European agriculture originated from the Middle East

The results of a study published in Science (USA) on April 26 revealed how the Stone Age farmers migrated from the Mediterranean to the North to live on hunting. , gatherer.

>>>Prehistoric people hold fishing techniques in deep waters

The team of scientists from Sweden and Denmark discovered the secret after analyzing DNA samples of four European archaeologists living in the Stone Age.

This finding helps enlighten a problem that has always been controversial in the history of human species for a long time - how the agricultural civilization has moved from the Middle East to Europe.

Previously, scientists believed that farming originated in the Middle East about 11,000 years ago, and reached almost all continents of Europe around 5,000 years ago.

The latest discovery hypothesizes that breeding and farming techniques have been introduced into Europe by people living in the Mediterranean region and bringing their know-how into the art of hunting and gathering in the Northern Hemisphere. .

The team came to this conclusion after using advanced DNA analysis for four archaeological remains of prehistoric humans in Sweden - identified as a farmer and three "expert" hunters. gatherers lived about 5,000 years ago.

Comparing genetic data of two groups of people from two different cultures, living in the same period but separated by about 400 km in this geography with genetic data of modern people in Europe, scientists found that those who lived on stone-hunting-gathering during the Stone Age had many genetic differences compared to modern people but were most similar to Finns, while prehistoric farmers had a genetic structure close to Mediterranean people.

The leader of the research team said that this proves that farming has spread throughout Europe thanks to a wave of immigration from the Mediterranean to the North.

Finally, the team concluded that Europeans today have a very strong genetic influence from Stone Age migrant farmers, through a number of genes from the hunter-gatherer group that lived in the same period.