DNA researchers show true path of early farming in Europe

New research shows spread of agriculture throughout Europe followed migration into the Mediterranean from the Near East thousands of years earlier than widely believed

A NEW article co-authored by experts at the University of Huddersfield bolsters a theory that the spread of agriculture throughout Europe followed migration into the Mediterranean from the Near East more than 13,000 years ago – thousands of years earlier than widely believed.

This was during the Late Glacial period and initially the migrants were hunter-gatherers. But they later developed a knowledge of agriculture from further newly-arrived populations from the Near East – where farming began – and during the Neolithic, approximately 8,000 years ago, they began to colonise other parts of Europe, taking their farming practices with them.

The University of Huddersfield is home to the Archaeogenetics Research Group, which uses DNA analysis to solve questions from archaeology, anthropology and history. It is headed by Professor Martin Richards (pictured left), and the issue of the genetic ancestry of Europeans has been one of his major research areas for many years.

Now he is a principal contributor to the article that appears in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. It describes how the researchers used almost 1,500 mitochondrial genome lineages to date the arrival of people in different regions of Europe.

It was found that in central Europe and Iberia, these could mainly be traced to the Neolithic. However, in the central and eastern Mediterranean, they predominantly dated to the much earlier Late Glacial period. [...] University of Huddersfield


Actualización: Una nueva investigación sobre ADN muestra la verdadera ruta de los primeros agricultores en Europa hace 8.000 años, corrigiendo teorías anteriores
Un nuevo artículo realizado por expertos de la Universidad de Huddersfield (Inglaterra) refuerza la teoría de que la propagación de la agricultura a través de Europa fue producto de una migración acontecida en el Mediterráneo, desde el Cercano Oriente, hace más de 13.000 años, miles de años antes de lo que se creía.

Tal proceso ocurrió durante el período glacial tardío e inicialmente los migrantes fueron cazadores-recolectores. Sin embargo, más tarde desarrollaron el conocimiento de la agricultura de las poblaciones recién llegadas desde Oriente Próximo -donde la agricultura comenzó-, y durante el Neolítico, hace unos 8.000 años aproximadamente, comenzaron a colonizar otras partes de Europa, llevando sus prácticas agrícolas con ellos...