Biology subjects

Stenderup, J.

Publications and source records attributed to Stenderup, J..

8 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Migrations facilitated the cultural diffusion of megaliths in Neolithic Europe

Around 6700 BP (years before present), Neolithic Europe saw the emergence of megalithic monuments in northern France, followed by a rapid spread to the rest of the continent1. However, whether this was driven by the transmission of ideas (cultural diffusion) or the movement of people remains debated. To test whether this spread coincided with population movements, we reconstructed the population history of the European Neolithic ([~]6500-4800 BP) by analysing genomic data from 2963 ancient individuals, including 46 unpublished genomes from megalithic and related contexts. To assess the alternative scenario whereby megaliths spread through contact networks, as expected under cultural diffusion, we integrated archaeological evidence with radiocarbon chronologies to reconstruct past trading networks. We identify northern France, where megaliths first emerged, as a zone of genetic admixture and cultural influence from the two major early Neolithic divisions: the Cardial of the Western Mediterranean and the Linear Pottery traditions of central Europe. From this admixed population, we uncover several migrations associated with the formation of the Funnel Beaker Culture in north-central Europe and the neolithisation of Scandinavia and the British Isles. We find that megaliths were spread exclusively within regions impacted by Cardial-related genetic ancestry, but only in the British Isles and Ireland did their emergence coincide with the time of the migration. The temporal delay between the migrations and the spread of megaliths elsewhere reveals that neither population movements nor cultural diffusion alone fully explains the geospatial distribution of the megalithic tradition. Rather, megaliths diffused across different Neolithic groups whose long-distance trade networks formed in the wake of earlier population movements. Our findings highlight the need to move beyond simplistic interpretations that present migrations or cultural diffusion as isolated events bringing technological and cultural innovations.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2025

Environmental DNA Reveals Reykjavik's Human and Ecological History

Iceland was among the last large islands settled by humans, with colonization (Landnam) in the late 9th century CE (Common Era) and is often portrayed as an ecological disaster driven by the Norse settlers. Here, we revisit this narrative through environmental DNA (eDNA) and multiproxy analyses of sediment cores from Lake Tjornin in central Reykjavik, one of Icelands earliest and longest-occupied settlements. Originally a marine embayment, Tjornin became a freshwater lake around 660 CE. Our record reveals a human presence decades before the long-accepted arrival date of 877 CE, marked by the Landnam volcanic tephra. Early settlement brought livestock, barley cultivation, and other introduced taxa that enhanced nutrient cycling and unexpectedly increased local biodiversity. Contrary to the conventional view of rapid deforestation, eDNA shows that birch and willow expanded during the settlement period, likely supported by deliberate management. Pronounced ecological and land use shifts occurred after 1200 CE, but these were coeval with the Little Ice Age cooling, compounded by volcanic eruptions, storm surges, and plague, rather than anthropogenic degradation. Crop cultivation ceased, arboreal taxa retracted, and grazing pressure maintained open landscapes. Even more profound ecological changes came after c. 1750 CE with urbanization and industrialization, as wastewater discharge, heavy-metal pollution, and fossil fuel use reshaped Tjornins ecosystem. These findings challenge the prevailing model of Norse-induced environmental collapse, revealing instead a dynamic human-environment relationship shaped by both cultural practices and external stressors. By applying eDNA to a long-occupied urban catchment, we demonstrate the power of genomic methods to refine settlement chronologies, reassess ecological baselines and changes, and integrate natural and cultural histories. This approach offers a model for revisiting human-environment interactions in urban centers worldwide.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2024

Lethal Plague Outbreaks in Lake Baikal Hunter-gatherers 5500 Years Ago

The rise of zoonotic diseases in prehistory is often associated with the Neolithic agricultural transition1,2. In particular, plague has been linked to population declines in Late Neolithic Europe3,4. Although plague is amongst the most devastating diseases in human history, early strains of Yersinia pestis, the causal agent of plague, lack virulence factors required for the bubonic form5, and their severity remains unclear. Here, we describe the oldest strains of plague reported so far, associated with two early phases of outbreaks among prehistoric hunter-gatherers in the Lake Baikal region in East Siberia, beginning from [~]5600-5400 years ago (cal. BP). These outbreaks occur across four hunter-gatherer cemeteries; the largest of these (Ust-Ida I) has a 38.7% detection rate for plague infection (39% detection across all sites). By reconstructing kinship pedigrees, we show that small familial groups are affected, consistent with human-to-human spread of the disease, and the first outbreak occurred within a single generation. Intriguingly, the infections appear to have resulted in acute mortality events, especially among children. Zoonotic transmission is separately indicated by a Brucella infection in one of the children. Interestingly, we see differences in functional genomic variants in the prehistoric plague strains, including in the ypm superantigen known from Y. pseudotuberculosis today. The new strains diverge ancestrally to all known Y. pestis diversity and push back the Y. pestis divergence from Y. pseudotuberculosis by some 2000 years6. Our results show that plague outbreaks happen earlier than previously thought and that these early outbreaks were indeed lethal. The findings challenge the common notion that high population densities and lifestyle changes during the Neolithic transition were prerequisites for plague epidemics.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2024

Steppe Ancestry in western Eurasia and the spread of the Germanic Languages

Today, Germanic languages, including German, English, Frisian, Dutch and the Nordic languages, are widely spoken in northwest Europe. However, key aspects of the assumed arrival and diversification of this linguistic group remain contentious1-3. By adding 712 new ancient human genomes we find an archaeologically elusive population entering Sweden from the Baltic region by around 4000 BP. This population became widespread throughout Scandinavia by 3500 BP, matching the contemporaneous distribution of Palaeo-Germanic, the Bronze Age predecessor of Proto-Germanic4-6. These Baltic immigrants thus offer a new potential vector for the first Germanic speakers to arrive in Scandinavia, some 800 years later than traditionally assumed7-12. Following the disintegration of Proto-Germanic13-16, we find by 1650 BP a southward push from Southern Scandinavia into presumed Celtic-speaking areas, including Germany, Poland and the Netherlands. During the Migration Period (1575-1375 BP), we see this ancestry representing West Germanic Anglo-Saxons in Britain, and Langobards in southern Europe. We find a related large-scale northward migration into Denmark and South Sweden corresponding with historically attested Danes and the expansion of Old Norse. These movements have direct implications for multiple linguistic hypotheses. Our findings show the power of combining genomics with historical linguistics and archaeology in creating a unified, integrated model for the emergence, spread and diversification of a linguistic group.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2023

The landscape of ancient human pathogens in Eurasia from the Stone Age to historical times

Infectious diseases have had devastating impacts on human populations throughout history, but important questions about their origins and past dynamics remain1. To create the first archaeogenetic-based spatiotemporal map of human pathogens, we screened shotgun sequencing data from 1,313 ancient humans covering 37,000 years of Eurasian history. We demonstrate the widespread presence of ancient bacterial, viral and parasite DNA, identifying 5,486 individual hits against 492 species from 136 genera. Among those hits, 3,384 involve known human pathogens2, many of which were detected for the first time in ancient human remains. Grouping the ancient microbial species according to their likely reservoir and type of transmission, we find that most groups are identified throughout the entire sampling period. Intriguingly, zoonotic pathogens are only detected [~]6,500 years ago, peaking [~]5,000 years ago, coinciding with the widespread domestication of livestock3. Our findings provide the first direct evidence that this lifestyle change resulted in an increased infectious disease burden. Importantly, they also suggest that the spread of these pathogens increased substantially during subsequent millenia, coinciding with the pastoralist migrations from the Eurasian Steppe4,5.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Population Genomics of Stone Age Eurasia

Western Eurasia witnessed several large-scale human migrations during the Holocene1-5. To investigate the cross-continental impacts we shotgun-sequenced 317 primarily Mesolithic and Neolithic genomes from across Northern and Western Eurasia. These were imputed alongside published data to obtain diploid genotypes from >1,600 ancient humans. Our analyses revealed a Great Divide genomic boundary extending from the Black Sea to the Baltic. Mesolithic hunter-gatherers (HGs) were highly genetically differentiated east and west of this zone, and the impact of the neolithisation was equally disparate. Large-scale ancestry shifts occurred in the west as farming was introduced, including near-total replacements of HGs in many areas, whereas no substantial ancestry shifts happened east of the zone during the same period. Similarly, relatedness decreased in the west from the Neolithic transition onwards, while east of the Urals relatedness remained high until [~]4,000 BP, consistent with persistence of localised HG groups. The boundary dissolved when Yamnaya-related ancestry spread across western Eurasia around 5,000 BP resulting in a second major turnover that reached most parts of Europe within a 1,000-year span. The genetic origin and fate of the Yamnaya have remained elusive but we demonstrate that HGs from the Middle Don region contributed ancestry to them. Yamnaya-groups later admixed with individuals associated with the Globular Amphora Culture before expanding into Europe. Similar turnovers occurred in western Siberia, where we report new genomic data from a Neolithic steppe cline spanning the Siberian forest steppe to Lake Baikal. These prehistoric migrations had profound and lasting effects on the genetic diversity of Eurasian populations.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2022

Indigenous peoples in eastern Brazil: insights from 19th century genomes and metagenomes

Although Brazil was inhabited by more than 3,000 Indigenous populations prior to European colonization, todays Indigenous peoples represent less than 1% of Brazils census population. Some of the decimated communities belonged to the so-called "Botocudos" from central-eastern Brazil. These peoples are thought to represent a case of long-standing genetic continuity bearing a strong craniometric resemblance to that of the oldest Indigenous Americans ("Paleoamericans"). Yet, little is known about their origins and genetic relationship to other Native Americans, as only two "Botocudo" genomes have been sequenced so far and those were surprisingly of Polynesian ancestry. To deepen our knowledge on the genomic history of pre-contact Indigenous Americans and the pathogens they were exposed to, we carbon-dated and sequenced 24 ancient Brazilians (including 22 "Botocudos") whose remains were hosted at the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro and recovered prior to the tragic 2018 fire. The resulting genomes depth of coverage ranged from 0.001x to 24x. Their genetic ancestry was found to be Indigenous American without gene flow from external populations such as Europeans, Africans or Polynesians. Unlike Mesoamericans, the "Botocudos" and Amazonians do not seem to have experienced a population expansion once in the Americas. Moreover, remarkably, their genomes exhibit amongst the lowest levels of heterozygosity worldwide and long runs of homozygosity, which could be explained by unique social practices or a very small effective size. Finally, whole genomes of likely ancient pathogens were recovered, including lineages of Human parvovirus B19 that were possibly introduced after the European contact. Significance statementTo better understand the genetic relationship among Indigenous populations in Brazil, we sequenced the genomes of 24 ancient individuals (22 of which labelled as "Botocudos", a term used to describe hunter-gatherer tribes) whose remains were hosted at the Museu Nacional of Rio de Janeiro prior to the tragic fire that consumed it in 2018. Unlike two previously published "Botocudo" genomes, the 22 "Botocudos" from this study have Indigenous American-related ancestry without any Polynesian-related ancestry, and they are similarly related to several Native Brazilian populations. Finally, unlike Eurasian hunter-gatherers, the "Botocudos" exhibit among the lowest heterozygosity and longest runs of homozygosity worldwide - compatible with a very small effective size and suggesting a unique social structure among hunter-gatherers in the Americas.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2017

Extensive farming in Estonia started through a sex-biased migration from the Steppe

Farming-based economies appear relatively late in Northeast Europe and the extent to which they involve genetic ancestry change is still poorly understood. Here we present the analyses of low coverage whole genome sequence data from five hunter-gatherers and five farmers of Estonia dated 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 and Y chromosome ancestries. We find that Estonian hunter-gatherers of Comb Ceramic Culture are closest to Eastern hunter-gatherers. The Estonian first farmers of Corded Ware Culture show high similarity in their autosomes with Steppe Belt Late Neolithic/Bronze Age individuals, Caucasus hunter-gatherers and Iranian farmers while their X chromosomes are most closely related with the European Early Farmers of Anatolian descent. 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.

evolutionary biology↗