Population genetics of the Bronze Age site in the Tollense Valley, Mechlenburg-Pomerania

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Joachim Burger, since 1/2015
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: from 2013 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 236942581

The human skeletal material from the Tollense Valley, Mecklenburg West-Pomerania, represents an unparalleled archaeological discovery: the anthropological and biomolecular preservation of the bones is remarkably good, and the large number of individuals from a putative Bronze Age battlefield context is a rare find. A pilot study carried out by the applicants confirmed that the preservation of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA is excellent. The latest developments in DNA sequencing technology (next generation sequencing, NGS), and especially the progress in modeling prehistoric population structure through computer simulations, enables the precise reconstruction of the population history of such a large coherent site. Additionally, the hypothesis of intergroup conflict can be tested.Previous studies on Holocene population dynamics focused on the Neolithic transition. The prevailing hypothesis suggests that the European gene pool resulted from a complex and regionally differentiated admixture pattern between local hunter-gatherers and immigrant farmers. Bronze Age populations are the key to testing this hypothesis, which we propose to do using our newly-developed multi locus system of 319 neutral chromosomal markers. Furthermore, the excellent preservation of these samples will allow us to conduct a population- genetic analysis of paternal lineages. Not least, this is an opportunity to retrace evolutionary adaptation processes (e.g. Calcium- and Vitamin D metabolism) originating in the Neolithic transition.We plan to use mitochondrial and nuclear aDNA capture essays and next generation sequencing technology to generate the most comprehensive prehistoric DNA data set to date. This study will be the first to combine multi locus aDNA capture assays and spatially explicit coalescence analyses of prehistoric DNA, and will undoubtedly set a new standard for human population genetics. The relevance of these results will extend far beyond the archaeological site of the Tollense Valley, and our data will be interpreted within the diachronic and supra-regional context of European population history.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Thomas Terberger
• Ehemalige Antragstellerin: Dr. Ruth Bollongino, until 11/2014