A man buried in Estonia in the era
The Neolithic Period, also known as the New Stone Age, was a pivotal era in human history characterized by significant advancements in technology, social organization, and agriculture. This period began around 10,000 BCE and lasted until approximately 4,500 BCE, marking the transition from a nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle to settled communities and the development of agriculture.
During the Neolithic Period, humans began to domesticate plants and animals, leading to the establishment of permanent settlements and the development of complex societies. This shift towards agriculture allowed for a more reliable food supply, leading to population growth and the emergence of specialized labor roles. Additionally, the invention of pottery and the use of polished stone tools were significant technological advancements of this time.
Geographically, the Neolithic Period saw the spread of agriculture throughout various regions of the world, including the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The fertile crescent, stretching from the Nile River in Egypt to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia, was a particularly important region where early agricultural practices took root.
Culturally, the Neolithic Period was characterized by the development of religious beliefs, artistic expressions, and social hierarchies. Ritualistic practices, such as burial ceremonies and the construction of megalithic structures like Stonehenge in England, were common during this time. The emergence of pottery and decorative art also reflected the growing complexity of Neolithic societies.
Overall, the Neolithic Period was a transformative era that laid the foundation for the development of complex civilizations in the centuries to come. The innovations and advancements of this time period set the stage for the rise of urban centers, technological advancements, and the evolution of human societies as we know them today.
Extensive Farming in Estonia Started through a Sex-Biased Migration from the Steppe
The transition from hunting and gathering to farming in Europe was brought upon by arrival of new people carrying novel material culture and genetic ancestry. The exact nature and scale of the transition-both material and genetic-varied in different parts of Europe [1-7]. Farming-based economies appear relatively late in Northeast Europe, and the extent to which they involve change in genetic ancestry is not fully understood due to the lack of relevant ancient DNA data. Here we present the results from new low-coverage whole-genome shotgun sequence data from five hunter-gatherers and five first farmers of Estonia whose remains date to 4,500 to 6,300 years before present. We find evidence of significant differences between the two groups in the composition of autosomal as well as mtDNA, X chromosome, and Y chromosome ancestries. We find that Estonian hunter-gatherers of Comb Ceramic culture are closest to Eastern hunter-gatherers, which is in contrast to earlier hunter-gatherers from the Baltics, who are close to Western hunter-gatherers [8, 9]. The Estonian first farmers of Corded Ware culture show high similarity in their autosomes with European hunter-gatherers, Steppe Eneolithic and Bronze Age populations, and European Late Neolithic/Bronze Age populations, while their X chromosomes are in addition equally closely related to European and Anatolian and Levantine early farmers. These findings suggest that the shift to intensive cultivation and animal husbandry in Estonia was triggered by the arrival of new people with predominantly Steppe ancestry but whose ancestors had undergone sex-specific admixture with early farmers with Anatolian ancestry.