DNA analysis reveals the origin of the first European civilization of the Bronze Age
(ORDO NEWS) — Researchers analyzed DNA from ancient archaeological sites around the Aegean Sea and concluded that the first civilizations to build palaces and city centers in Europe were genetically more homogeneous than expected.
In the Bronze Age, human civilizations received a huge boost in development. The researchers were now able to compile a genetic portrait of the Europeans who lived at the time.
The Bronze Age in Eurasia was marked by dramatic changes at the social, political and economic levels, noticeable in the emergence of the first large urban centers and monumental palaces. The growing economic and cultural exchange that developed during this time laid the foundation for modern economies, including capitalism, international political treaties, and the world trade economy.
To better understand the origin and development of European civilizations during this period of earth’s history, the authors of the new work decided to use the method of DNA sequencing. To do this, the authors collected samples from well-preserved skeletal remains found at archaeological sites along the Aegean coast. Scientists have sequenced six complete genomes – four belonged to representatives of three cultures of the Early Bronze Age, and two belonged to representatives of the Hellenic culture of the Middle Bronze Age.
The results of the analysis suggested that critical innovations such as the development of urban centers, the use of metal and intensive trade made during the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age were due not only to massive immigration from the eastern Aegean Sea, as previously thought, but also to cultural continuity. local neolithic groups.
The study also showed that in the Middle Bronze Age (4000-4, 600 years ago), individuals from the North Aegean Sea were significantly different from those who lived in the Early Bronze Age. These people were half from the Pontic-Caspian steppe – a vast geographic area that stretched between the Danube and the Urals north of the Black Sea – and were very similar to modern Greeks.
An article about the discovery was published in the journal Cell.
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