Search results for "Human migration"
showing 6 items of 36 documents
Morphological variability of Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic skulls from Sicily
2020
Scenarios for the dispersal of Homo sapiens in Southern Europe and in the Mediterranean basin have been uncertain, given the scarceness of osteological samples and the simplicity of the proposed archaeologically-based settlement hypotheses. According to available data, the first anatomically modern humans entered Sicily during the Late Pleistocene, coming from the Italian peninsula. A presumably small Late Epigravettian population colonised coastal sites. Later, North-Western archaeological horizons gave hospitality to a significant Mesolithic expansion. In order to verify a hypothesis of continuity in the peopling of the island, we analyzed Sicilian skulls from the Late Epigravettian site …
HUMAN PEOPLING OF SICILY DURING QUATERNARY
2015
ABSTRACT The early human peopling of Sicily and Western Mediterranean shores is one of the debated topic in the archaeological and anthropological literature over the twentieth century. This discussion involves not only the specific issue of the peopling of the continental island, but fundamentally the reconstruction of human migration routes and dispersals across the Mediterranean area during Early and Middle Pleistocene. Even if the common route of faunal and human movement is considered from North, and relative to the Messina strait crossing, several authors, on the base of archaeological evidences, hypothesized an early peopling and an African provenance through the Sicilian Channel. Th…
The Role of Recent Admixture in Forming the Contemporary West Eurasian Genomic Landscape
2015
Summary Over the past few years, studies of DNA isolated from human fossils and archaeological remains have generated considerable novel insight into the history of our species. Several landmark papers have described the genomes of ancient humans across West Eurasia, demonstrating the presence of large-scale, dynamic population movements over the last 10,000 years, such that ancestry across present-day populations is likely to be a mixture of several ancient groups [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. While these efforts are bringing the details of West Eurasian prehistory into increasing focus, studies aimed at understanding the processes behind the generation of the current West Eurasian genetic landsc…
Parallel paleogenomic transects reveal complex genetic history of early European farmers
2017
In European Neolithic populations, the arrival of farmers prompted admixture with local hunter-gatherers over many centuries, resulting in distinct signatures in each region due to a complex series of interactions. David Reich and colleagues analyse genome-wide data from 180 individuals from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods of Hungary, Germany and Spain to study the population dynamics of Neolithization in European prehistory. They examine how gene flow reshaped European populations during the Neolithic period, including pervasive admixture—the interbreeding between previously isolated populations—between groups with different ancestry profiles. In each region, they find that the arri…
Ancestry and demography and descendants of Iron Age nomads of the Eurasian Steppe
2017
During the 1st millennium before the Common Era (BCE), nomadic tribes associated with the Iron Age Scythian culture spread over the Eurasian Steppe, covering a territory of more than 3,500 km in breadth. To understand the demographic processes behind the spread of the Scythian culture, we analysed genomic data from eight individuals and a mitochondrial dataset of 96 individuals originating in eastern and western parts of the Eurasian Steppe. Genomic inference reveals that Scythians in the east and the west of the steppe zone can best be described as a mixture of Yamnaya-related ancestry and an East Asian component. Demographic modelling suggests independent origins for eastern and western g…
Fertility, Family, and Human Migrations
2019
The aim of this course is to introduce students to the relationship between demographic change, economic growth, and human well-being. Nothing is more fundamental to our experience whether as individuals, as family members and in society, as death, birth, and our physical place in the world. While those basic features of human life have remained a constant feature of our existence, the nature of the economic and social forces that determine the character of these interactions have changed considerably over time. The topics covered in the course illustrate examples of how human societies have wrestled with demographic problems both in history and at present. We study these topics through an …