August 07, 2015

Prehistoric farmers from northern Greece had lactose intolerance, brown eyes, dark skin

According to this:
Πολύ σημαντικό πρόσφατο εύρημα αποτελεί η ανάκτηση ολόκληρων γονιδιωμάτων από τρεις προϊστορικούς αγρότες, που έζησαν στη Βόρεια Ελλάδα 7.500 με 5.500 χρόνια πριν από σήμερα. Τα δεδομένα αυτά αναλύονται και αναμένεται να ρίξουν φως στις προγονικές σχέσεις των πρώτων Ευρωπαίων και να δώσουν πλήθος πληροφοριών, που συνδέονται με λειτουργικά και μορφολογικά χαρακτηριστικά. Ήδη, είναι γνωστό, ότι κάποιοι νεολιθικοί πρόγονοί μας δε μπορούσαν να πέψουν το γάλα, ήταν δηλαδή δυσανεκτικοί στη λακτόζη και είχαν καστανά μάτια και σκουρόχρωμη επιδερμίδα.
Related video:

10 comments:

Krefter said...

Also,

http://www.anthrogenica.com/showthread.php?5044-An-interesting-article&p=100266&viewfull=1#post100266

They say there's maternal continuum between Mesolithic and Neolithic Greeks. So, this probably means Mesolithic Greeks had many or all of the mtDNA haplogroups that first appear in the Neolithic for other regions of Europe: H, J, T, K, X, N1, and W.

They might have been very similar to early farmers in Spain and Central Europe. A large portion of "Near Eastern Farmer" ancestry in Europe may be from Greece/SouthEast European hunter gatherers.

Simon_W said...

The early farmer at c. 7500 BP will probably be similar to this Northwestern Anatolian from 8400 BP: http://eurogenes.blogspot.com/2015/06/first-look-at-ancient-genome-from.html
The later Greek farmer at 5500 BP might be different, we'll see, hopefully soon.

Ken said...

http://dienekes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/talk-by-christina-papageorgopoulou-on.html

Ken said...

http://polishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/corded-ware-in-central-and-southern.html

Brandon Pilcher said...

It's a shame they're so vague on what "dark skin" means, though I presume it would be significantly darker than modern inhabitants of the Greek region. I'm reminded of J. Lawrence Angel's observations of African-like physical characters in the skeletal remains of early Greek farmers such as these, and then there is the significant (25%) presence of E1b1b (an East African haplogroup) in Greece even today. Maybe there was a migration of African-admixed people into the region at this point in time?

eurologist said...

"A large portion of "Near Eastern Farmer" ancestry in Europe may be from Greece/SouthEast European hunter gatherers."

Krefter,

I have been saying the same for over a decade. Note, though, that the difference to pre-Neolithic and peri-Neolithic close-by Anatolian groups was likely almost non-existent, since there was no geographic boundary to speak of.

Brandon Pilcher said...

I saw Krefter's comments and have to eat my own hat with regards to my earlier post.

Krefter said...

@eurologist,
"I have been saying the same for over a decade. Note, though, that the difference to pre-Neolithic and peri-Neolithic close-by Anatolian groups was likely almost non-existent, since there was no geographic boundary to speak of."

We now have confirmation that Neolithic Anatolians were of the same ancestral stock as Neolithic Europeans. They don't have Mesolithic SouthEast European genomes as far as I know, so this doesn't exclude the possibility Mesolithic SE Euros were also from the same ancestry.

Genome-wide data on 34 ancient Anatolians identifies the founding population of the European Neolithic. I. Lazaridis, D. Fernandes, N. Rohland, S. Mallick, K. Stewardson, S. Alpaslan, N. Patterson, R. Pinhasi*, D. Reich*.

http://www.ashg.org/2015meeting/pages/sessionlisting.shtml

Fanty said...

So, what exactly does it mean?
Why are those people dark skinned like WHG?

Are those people farming WHG types with brown instead of blue eyes or what?
Hadnt it been thought farmers had been WHITE?

comeback said...

For many years I have puzzled over the E1b1 contribution in the Aegean, I while I was watching a program on the Minoans... a particular fresco caught my attention.

I am referring to the Akrotiri Frescos on Santorini,

The Blue Monkeys Fresco

http://www.ancient.eu/article/673/

Now the Blue Monkey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_monkey
can be found at the Southern end of the Nile which was part of the Eygyptian Kingdom of the 3rd and 2nd millenium BC.

So what is the connection of Minoans and the Blue Monkeys.. Trade...and what about the possibility that the artists may have come from a region in Africa where Blue Monkeys were common.

The connection with the region today Tanzania and Aegean via trade.. the Minoans were a sea faring culture and all the possibilty of a direct link between the Aegean and Upper Nile...where Blue Monkeys can be found today.

An open mind

Cheers
Stephen