The origin of the first farmer group in Europe

A new study said that the first farmers in western and central Europe were not indigenous hunting groups that gradually abandoned their spears to cultivate.

Instead, they are experienced migrants to this land about 5,500 BC on the grazing road.

'After only a few generations, all the farmers - perhaps from southeastern Europe - have moved to Central Europe, bringing their culture, pets and everything they have,' Joachim Burger, Molecular archaeologist from Mainz University, said.

This result is based on the analysis of genetic material in the backbone of ancient hunting groups and the first farmers discovered in Germany, Lithuania, Finland and Russia - although it is thought that cultivation has arrived. with western Europe in the expansion period took place 7,500 years ago.

The results of the study contradict the long-held opinion that the first European farmers were the concentration of concentrated hunting groups in the region after the last ice age, about 10,000 years. before.

Accordingly, these hunting groups observed how to cultivate crops on their journey or learn how to make from neighbors.

But the researchers this time said that the focus group of hunting and the first group of farmers were two completely separate groups. Detailed information is published in Science tomorrow, September 4, 2009.

Although the two groups have 'cultural connections', Burger said, but, genetic analyzes show that, at least initially, they are not a group.

'We should think that the hunting group is concentrated and the farmer group are two coexistence communities,' said Burger. 'They are two different groups.'

Question mark on the development process of Europe

The researchers were able to distinguish the bones of the two groups because the hunting team's samples were over 8,000 years old, older than the farmer's group, and surrounded by hunting tools such as arrowheads and necklace from animal teeth; on the contrary, the farmer group's bones were discovered along with earthwork and pet bone tools and many other things.

When the researchers compared the genetic material of these two groups of ancient people with the current European gene, the secret was clarified.

'Both genetic lines are not a complete ancestral genome of today's modern human genes,' Burger said.

(Photo: Joachim Burger / Science)

The above results show that we still know too little about the origins of modern Europeans.

'There must be another undetermined factor involved in this process, perhaps a certain migration' or a genetic mutation, he said.

Archaeologist Ron Pinhasi from Cork University, Ireland, agrees that there may be other ancient migrations that this study is unknown.

Pinhasi, a scientist who was not involved in the study, said the research report 'shows the possibility that modern European gene structures have been formed through a series of migrations or dispersions that take place. later.'

Where did the first European farmers come from?

Although Burger researcher claims that it is southeastern Europe - especially in present-day western Hungary and southeastern Slovakia, no one knows exactly where the first migrant farmers come from.

To determine their origins, Burger, Pinhasi and colleagues are working on another project, which also uses genetic materials from the bones obtained.

According to Burger, it is possible that the first farmers in Europe were part of a series of farmer groups scattered until the ancient Near East, including Anatolia (present-day Turkey) and Mesopotamia (Iraq Day). now) - where 11,000-year-old agriculture is located.

Recently Pinhasi came to the same conclusion - the details are presented in another study published in the August PLoS ONE - by comparing the skull of the focus group with the first farmer group found. in regions from Europe to the Near East.

More evidence is needed to prove that these broadly distributed farmer groups have many common genetic traits, he said. And that evidence will confirm that 'agriculture has certainly been introduced to Europe from western Anatolia.'