A new study has used ancient DNA to reveal that hunter-gatherers in Belgium, the Netherlands and nearby parts of Germany adapted to farming thousands of years later than elsewhere in Europe. It has also uncovered the pivotal role of women in the process.
The research, published in Nature, involved scientists from Bournemouth University (BU) and the University of Huddersfield and was led by David Reich at Harvard University.
Palaeoecologist Professor John Stewart at BU has been excavating caves in the region for over 20 years. He worked with archaeologists at the Université de Liège in Belgium to excavate ancient human remains from the Meuse and Lower Rhine regions of modern-day Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, between 8500 and 1700 BCE which were used in the research.
The analysis of the DNA from the human remains was carried out at the University of Huddersfield by research students under the supervision of Dr Maria Pala, Professor Martin B. Richards, and Dr Ceiridwen Edwards.
The Neolithic period was a crucial phase in European prehistory when a series of major population and cultural shifts happened that shaped the genetic composition of modern Europeans. At a time before national borders existed, people moved freely across large distances. In Europe, these movements influenced genetically distinct populations that intermixed creating new languages, cultures, and ways of life.
During this time European populations had three distinct ancestral components: a hunter-gatherer component inherited from the first modern human (Homo sapiens) inhabitants of the continent, a Neolithic component brought by the first farmers from the Near East, and a third component associated with pastoralists from south Russia.
DNA analysis from the remains of these ancient populations has helped peal back the layers of time and revealed that the arrival of farming in the Meuse and Lower Rhine regions, around ~4500 BCE did not result in anything like the major shift in genetic composition that took place across the rest of Europe. Instead, the hunter-gather practices were still being used, and the adoption of farming was slower to be introduced by up to 3,000 years.
Strikingly, the data from the study suggest that this farmer influx was mostly from women marrying into the local hunter-gatherer communities, bringing with them their know-how as well as their genes. This pattern was limited to the water-rich environments (riverine, wetlands and coastal areas) across the region. The wealth of natural resources seems to have allowed the local people to selectively embrace some aspects of farming while also preserving many hunter-gatherer practices (and genes).
The high levels of hunter-gatherer ancestry persisted until the end of the Neolithic, around 2500 BCE, when the famous “Bell Beaker” pottery first appeared. At this point, new people, with ancestry from Russia, spread across Europe. This time however, the newcomers overwhelmed the local communities, and the ancient lineages that had survived for so long dwindled.
The study also has consequences for the history of Britain. The analysis revealed that British Early Bronze Age populations after 2500 BCE traced more than 90 per cent of their ancestry to those continental Bell Beaker populations – the earlier people, who built Stonehenge, seem to have almost completely vanished.
Professor John Stewart commented: "We expected a clear change between the older hunter-gatherer populations and the newer agriculturalists but apparently in the lowlands and along the rivers of the Netherlands and Belgium the change was less immediate. It's like a Waterworld where time stood still."
Dr Maria Pala said: “This study has also brought to light the crucial role played by women in the transmission of knowledge from the incoming farming communities to the local hunter-gatherers. Thanks to ancient DNA studies we can not only uncover the past but also give voice to the invaluable but often overlooked role played by women in shaping human evolution.”
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