Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:39:41.027Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Correlation of annual precipitation with human Y-chromosome diversity and the emergence of Neolithic agricultural and pastoral economies in the Fertile Crescent

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Jacques Chiaroni ,
Roy J. King  and
Peter A. Underhill
Jacques Chiaroni
Affiliation:
French Blood Establishment of Alpes Mediterranée (EFSAM), 149 Boulevard Baille, 13005 Marseille, France and UMR6578 (CNRS/Faculty of Medicine of Marseille) Biological and Cultural Adaptability, Faculty of Medicine, Marseille, France
Roy J. King
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, 401 Quarry Road, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5722, USA
Peter A. Underhill
Affiliation:
Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, 300 Pasteur Drive, Stanford, CA 94305-5120, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Examining the beginnings of agriculture in the ‘Fertile Crescent’, this research team has compared the distribution of rainfall with the distribution of Y-chromosome haplogroups. The extended families signalled by J1 and J2 haplogroups seem to have had different destinies in the era of agro-pastoralist experiment: J2 were the agricultural innovators who followed the rainfall, while J1 remained largely with their flocks. Acknowledging the fuzzy edges of such mapping, the authors nevertheless escort us into new realms of the possible for the early history of peoples.

Keywords

NeolithicFertile Crescentagriculturepastoralismannual precipitationY-chromosome haplogroupsphylogeography
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 82 , Issue 316 , June 2008 , pp. 281 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arredi, B., Poloni, E. S., Paracchini, S., Zerjal, T., Fathallah, D. M., Makrelouf, M., Pascali, V. L., Novelletto, A. & Tyler, C.-smith. 2004. A predominantly Neolithic origin for Y-chromosomal DNA variation in North Africa. American Journal of Human Genetics 75: 338–45.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bar-Yosef, O. 1998. The Natufian culture in the Levant, threshold to the origins of agriculture. Evolutionary Anthropology 6: 159–77.3.0.CO;2-7>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellwood, P. 2005. First Farmers: Origins of Agricultural Societies. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Buccellati, G. 1992. Ebla and the Amorites, in Gordon, C. H. & Rendsburg, G. A. (ed.) Eblaitica: Essays on the Ebla Archives and Eblaite Language, Vol. 3: 83–104. Winona Lake (IN): Eisenbrauns.Google Scholar
Cauvin, J. 2000. The Birth of the Gods and the Origins of Agriculture. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Cavalli-Sforza, L.L., Menozzi, P. & Piazza, A.. 1994. The History and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cinnioˇlu, C., King, R., Kivisild, T., Kalfoˇglu, E., Atasoy, S., Cavalleri, G. L., Lillie, A. S., Roseman, C. C., Lin, A. A., Prince, K., Oefner, P. J., Shen, P., Semino, O., Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. & Underhill, P. A.. 2004. Excavating Y-chromosome haplotype strata in Anatolia. Human Genetics 114: 127–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di Giacomo, F., Luca, F., Anagnou, N., Ciavarella, G., Corbo, R. M., Cresta, M., Cucci, F., Di Stasi, L., Agostiano, V., Giparaki, M., Loutradis, A., Mammi, C.', Michalodimitrakis, E. N., Papola, F., Pedicini, G., Plata, E., Terrenato, L., Tofanelli, S., Malaspina, P. & Novelletto, A.. 2003. Clinical patterns of human Y chromosomal diversity in continental Italy and Greece are dominated by drift and founder effects. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 28: 387–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di giacomo, F., Luca, F., Popa, L. O., Akar, N., Anagnou, N., Banyko, J., Brdicka, R., Barbujani, G., Papola, F., Ciavarella, G., Cucci, F., Di Stasi, L., Gavrila, L., Kerimova, M. G., Kovatchev, D., Kozlov, A. I., Loutradis, A., Mandarino, V., Mammi, C. ', Michalodimitrakis, E. N., Paoli, G., Pappa, K. I., Pedicini, G., Terrenato, L., Tofanelli, S., Malaspina, P. & Novelletto, A.. 2004. Y chromosomal haplogroup J as a signature of the post-Neolithic colonization of Europe. Human Genetics 115:357–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flores, C., Maca-Meyer, N., Larruga, J. M., Cabrera, V. M., Karadsheh, N. & Gonzalez, A. M.. 2005. Isolates in a corridor of migrations: a high-resolution analysis of Y-chromosome variation in Jordan. Journal of Human Genetics 50:435–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hewitt, G. 2000. The genetic legacy of the Quaternary ice ages. Nature 405:907–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kadmon, R. & Danin, A.. 1999. Distribution of plant species in Israel in relation to spatial variation in rainfall. Journal of Vegetation Science 10:421–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khazanov, A. M. 1984. Nomads and the Outside World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
King, R. & Underhill, P. A.. 2002. Congruent distributions of Neolithic painted pottery and ceramic figurines with Y-chromosome lineages. Antiquity 76:707–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kivisild, T., Metspalu, M., H-J, Bandelt, Richards, M. & Villems, R.. 2006. The World mtDNA phylogeny, in H-J, Bandelt, Macaulay, V. & Richards, M. (ed.) Human Mitochondrial DNA and the Evolution of Homo sapiens (Nucleic Acids and Molecular Biology 18): 149–79. Berlin, Heidelberg & New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Kuper, R. & Kr¨opelin, S.. 2006. Climate-controlled Holocene occupation in the Sahara: motor of Africa's evolution. Science 313:803–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luis, J. R., Rowold, D. W., Regueiro, M., Caeiro, B., Cinnioglu, C., Roseman, C., Underhill, P. A., Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. & Herrera, R. J.. 2004. The Levantine versus the Horn of Africa: evidence for bi-directional corridors of human migrations. American Journal of Human Genetics 74:532–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perlès, C. 2001. The Early Neolithic in Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Regueiro, M., Cadenas, A. M., Gayden, T., Underhill, P. A. & Herrera, R. J.. 2006. Iran: tricontinental nexus for Y-chromosome driven migration. Human Heredity 61: 132–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Semino, O., Magri, C., Benuzzi, G., Lin, A. A., Al-Zahery, N., Battaglia, V., Maccioni, L., Triantaphyllidis, C., Shen, P., Oefner, P. J., Zhivotovsky, L. A., King, R., Torroni, A. L., Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., Underhill, P. A. & Santachiara-Benerecetti, A. S.. 2004. Origin, diffusion and differentiation of Y-chromosome haplogroups E and J: inferences on the neolithization of Europe and later migratory events in the Mediterranean area. American Journal of Human Genetics 74:1023–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sengupta, S., Zhivotosky, L. A., King, R., Mehdi, S. Q., Edmonds, C. A., Chow, C.E.T., Lin, A. A., Mitra, M., Sil, S. K., Ramesh, A., Rani, M.V.U., Thakur, C. M., Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., Majumder, P. P. & Underhill, P. A.. 2006. Polarity and temporality of high resolution Y-chromosome distributions in India identify both indigenous and exogenous expansions and reveal minor genetic influence of Central Asian pastoralists. American Journal of Human Genetics 78: 202–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Torroni, A., Bandelt, A.-J., D'Urbano, L., Lahermo, P., Moral, P., Sellitto, D., Rengo, C., Forster, P., M-L, Savontaus, Bonné-Tamir, B. & Scozzari, R.. 1998. mtDNA analysis reveals a major late Paleolithic population expansion from southwestern to northeastern Europe. American Journal of Human Genetics 62: 1137–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Twiss, K. C. 2007. The Neolithic of the southern Levant. Evolutionary Anthropology 16: 24–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Underhill, P. A., Passarino, G., Lin, A. A., Shen, P., Foley, R. A., Miraz´on Lahr, M., Oefner, P. J. & Cavalli-Sforza, L. L.. 2001. The phylogeography of Y chromosome binary haplotypes and the origins of modern human populations. Annals of Human Genetics 65: 43–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Underhill, P. A. & Kivisild, T.. 2007. The use of Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA population structure in tracing human migrations. Annual Review of Genetics 41: 539–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zarins, J. 1990. Early pastoral nomadism and the settlement of lower Mesopotamia. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 280: 31–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar