Human population history and the social composition of human groups during the Middle Neolithic (MN) in Scandinavia is still to be fully understood. The possibility of obtaining genomic data from ancient tissues has opened a new horizon for understanding ancient human populations. Using cutting-edge technology for molecular ancient genetics, I screened the genomes of 14 individuals from the farming Trichterbecher kultur from the Megalithic passage grave Frälsegården in Gökhem parish in Västergötland, Sweden, and aimed to understand their genetic makeup and elucidate their kin relationships and population affinities to surrounding groups. I found strong kinship relationships inside of the passage grave, suggesting that their burial traditions reflected social structure. Mitochondrial and Y chromosome haplogroups show higher female-inherited genomic diversity and suggest a putative male-lineage preservation across megalithic populations of the time. A clear pattern of differentiation between MN farmers and hunter-gatherers (HGs) is accompanied by signals of admixture based on shared uniparental haplogroups and a tendency for Gökhem to resemble other TRB populations. Further analyses, higher coverage and more published ancient genomes will allow to provide more detailed proof of the social and genetic structuring of populations cohabitating Scandinavia during the Neolithic transition.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-361313 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Ruiz-Bedoya, Tatiana |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Människans evolution, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för biologisk grundutbildning |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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