread across Russia and Ukraine.
"
There was a great wave of genome change that swept into [Bronze Age] Europe from above the Black Sea... we now know it washed all the way to the shores of its most westerly island," said geneticist Dan Bradley, from Trinity College Dublin, who led the study.
Prof Bradley added: "This degree of genetic change invites the possibility of other associated changes, perhaps even the introduction of language ancestral to western Celtic tongues."
The same Bronze Age male carried a mutation that would have allowed him to drink raw milk in adulthood, while the Ballynahatty woman lacked this variant. This is consistent with data from elsewhere in Europe showing a relatively late spread of milk tolerance genes.
Excavated near Belfast in 1855, the Ballynahatty woman lay in a Neolithic tomb chamber for 5,000 years
A reconstruction of the Ballynahatty Neolithic skull
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35179269
The Neolithic and Bronze Age transitions were profound cultural shifts catalyzed in parts of Europe by migrations, first of early farmers from the Near East and then Bronze Age herders from the Pontic Steppe
A Neolithic woman (3343–3020 cal BC) from a megalithic burial (10.3× coverage) possessed a genome of predominantly Near Eastern origin.
hree Bronze Age individuals from Rathlin Island (2026–1534 cal BC), including one high coverage (10.5×) genome, showed substantial Steppe genetic heritage indicating that the European population upheavals of the third millennium manifested all of the way from southern Siberia to the western ocean
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/12/22/1518445113
Ирски генетичарите само потврдуваат нешта кои се познати одамна во историјата - неолитските земјоделци се направиле огромна миграција од регионот на Блискиот Исток како се населили речиси цела Европа. Но во Бронзената доба население од севрноцрноморските степи прави моќна инвазија како носи со себе нови гени, јазик, култура, начин на живот. Оние се главно номади кои имаат силно милитаризирано општество и одгледуваат големи стада добиток. Тоа се индоевропците кои ќе се раселат од бреговите на Атлантикот на запад до Северна Индиja, степите на Казахстан и Алтаj на исток.
Индоевропците имаат во гените си мутација која им овозможува лактозна толеранција поради што нивната диета (претежно млеко и месо) е совршена за номадско население кое е способно на големи миграции. Кај жената од Ирска која е претставник на нелитските земјоделци таква мутација во гените нема.
Генетически неолитски земјоделци се најблиски до современото население на Сардинија која поради географската изолираност не претрпела толку тешко индоевропската инвазија.