title: 2000 years of parallel societies in Stone Age Central Europe.
abstract: Debate on the ancestry of Europeans centers on the interplay between Mesolithic foragers and Neolithic farmers. Foragers are generally believed to have disappeared shortly after the arrival of agriculture. To investigate the relation between foragers and farmers, we examined Mesolithic and Neolithic samples from the Blätterhöhle site. Mesolithic mitochondrial DNA sequences were typical of European foragers, whereas the Neolithic sample included additional lineages that are associated with early farmers. However, isotope analyses separate the Neolithic sample into two groups: one with an agriculturalist diet and one with a forager and freshwater fish diet, the latter carrying mitochondrial DNA sequences typical of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. This indicates that the descendants of Mesolithic people maintained a foraging lifestyle in Central Europe for more than 2000 years after the arrival of farming societies.
authors.affiliation: Palaeogenetics Group, Institute of Anthropology, Johannes Gutenberg University, 55099 Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bollongino
authors.forename: Olaf
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Nehlich
authors.forename: Michael P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Richards
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Orschiedt
authors.forename: Mark G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sell
authors.forename: Zuzana
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Fajkosová
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Powell
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Burger
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000266:history*; D000821:Animal Feed / Q000266:history*; D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D000883:Anthropology; D001483:Base Sequence; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics / Q000266:history; D005060:Europe; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial