East Anglian Early Neolithic monument burial linked to contemporary Megaliths.

East Anglian Early Neolithic monument burial linked to contemporary Megaliths. Ann Hum Biol. 2019 Jun 11;:1-15 Authors: Scheib CL, Hui R, D'Atanasio E, Wohns AW, Inskip SA, Rose A, Cessford C, O'Connell TC, Robb JE, Evans C, Patten R, Kivisild T Abstract In the fourth millennium BCE a cultural phenomenon of monumental burial structures spread along the Atlantic façade. Megalithic burials have been targeted for aDNA analyses, but a gap remains in East Anglia where Neolithic structures were generally earthen or timber. An early Neolithic (3762 - 3648 cal. BCE) burial monument at the site of Trumpington Meadows, Cambridgeshire, U.K. contained the partially articulated remains of at least three individuals. To determine whether this monument fits a pattern present in megalithic burials regarding sex bias, kinship, diet, and relationship to modern populations, teeth and ribs were analysed for DNA and carbon and nitrogen isotopic values respectively. Whole ancient genomes were sequenced from two individuals to a mean genomic coverage of 1.6 and 1.2X and genotypes imputed. Results show that they were brothers from a small population genetically and isotopically similar to previously published British Neolithic individuals, with a level of genome-wide homozygosity consistent with a small island population sourced from continental Europe, but bearing no signs of recent inbreeding. The first Neolithic whole genomes from a monumental burial ...
Source: Annals of Human Biology - Category: Biology Tags: Ann Hum Biol Source Type: research