Two concerns were emphasized at the beginning of this volume, colonization vs. indigenous adoption and causality. These questions of how and why agriculture spread to Europe are important ones, both in regard to the specific situation on the continent, and for understanding the global process that was the transition to agriculture. A number of insights into these questions have come from the study of the transition to agriculture in prehistoric Europe summarized in this volume. These insights demand fundamental changes in our explanations of how and why that transition took place. The paragraphs below summarize new perspectives on these questions.

We present the first ancient DNA data from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of Mesopotamia (Southeastern Turkey and Northern Iraq), Cyprus, and the Northwestern Zagros, along with the first data from Neolithic Armenia. We show that these and neighboring populations were formed through admixture of pre-Neolithic sources related to Anatolian, Caucasus, and Levantine hunter-gatherers, forming a Neolithic continuum of ancestry mirroring the geography of West Asia. By analyzing Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic populations of Anatolia, we show that the former were derived from admixture between Mesopotamian-related and local Epipaleolithic-related sources, but the latter experienced additional Levantine-related gene flow, thus documenting at least two pulses of migration from the Fertile Crescent heartland to the early farmers of Anatolia.

The Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been assembling, collecting, and collating information on strontium isotope ratios in Mesoamerica for approximately 20 years. This information has come from various lab projects, dedicated sampling trips, and collated published information. The amount of information has grown, probably logarithmically, over the last 20 years. The total number of samples worldwide processed through the lab exceeds 10,000 specimens, with more than 339 samples collected to establish isotopic baselines and 1,556 human tooth and bone samples from dozens of sites in Mesoamerica, from Mexico to El Salvador. We present case studies from the central highlands, the Maya lowlands, Chiapas, and the Pacific Coast that compare baseline and human isotope values to show the utility of isotopic proveniencing of past human remains. There is a clear need for this information to be available to researchers, and we hope that the publication of the information that we have collected from Mesoamerica will be of help and may inspire a common internet database accessible to all.

In several graves from the Mesolithic sites of Skateholm, South Sweden, animal teeth were found. Some of these teeth were used as beads in clothing. The strontium isotope analysis of 11 animal teeth is reported and discussed in comparison with human values from burials at the sites and baseline values from South Sweden. Roughly half of the animal teeth are nonlocal and from different places of origin. The beads themselves appear to carry symbolic information that may be related to the physical or social attributes of the wearer. This study involved a detailed investigation of the use-wear around the perforation and its relation to the local and nonlocal origin of the teeth.

Archaeological dental calculus, or mineralized plaque, is a key tool to track the evolution of oral microbiota across time in response to processes that impacted our culture and biology, such as the rise of farming during the Neolithic. However, the extent to which the human oral flora changed from prehistory until present has remained elusive due to the scarcity of data on the microbiomes of prehistoric humans. Here, we present our reconstruction of oral microbiomes via shotgun metagenomics of dental calculus in 44 ancient foragers and farmers from two regions playing a pivotal role in the spread of farming across Europe-the Balkans and the Italian Peninsula. We show that the introduction of farming in Southern Europe did not alter significantly the oral microbiomes of local forager groups, and it was in particular associated with a higher abundance of the species Olsenella sp. oral taxon 807. The human oral environment in prehistory was dominated by a microbial species, Anaerolineaceae bacterium oral taxon 439, that diversified geographically. A Near Eastern lineage of this bacterial commensal dispersed with Neolithic farmers and replaced the variant present in the local foragers. Our findings also illustrate that major taxonomic shifts in human oral microbiome composition occurred after the Neolithic and that the functional profile of modern humans evolved in recent times to develop peculiar mechanisms of antibiotic resistance that were previously absent.

The nature of the Neolithic Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) has been debated in Scandinavian archaeology since the beginning of the 20th century. This material culture post-dates the inception of an agro-pastoral Neolithic economy in the region (TRB) but demonstrate a semi-foraging lifeway. The PWC is considered elusive in the sense that the economy has been interpreted as either based on maritime foraging (isotope analysis), or a mixedNeolithic economy based on boar (Sus scrofa) (archaeozoology). The mobility of the PWC group on Gotland has not been studied previously. We provide an analysis of strontium data from the site Vasterbjers, Gotland, and engage in the question whether this population was mobile (foragers) or stationary (mixed-Neolithic). We also discuss the strontium baseline of the island in the light of new data. The results presented demonstrate a group that was confined to the island and with no strontium data suggesting a supra-regional mobility. We cannot discriminate between a regional mobility pattern on Gotland (mobility between sites) and a local, stationary group (fully sedentary), but we present data that suggest the former. Thus, our conclusion is that the PWC group on Gotland was stationary, the sedentism disclosed being supported by a mixed-Neolithic economy based on boar (Sus scrofa). In fact, the PWC group is depicting less variance with respect to Sr-87/Sr-86 ratios than the TRB and Late Neolithic groups on the island, being more stationary than the agricultural groups.

Present-day people from England and Wales have more ancestry derived from early European farmers (EEF) than did people of the Early Bronze Age(1). To understand this, here we generated genome-wide data from 793 individuals, increasing data from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age in Britain by 12-fold, and western and central Europe by 3.5-fold. Between 1000 and 875 bc, EEF ancestry increased in southern Britain (England and Wales) but not northern Britain (Scotland) due to incorporation of migrants who arrived at this time and over previous centuries, and who were genetically most similar to ancient individuals from France. These migrants contributed about half the ancestry of people of England and Wales from the Iron Age, thereby creating a plausible vector for the spread of early Celtic languages into Britain. These patterns are part of a broader trend of EEF ancestry becoming more similar across central and western Europe in the Middle to the Late Bronze Age, coincident with archaeological evidence of intensified cultural exchange(2-6). There was comparatively less gene flow from continental Europe during the Iron Age, and the independent genetic trajectory in Britain is also reflected in the rise of the allele conferring lactase persistence to approximately 50% by this time compared to approximately 7% in central Europe where it rose rapidly in frequency only a millennium later. This suggests that dairy products were used in qualitatively different ways in Britain and in central Europe over this period.

In this contribution, we highlight some of the results from analyses of cattle management at two Neolithic settlement sites in Falbygden, western Sweden. The two sites are located close to each other in the parish of Karleby in central Falbygden. Both were excavated 2012–2017 and yielded abundant animal bones, due to the calcareous bedrock. 14C datings indicate that they were both inhabited continuously during the period c. 3200–2900 BC, i.e. the Middle Neolithic Funnel Beaker (TRB) culture. Bulk and laser ablation strontium isotope ratios in cattle teeth from these settlements suggest a complex and wide-ranging system of animal exchange in the Scandinavian Middle Neolithic. More than half of the cattle found in the Karleby settlements were born outside the Falbygden region, and laser ablation suggests variable and individual trajectories through the landscape, in some cases involving areas in eastern Sweden. Further, origins of cattle at the two settlements are only partly overlapping, suggesting independent contact networks. We suggest an ongoing system of exchanges between settlement groups/social groups throughout Sweden to be behind this variability, rather than transhumance. This may in turn be motivated by a number of factors including biological herd viability, as well as social and economic factors.

Continuing isotopic investigation of the sacrificial burials and trophies beneath the Feathered Serpent Pyramid (Temple of Quetzalcoatl) in ancient Teotihuacan, Mexico, has produced new results. Isotopic proveniencing using bioapatite strontium and structural carbonate oxygen isotopes in tooth enamel was applied to 39 samples, 24 from the sacrificial victims and 15 from the trophy jaws. Both the strontium and oxygen isotope ratios suggest that most or all of the sacrificial victims came from the central highlands of Mexico, which includes the area of Teotihuacan. In this sense, we find somewhat less multiethnicity represented among the military at Teotihuacan than previously thought. Analysis of carbon isotope ratios in enamel structural carbonate indicated a childhood diet dominated by maize, relatively homogeneous among the victims at the pyramid, and typical for much of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica.

There is a significant number of funerary contexts for the Early Neolithic in the Iberian Peninsula, and the body of information is much larger for the Late Neolithic. In contrast, the archaeological information available for the period in between (ca. 4800-4400/4200 cal BC) is scarce. This period, generally called Middle Neolithic, is the least well-known of the peninsular Neolithic sequence, and at present there is no specific synthesis on this topic at the peninsular scale. In 2017, an exceptional funerary context was discovered at Dehesilla Cave (Sierra de Cádiz, Southern Iberian Peninsula), providing radiocarbon dates which place it at the beginning of this little-known Middle Neolithic period, specifically between ca. 4800-4550 cal BC. Locus 2 is a deposition constituted by two adult human skulls and the skeleton of a very young sheep/goat, associated with stone structures and a hearth, and a number of pots, stone and bone tools and charred plant remains. The objectives of this paper are, firstly, to present the new archaeological context documented at Dehesilla Cave, supported by a wide range of data provided by interdisciplinary methods. The dataset is diverse in nature: stratigraphic, osteological, isotopic, zoological, artifactual, botanical and radiocarbon results are presented together. Secondly, to place this finding within the general context of the contemporaneous sites known in the Iberian Peninsula through a systematic review of the available evidence. This enables not only the formulation of explanations of the singular new context, but also to infer the possible ritual funerary behaviours and practices in the 5th millennium cal BC in the Iberian Peninsula.

Isotopic proveniencing of all individuals from the ship and boat burials at Salme, Estonia, is the subject of this study of the interred human remains from around AD 750, at the beginning of the Viking period. The isotopic results indicate that the majority of these individuals came from a region with higher strontium isotopic ratios than those found in Estonia. There were five individuals, buried in Salme II-the ship burial with 34 individuals-who exhibited lower strontium isotope ratios that might have come from the Swedish island of Gotland or several other possible places. The combination of isotopic signals and archaeological information suggests that the majority of buried individuals (those with higher strontium isotope ratios) came from the Malaren Valley in east-central Sweden.

Strontium, oxygen, and carbon isotopes were measured in human tooth enamel from 66 burials in 9L-22 and 9L-23 residential groups at the Classic Maya site of Copan in western Honduras. These results are discussed in relation to earlier studies at Copan and baseline measurements from the surrounding region and the Maya area in general. Nearly 50% of the individuals are identified as non-local based on combinations of strontium, oxygen, and carbon isotope ratios. They came from a variety of places in the Maya area. This migratory pattern at the 9L-22 & 9L-23 residential complex from the Early to Late Classic (ca. 400-800 CE) is compared with 10J-45 sector from the mainly Early Classic occupation (ca. 400-650 CE) and an interesting change is noted. The social privileges observed among the Early Classic immigrants from the north Maya Lowlands were apparently revoked in the Late Classic. New immigrants, probably from the "non-Maya" regions of Western/Central Honduras, appear to have gained those social privileges. High-status Honduran individuals in the urban core suggests a strategy by the Copan dynasty in the Late Classic that incorporated the emerging "non-Maya" elites from Western/Central Honduras.

This study focuses on the origins and diet of the seafarers on Columbus’s second voyage, individuals whose mortal remains were buried in the churchyard of the settlement of La Isabela. This was the very first European town in the Americas, founded by Columbus in the present-day Dominican Republic in early January 1494. Historical sources indicate that most of the crew came from the region of Andalucía, while the remainder came from a range of other geographical locations. It is also likely that some individuals had been born elsewhere and migrated to Spain before embarking on their transatlantic voyage. However, their precise origins remain unknown. In this study, we use both osteological analysis and isotopes—both light (C, N, and O) and heavy isotopes of strontium in the tooth enamel and bone of 27 individuals from La Isabela—to investigate questions of human provenience and diet. The results of our analyses indicate that while most of the individuals analyzed from the burial series at La Isabela were males from Spain itself, there were several unexpected females and infants, referred to vaguely by the historical sources, in addition to one local native and a person probably from Africa, implying that Africans took part actively in the Spanish venture of settling the New World from the very beginning.

We present results of the largest multidisciplinary human mobility investigation to date of skeletal remains from present-day Denmark encompassing the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. Through a multi-analytical approach based on 88 individuals from 37 different archaeological localities in which we combine strontium isotope and radiocarbon analyses together with anthropological investigations, we explore whether there are significant changes in human mobility patterns during this period. Overall, our data suggest that mobility of people seems to have been continuous throughout the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. However, our data also indicate a clear shift in mobility patterns from around 1600 BC onwards, with a larger variation in the geographical origin of the migrants, and potentially including more distant regions. This shift occurred during a transition period at the beginning of the Nordic Bronze Age at a time when society flourished, expanded and experienced an unprecedented economic growth, suggesting that these aspects were closely related.

OBJECTIVES:The ancient city of Chichén Itzá in the northern Yucatán of Mexico was one of the most important in the Maya area, but its origins and history are poorly understood. A major question concerns the origins of the peoples who founded and later expanded the ancient city. Hundreds of people were ritually executed and their bodies thrown into the waters of the Sacred Cenote at Chichén.MATERIALS AND METHODS:In this study, we use strontium and oxygen isotopes to study the place of origin of a large sample of these individuals. Isotopes are deposited in human tooth enamel. Enamel forms during the first years of life, remains largely unchanged long past death, and can provide a signature of the place of birth. If the isotope ratios in enamel are different from the place of death, the individual must have moved during his/her lifetime.RESULTS:Comparison of our results from the cenote with information on isotope ratios across the Maya region and elsewhere suggests that the individuals in the cenote came from a number of different parts of Mexico and possibly beyond.DISCUSSION:It is not known if all of the sacrificial victims resided in Chichén Itzá, but their suggested origins likely reflect patterns of population movement and social networks that existed between Chichén Itzá and both neighboring and distant regions. Various lines of evidence point to places in the Yucatán, along the Gulf Coast, Central America, or even in the Central Highlands of Mexico.

Oxygen isotopes were analyzed in human teeth dating to approximately 1250 BC from a Bronze Age battlefield along the Tollense River in northwestern Germany. Tooth enamel was sectioned, prepared, and analyzed using Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) and Confocal Laser Fluorescence Microscopy (CLFM). The results of the study indicate that diagenesis has locally altered the tooth enamel. Brightly luminescing domains seen by confocal laser fluorescent microscopy are chemically changed in oxygen isotope ratios and elemental [Cl] concentrations. Values of δ18O are up to 2.7‰ lower in altered domains. Thus, diagenetic changes are observed in enamel that is 3250 years old and has been waterlogged for most of its depositional history. We recommend that studies of enamel in human teeth routinely evaluate the possibility of diagenesis.

Archaeogenetic research over the last decade has demonstrated that European Neolithic farmers (ENFs) were descended primarily from Anatolian Neolithic farmers (ANFs). ENFs, including early Neolithic central European Linearbandkeramik (LBK) farming communities, also harbored ancestry from European Mesolithic hunter gatherers (WHGs) to varying extents, reflecting admixture between ENFs and WHGs. However, the timing and other details of this process are still imperfectly understood. In this report, we provide a bioarchaeological analysis of three individuals interred at the Brunn 2 site of the Brunn am Gebirge-Wolfholz archeological complex, one of the oldest LBK sites in central Europe. Two of the individuals had a mixture of WHG-related and ANF-related ancestry, one of them with approximately 50% of each, while the third individual had approximately all ANF-related ancestry. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios for all three individuals were within the range of variation reflecting diets of other Neolithic agrarian populations. Strontium isotope analysis revealed that the ~50% WHG-ANF individual was non-local to the Brunn 2 area. Overall, our data indicate interbreeding between incoming farmers, whose ancestors ultimately came from western Anatolia, and local HGs, starting within the first few generations of the arrival of the former in central Europe, as well as highlighting the integrative nature and composition of the early LBK communities.

Recent research provides new perspectives on large-scale Early Holocene human interaction within Eurasia, based on ancient DNA or lithic technology. But the extent of regional human mobility is not well known. In this study, we combined two different approaches to investigate regional mobility and social networks in southern Scandinavia. We analyzed strontium isotopes in human teeth and regional lithic raw material use and technology from a Mesolithic site, Norje Sunnansund in southern Sweden (7000 BCE). The lithic raw material composition at the site, and previous archaeological studies, indicated that the inhabitants mainly had utilized an area stretching 30 km southward. The isotopic analysis indicated that at least half of the analyzed individuals had a non-local origin, based on the local isotope signature, but that possibly only a few individuals originated outside the area defined by lithic acquisition. Those few isotopic values and the presence of lithic material as non-local flint and East Swedish microblade-cores in quartz, suggested that people also traveled far, but probably more sporadically. The combined analyzes revealed the complexity of late Boreal hunter-gatherers in South Scandinavia - although some groups appear to have had a limited geographical mobility, contact networks seem to have stretched over long distances.