OLD ANATOLIAN AGRICULTURAL TOOLS DESIGN Low-poly 3D model

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The History of Old Anatolian Agricultural Tools Is a Story That Unfolds Over 15,000 Years\n............................\n\nA team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and international collaborators has made a groundbreaking discovery that sheds light on the origins of agriculture in ancient Anatolia. By analyzing eight prehistoric individuals, including a 15,000-year-old hunter-gatherer, they found that the first Anatolian farmers were direct descendants of local hunter-gatherers who adopted farming practices from their neighbors rather than being introduced by a large group of people from another area. Farming was developed around 11,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, which includes present-day Iraq, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan as well as parts of southern Anatolia and western Iran. By about 8,300 BCE, it had spread to central Anatolia, where early farmers migrated throughout Europe, bringing their new subsistence strategy and genes with them. Today, the single largest component of modern-day Europeans' ancestry comes from these Anatolian farmers. However, a long-standing debate has surrounded whether farming was brought to Anatolia by a group of migrating farmers or if local hunter-gatherers adopted it themselves. A recent study published in Nature Communications confirms existing archaeological evidence that shows Anatolian hunter-gatherers indeed adopted farming practices and the later Anatolian farmers were direct descendants of a gene pool that remained relatively stable for over 7,000 years. For this study, researchers analyzed ancient DNA from eight individuals and successfully recovered whole-genome data from a 15,000-year-old Anatolian hunter-gatherer. This allowed them to compare that individual's DNA to later Anatolian farmers as well as individuals from neighboring regions to determine how they were related. They also compared the newly analyzed individuals to existing data from 587 ancient individuals and 254 present-day populations. Our results provide additional genetic support for previous archaeological evidence that suggests Anatolia was not merely a stepping stone in a movement of early farmers into Europe, states Choongwon Jeong of the Max Planck Institute of the Science of Human History, co-senior author of the study. Rather, it was a place where local hunter-gatherers adopted ideas, plants, and technology that led to agricultural subsistence. The researchers found a pattern of genetic interactions with neighbors that warrant further study. By the time farming had taken hold in Anatolia between 8,300-7,800 BCE, the local population had about a 10 percent genetic contribution from populations related to those living in what is today Iran and the neighboring Caucasus, with almost the entire remaining 90 percent coming from Anatolian hunter-gatherers. By about 7000-6000 BCE, however, the Anatolian farmers derived about 20 percent of their ancestry from populations related to those living in the Levant region. There are some large gaps, both in time and geography, in the genomes currently available for study, explains Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, senior author on the study. This makes it difficult to say how these more subtle genetic interactions took place—whether it was through short-term large movements of people or more frequent but low-level interactions. The researchers hope that further research in this and neighboring regions could help answer these questions.