Hunter-Gatherer Families of the Stone Age

Sunday - March 10 2024, 02:18 UTC - 1 year ago

A new genetic study reveals that Stone Age hunter-gatherer communities in Western Europe deliberately lived together in distinct families to avoid inbreeding. The study analyzed the genomes of individuals buried at iconic French sites and found that the last hunter-gatherers did not assimilate with incoming farming communities. The findings suggest strong social relationships within these communities and provide a glimpse into their interactions and potential impact on future societies.

During the Stone Age in Western Europe, blood relations and kinship were not as important for hunter-gatherer communities as previously assumed. A new genetic study, conducted at iconic French Stone Age burial sites, reveals that several distinct families lived together in these communities. This was likely a deliberate strategy to avoid inbreeding and maintain genetic diversity.

Led by researchers from Uppsala University in collaboration with French institutions, the study analyzed the genomes of human skeletons from sites such as Téviec, Hoedic, and Champigny. These remains date back to the last stages of the Mesolithic period, approximately 6,700 years ago, when the last Western European hunter-gatherers lived alongside Neolithic farmers who were settling in the area.

This is the first study to analyze the genomes of multiple Stone Age hunter-gatherers from the same time and place as newly arrived farming communities. The results shed light on the social dynamics and interactions between these groups.

Around 7,500 years ago, the last Western European hunter-gatherers encountered Neolithic farmers and were gradually replaced and assimilated by them. Previous studies based on isotope data suggested that the hunter-gatherers deliberately assimilated women from the farming communities. However, this new study found that the hunter-gatherer groups did not mix with the Neolithic farmers, but instead mingled with other hunter-gatherer groups.

According to Luciana G. Simões, researcher at Uppsala University and first author of the study, the genomic analyses showed that the individuals in these groups were generally not closely related and there were no signs of inbreeding. However, it is clear that there were distinct social units with different dietary habits, which may have contributed to their strategy of avoiding inbreeding.

This research was conducted in collaboration with French institutions, including the University of Rennes and the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris. The burial sites at Téviec and Hoedic, located in southern Brittany, contain multiple graves where individuals were buried together. This was unusual for Mesolithic burial sites, and it was previously assumed that these individuals were biologically related. However, the genetic analysis showed that many of them were not related, indicating strong social relationships within these communities.

Anders Götherström, researcher at Uppsala University and co-author of the study, suggests that these findings give us a glimpse into how these last hunter-gatherer groups lived and interacted with the newly arrived farming communities. He also notes that the coexistence of these groups must have had some impact on their lives and cultures, potentially shaping future societies and their kinship systems.