Ancient DNA from Mesopotamia suggests distinct Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic migrations into Anatolia

Abstract

Author Manuscript We present the first ancient DNA data from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of Mesopotamia (Southeastern Turkey and Northern Iraq), Cyprus, and the Northwest 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 huntergatherers, 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 Epipaleolithicrelated 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. One-Sentence Summary: Author Manuscript Ancient DNA from Mesopotamia documents a West Asian Neolithic continuum and proves two pulses of migration contributing to the early farmers of Anatolia. Previous work has documented the existence of highly differentiated Neolithic populations in ancient West Asia(1–9) and some of their pre-Neolithic antecessors in the Caucasus(10), * Author Manuscript Corresponding authors. Iosif Lazaridis (lazaridis@genetics.med.harvard.edu), Songül Alpaslan-Roodenberg (msglalpaslan@gmail.com), Ron Pinhasi (ron.pinhasi@univie.ac.at), David Reich (reich@genetics.med.harvard.edu). †Co-lead authors