However, the flourishing economy of the Neolithic came to a sudden halt in many regions of Northern Europe around 5300–4900 calibrated years before present (cal. bp)5, in which a marked reduction in the number of human remains radiocarbon-dated to this period suggests a population decline. Coined the Neolithic decline1, this demographic bust coincides with the cessation of megalith building in the area and has been suggested to be one of the factors facilitating the Corded Ware expansion into Europe (4800–4400 cal. bp)6.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07651-2
In Scandinavia the Neolithic decline coincides with the disappearance of the Funnelbeaker/Trichterbecher cultural complex (TRB)11 and the end of the first wave of megalith building.
To elucidate social structure and plague infection frequency in the Scandinavian Middle Neolithic, we analysed ancient human DNA from nine multi-individual burial structures: seven megaliths in Falbygden, inland western Sweden (Landbogården, Frälsegården, Nästegården, Firse sten, Holma, Hjelmars rör and Rössberga), one megalith on the Swedish west coast (Hunnebostrand) and a stone cist in Denmark (Avlebjerg; Supplementary Note 1). We set out to investigate whether the plague cases from ref. 4 were isolated events or whether there was evidence of plague in more individuals at different sites and in different Scandinavian regions during the Neolithic. Furthermore, we aimed to investigate kinship and social relations in several of the best-described megaliths from Sweden to better understand potential disease transmission.
We found that the vast majority of individuals analysed (n = 96) fell within the broad cluster of European Neolithic populations and Anatolian Farmers. This finding is in agreement with our radiocarbon dating results, which date this group to 5200–4900 cal. bp, associating these individuals with the TRB culture of Southern Scandinavia and Scandinavian MN A (Fig. 2a). Furthermore, we also found evidence of two distinct and slightly younger groups of individuals with Steppe-related ancestry. The first group (Steppe 1, n = 2) is dated to around 4400 cal. bp (Scandinavian MN B) and the second group (Steppe 2, n = 8) to 4100–3000 cal. bp (Scandinavian LN to LBA). This distinction is corroborated by chromosome Y haplogroup results, which indicate that all Farmer ancestry males have the haplogroup I2 whereas the two Steppe ancestry groups are represented exclusively by haplogroups R1 and I1, respectively (Supplementary Table 1)
One woman from Frälsegården (FRA108) appears to have equal proportions of hunter-gatherer and Neolithic Farmer ancestry; we find that she was most probably a first-degree offspring of these two distinct sociocultural groups (Extended Data Fig. 1 and Supplementary Note 5). Similarly for the other individual, a woman from the site Rössberga (ROS027), we find roughly 34% hunter-gatherer ancestry and 66% Neolithic Farmer ancestry, suggesting that she might have lived two or three generations after the admixture event. Although northern groups of hunter-gatherers with Mesolithic ancestry cannot be ruled out20, the most likely source of hunter-gatherer DNA in these two admixed individuals is the Pitted Ware Culture (PWC; 5400–4300 cal. bp), which, in Sweden, overlapped with the TRB culture in both time and space21,22. It
The early group (chrY haplogroup: R1a1a, age approximately 4400 cal. bp) clusters with a large group of individuals from across Europe of Corded Ware ancestry, including individuals from Battle Axe Culture contexts in Sweden. The later group (chrY haplogroup:I1, age approximately 4100–3000 cal. bp), on the other hand, clusters exclusively with contemporaneous individuals from Eastern Denmark, Sweden and Norway, reflecting results from ref. 23. Using DATES, we were able to date the admixture of ‘Steppe’ and ‘Farmer’ DNA in these two groups24. For both groups we found that admixture most probably happened around 4750 cal. bp (Extended Data Fig. 2). In agreement with recent results showing that Steppe-related groups first appeared in Eastern Europe around 4,800 years ago23, this finding suggests that admixture occurred in a single pulse before the arrival of Corded Ware complex (CWC) groups in Sweden.
The pedigree is strongly patrilineal in nature and, except for a single woman (FRA023), all female individuals with offspring appear to come from outside the lineage. In fact, in one case we find direct evidence of female exogamy: we identified three siblings—two brothers and their sister (HJE003, HJE012 and FRA028, respectively)—in which the brothers were buried at the site Hjelmars Rör (highlighted in dark mauve in Fig. 3, dashed box) whereas their sister was buried at Frälsegården, 8 km distant. At Frälsegården this female gave rise to a large family with seven grandchildren, indicating that she moved away from her family during her lifetime to start her own family in a new settlement.
Plague-positive individuals were found not only in the Falbygden area but as far south as Zealand, Denmark and by the Swedish west coast north of Gothenburg. These findings indicate that the plague was widespread in southern Scandinavia 5,000 years ago.
By detecting plague in approximately one in every six sampled individuals, we conclusively show that plague infection was not a rare event in Neolithic Scandinavia. Given the high frequency of the disease, it is possible that it was spreading within the population following human–human, and potentially human–louse–human33, transmission. However, it is worth mentioning that the plague rate of 17% reported here does not necessarily reflect the true prevalence of the disease. For example, the plague detection rate might not be representative of the population as a whole because it is a measure of disease frequency within the sampled population, which is restricted to well-preserved individuals buried in tombs. Furthermore, only a fraction of plague-positive cases is expected to carry detectable levels of DNA from Y. pestis.
The social structure was organized along male kinship lines, and females generally came from other kin groups. Because plague was infecting a significant proportion of the population, excess mortality associated with the disease could have undermined the long-term viability of society, leading to the eventual collapse of this form of Neolithic society.
In Scandinavia the Neolithic decline coincides with the disappearance of the Funnelbeaker/Trichterbecher cultural complex (TRB)11 and the end of the first wave of megalith building.
Sánchez-Quinto, F. et al. Megalithic tombs in western and northern Neolithic Europe were linked to a kindred society. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 116, 9469–9474 (2019).
As the patrilineal farmers spread through Europe, female hunter-gatherers were incorporated
European Neolithic society, at one extreme (but hardly peripheral) edge of its distribution, may have been patrilineal, patrilocal, and hierarchical long before the arrival of the Beaker complex and (most likely) Indo-European speech (27, 28, 31, 50).Our data suggest that Neolithic lineages persisted within particular farming households, which, although not obviously elite, appear to have retained control of specific landholdings over many generations. This linkage of lineage with specific place is strongly suggestive of preferential inheritance along the male line. The continuity which this engendered is likely to have contributed significantly to the longevity of settlements between the third and first millennia BC. The indigenous male lineages remained in place while their people, their culture, their language, and even their genomes were transformed to resemble more and more those of the European mainland from which the newcomers had come.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41065-017-0036-2
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