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Ancient genomes link early farmers from Atapuerca in Spain to modern-day Basques

2015; National Academy of Sciences; Volume: 112; Issue: 38 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1073/pnas.1509851112

1091-6490

Torsten Günther, Cristina Valdiosera, Helena Malmström, Irène Ureña, Ricardo Varela, Oddný Ósk Sverrisdóttir, Evangelia Daskalaki, Pontus Skoglund, Thijessen Naidoo, Emma Svensson, José Marı́a Bermúdez de Castro, Eudald Carbonell, Michael Dunn, Jan Storå, Eneko Iriarte, Juan Luís Arsuaga, José Miguel Carretero, Anders Götherström, Mattias Jakobsson,

Archaeology and ancient environmental studies

Significance The transition from a foraging subsistence strategy to a sedentary farming society is arguably the greatest innovation in human history. Some modern-day groups—specifically the Basques—have been argued to be a remnant population that connect back to the Paleolithic. We present, to our knowledge, the first genome-wide sequence data from eight individuals associated with archaeological remains from farming cultures in the El Portalón cave (Atapuerca, Spain). These individuals emerged from the same group of people as other Early European farmers, and they mixed with local hunter–gatherers on their way to Iberia. The El Portalón individuals showed the greatest genetic affinity to Basques, which suggests that Basques and their language may be linked with the spread of agriculture across Europe.