OLD ANATOLIAN AGRICULTURE AND TRANSPORT VEHICLE OX CAR DESIGN Low-poly 3D model

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The Burial of a 15,000-Year-Old Anatolian Hunter-Gatherer Reveals a Rich History of Agricultural Tools A groundbreaking study led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History has shed new light on the evolution of agriculture in ancient Anatolia. By analyzing the DNA of eight prehistoric individuals, including a 15,000-year-old hunter-gatherer, researchers have found that the first Anatolian farmers were direct descendants of local hunter-gatherers who adopted farming practices around 11,000 years ago. This discovery supports existing archaeological evidence that suggests farming was not introduced by a large movement of people from another area, but rather developed locally. The study's findings also indicate a long-term persistence of the Anatolian hunter-gatherer gene pool over 7,000 years, with genetic interactions with neighboring groups playing a significant role in shaping the region's history. The Fertile Crescent, which includes present-day Iraq, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan, as well as southern Anatolia and western Iran, was the birthplace of farming around 11,000 years ago. From there, it spread to central Anatolia by about 8,300 BCE, where early Anatolian farmers subsequently migrated throughout Europe, bringing their new subsistence strategy and genes. Today, the single largest component of modern-day Europeans' ancestry comes from these Anatolian farmers. However, whether farming was introduced to Anatolia by a group of migrating farmers or adopted locally has long been debated. The study confirms that Anatolian hunter-gatherers did indeed adopt farming practices themselves, with later Anatolian farmers being direct descendants of a gene pool that remained relatively stable for over 7,000 years. To reach this conclusion, researchers analyzed ancient DNA from eight individuals and succeeded in recovering 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. "Our results provide additional genetic support for previous archaeological evidence that suggests Anatolia was not merely a stepping stone in the movement of early farmers from the Fertile Crescent into Europe," states Choongwon Jeong of the Max Planck Institute of the Science of Human History. "Rather, it was a place where local hunter-gatherers adopted ideas, plants, and technology that led to agricultural subsistence." The study also found a pattern of interactions with neighbors, including a 10 percent genetic contribution from populations related to those living in what is today Iran and the neighboring Caucasus by the time farming had taken hold in Anatolia. By about 7,000-6,000 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 we currently have available for study," explains Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. "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." Further research is needed to answer these questions and uncover the secrets of agricultural development in ancient Anatolia.