Sorbs autosomally distinct from Germans

Population-genetic comparison of the Sorbian isolate population in Germany with the German KORA population using genome-wide SNP arrays (abstract; provisional pdf):

Background
The Sorbs are an ethnic minority in Germany with putative genetic isolation, making the population interesting for disease mapping. A sample of N=977 Sorbs is currently analysed in several genome-wide meta-analyses. Since genetic differences between populations are a major confounding factor in genetic meta-analyses, we compare the Sorbs with the German outbred population of the KORA F3 study (N=1644) and other publically available European HapMap populations by population genetic means. We also aim to separate effects of over-sampling of families in the Sorbs sample from effects of genetic isolation and compare the power of genetic association studies between the samples.

Results
The degree of relatedness was significantly higher in the Sorbs. Principal components analysis revealed a west to east clustering of KORA individuals born in Germany, KORA individuals born in Poland or Czech Republic, Half-Sorbs (less than four Sorbian grandparents) and Full-Sorbs. The Sorbs cluster is nearest to the cluster of KORA individuals born in Poland. The number of rare SNPs is significantly higher in the Sorbs sample. FST between KORA and Sorbs is an order of magnitude higher than between different regions in Germany. Compared to the other populations, Sorbs show a higher proportion of individuals with runs of homozygosity between 2.5 Mb and 5 Mb. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) at longer range is also slightly increased but this has no effect on the power of association studies. Oversampling of families in the Sorbs sample causes detectable bias regarding higher FST values and higher LD but the effect is an order of magnitude smaller than the observed differences between KORA and Sorbs. Relatedness in the Sorbs also influenced the power of uncorrected association analyses.

Conclusions
Sorbs show signs of genetic isolation which cannot be explained by over-sampling of relatives, but the effects are moderate in size. The Slavonic origin of the Sorbs is still genetically detectable. Regarding LD structure, a clear advantage for genome-wide association studies cannot be deduced. The significant amount of cryptic relatedness in the Sorbs sample results in inflated variances of Beta-estimators which should be considered in genetic association analyses.

Ptolemy map of ancient Germania deciphered

Berlin Researchers Crack the Ptolemy Code

All this offers up rather exciting prospects, since it makes half the cities in Germany suddenly 1,000 years older than previously believed. "Our atlas is a treasure map," team member Andreas Kleineberg says proudly, "and the coordinates lead to lost places in our past."

Archaeological interest in the map will likely be correspondingly large. Archaeologists' opinions on the Germanic tribes have varied over the years. In the 19th century, Germany's early inhabitants were considered brave, wild-bearded savages. The Nazis then transformed them into great heroes, and in the process of coming to terms with its Nazi past, postwar Germany quickly demoted the early Germanic peoples to proto-fascist hicks. [. . .] More recent research proves this view to be complete invention.

Upcoming study of Neolithic DNA from Germany

Polako writes:

About 250 Funnelbeaker (Trichterbecherkultur) and Wartberg Culture skeletons are being tested for Y-DNA, mtDNA and autosomal SNP and STR markers at a lab in Kiel. They come from 3400-3000BC burial sites at Panker, eastern Schleswig-Holstein, Großenrode and Odagsen, southern Lower Saxony, and Calden, North Hessen. All of those places are in North-Central Germany. The scientists not only hope to determine the ancestry of the samples, but also their pigmentation traits, by looking at SNPs associated with hair, skin and eye color.

The project's website.

More ancient DNA from Germany (Corded Ware burials)

Via Dienekes:

Additionally, the Y chromosome haplogroup R1a of the boys corresponds with the man’s (ind. 3). It is noteworthy that in grave 99 the orientation of the adult individuals follows the established pattern of the CWC, whereas both children clearly deviate from it. It appears that the burial orientation pattern was overruled for each boy to face a parent to express a biological relationship.

[Haak et al. Ancient DNA, Strontium isotopes, and osteological analyses shed light on social and kinship organization of the Later Stone Age.
PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.0807592105.]

The R1a result is interesting, but I'd like to see Y-DNA results from many more samples before drawing any firm conclusions. Based on his analysis of physical remains, Roland Menk concluded:

The Corded Ware complex s.l. is biologically heterogeneous. The local groups of the core area (Central Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland) form a very homogeneous block, issued from the local "Old Europe" substratum and persisting until Aunjetitz at least. This block shows no biological affinities to the Ukrainian Kurgan populations. There is no evidence for physical presence of Kurgan tribes in this area. Indo-Europeanization of Northern Europe could be explained by indirect Kurganization, i.e. by invasion of previously Kurganized neighbor groups.

[Roland Menk. A Synopsis of the Physical Anthropology of the Corded Ware Complex on the Background of the Expansion the Kurgan Cultures. Journal of Indo-European Studies, V. 8 361.]

On the other hand, Coon believed:

On the basis of the physical evidence as well, it is likely that the Corded people came from somewhere north or east of the Black Sea. The fully Neolithic crania from southern Russia which we have just studied include such a type, also seen in the midst of Sergi's Kurgan aggregation. Until better evidence is produced from elsewhere, we are entitled to consider southern Russia the most likely way station from which the Corded people moved westward.

I don't think the place of origin of R1a or the timing of its expansion(s) has been pinned down tightly enough as of yet to allow an R1a lineage in a single family to contribute much to the debate on the biological origins of the Corded people.

Isotopic analysis of an LBK mass grave

The Telegraph reports the study as follows:

Neolithic men were prepared to fight for their women

[. . .]

Many archaeologists have argued that women have long motivated cycles of violence and blood feuds throughout history but there has really been no solid archaeological evidence to support this view.

Now a relatively new method has been used to work out the origins of the victims tossed into a mass grave of skeletons, and so distinguish one tribe from another, revealing that neighbouring tribes were prepared to kill their male rivals to secure their women some 7000 years ago.

The Durham University research, described in the academic journal Antiquity, focused on 34 skeletons found buried in the village of Talheim in the south-west of Germany.

[. . .]

Lead author Dr Alex Bentley says the simplest explanation is that the women of one tribe were captured.

"It seems this community was specifically targeted, as could happen in a cycle of revenge between rival groups. Although resources and population were undoubtedly factors in central Europe around that time, women appear to be the immediate reason for the attack.

"Our analysis points to the local women being regarded as somehow special and were therefore kept alive."

Antiquity

Volume: 82 Number: 316 Page: 290–304

Isotopic signatures and hereditary traits: snapshot of a Neolithic community in Germany

R. Alexander Bentley1, Joachim Wahl2, T. Douglas Price3 and Tim C. Atkinson4

1Department of Anthropology, Durham University, 43 Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HN, UK (Email: r.a.bentley@durham.ac.uk) 2RP Stuttgart, Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, Osteologie, Stromeyersdorfstraße 3, D-78467, Konstanz, Germany (Email: Joachim.Wahl@rps.bwl.de) 3Department. of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, 1180 Observatory Dr., Madison, WI 53706-1393, USA (Email: tdprice@wisc.edu) 4Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK (Email: t.atkinson@ucl.ac.uk)

A group of Linearbandkeramik people at Talheim, Germany were previously found to have died at the same time, probably in a massacre, and the authors were able to ask some searching questions of their skeletons. The isotope signatures of strontium, oxygen and carbon, which gave information on diet and childhood region, showed up three groups which correlated with hereditary traits (derived previously from the analysis of the teeth). In the local group, there were many local children but no adult women, suggesting they had been selectively taken alive at the time of the massacre. Another group, with isotope signatures derived from upland areas, includes two men who may have been closely related. A third group has a composition suggestive of a nuclear family. The variations of one type of isotope signature with another suggested subtle interpretations, such as transhumance, and a probable labour division in the community between stockholders and cultivators. Here we see the ever-growing potential of these new methods for writing the ‘biographies’ of prehistoric skeletons.

Keywords: Neolithic, Germany, LBK, Talheim, isotope analysis, hereditary traits, trans-humance

http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/ant/082/ant0820290.htm

Bronze Age German DNA

Results of ancient DNA research on the 40 Bronze Age skeletons recovered from Lichtenstein cave in Lower Saxony have been trickling out for years. A 252-page doctoral dissertation which covers much of the work (in German) may be downloaded here (Felix Schilz: Molekulargenetische Verwandtschaftsanalysen am prähistorischen Skelettkollektiv der Lichtensteinhöhle, Dissertation, Göttingen 2006). An English summary is available at dna-forums (Post #44):

Archeological artefacts (pottery, bracelets, arrowheads, a polished dogtooth, a fibula…) date the remains as 1000 to 700 BC (= the Urnfieldsculture of the Late Bronze period).
In the bronze-age the family was the biological, social and economic centre. Communities consisted out of 5 to 8 families of 5 to 10 members. These extended families lived 3 to 5 generations in the same community/location. When the soil became exhausted the community had to look for new fertile grounds.
Possibly the Lichtenstein-people lived near a fortification (Burg) in Osterode: the Pipinburg. The cave is located along the road that connected the Pipinsburg with the Thüringer plain. The presence of a Burg indicates violent and turbulent times. On the other hand Burgs were also centres of commerce and craftmenship.
Culturally the archeological artefacts belong to the Unstrut-Group. This culture blossomed in between the Unstrut river and the Southern Harz mountains. The centre of the culture was the Thüringen-valley where the fertile löss-soil was used for agriculture and raising cattle. The disappearance of the culture coincidences the end of the usage of the Lichtenstein-cave as a burial chamber.
This Untstrut-group developed out of the Funnelbeaker-culture and developped later into the Jastorf-culture (that united all local cultures to a unified ‘German’ culture).
[. . .]
DNA-reserach, by the team of Dr. Susanne Hummel, showed that all skelettons belonged to one extended family of 4 or 5 generations. This found supports the theory that the cave was used as a burial chamber. It also indicates that the cremations of the Urnfieldculture weren’t that widespread as was thought.
Bones that were found in caves in the Thüringer neighbourhood are supposed to be of persons who were ritually killed (there is even some evidence of cannibalism). For this reason it was first thought that the Lichtenstein-people also were ritually killed. But:
- the bones showed no signs of violence or cutting
- it is unlikely that a whole family was sacrified (usually the sacrified young women)
[. . .]
MtDNA-analysis
The mitochondrionale haplogroups of 36 individuals (men and women) are:
· MtHG J: 5 individuals, 14%
· MtHG T: 5 individuals, 14%
· MtHG U: 9 individuals, 25%
· MtHG H: 17 individuals, 47%
The mitochondrional-DNA research showed that there are more female haplotypes (20) than male haplotypes (5). This supports the hypothesis that the Lichtensteiners belonged to a patrilocal culture, where women married into the clan of the men).

The poster above (hansdb) ran Y-STR profiles reported for the remains through White Athey's haplogroup predictor; he determined most of the males belonged to haplogroup I1b2, two were R1a, and one was R1b. Interestingly:

In 2006 reseachers took DNA-samples among 220 people who lived for at least 3 generations in the Sösethal.
Eleven people had STR-values matched those of Lichtensteiners. Five men belonged to the rare I1b2*-haplotypes; meaning this family-line strechtes beck forr 3000 years in the same region.

But keep in mind these are only 12-marker haplotypes.

Still waiting for the aDNA analysis of the Mycenaean shaft grave royalty, which Greeks have been promising for years. . .