Ottoni, Claudio, Flink, Linus Girdland, Evin, Allowen, Geörg, Christina, De Cupere, Bea, Van Neer, Wim, Bartosiewicz, László, Linderholm, Anna, Barnett, Ross, Peters, Joris, Decorte, Ron, Waelkens, Marc, Vanderheyden, Nancy, Ricaut, François-Xavier, Cakirlar, Canan, Cevik, Ozlem, Hoelzel, A Rus, Mashkour, Marjan, Karimlu, Azadeh Fatemeh Mohaseb, Seno, Shiva Sheikhi, Daujat, Julie, Brock, Fiona, Pinhasi, Ron, Hongo, Hitomi, Pérez-Enciso, Miguel, Rasmussen, Morten, Frantz, Laurent, Megens, Hendrik-Jan, Crooijmans, Richard, Groenen, Martien, Arbuckle, Benjamin, Benecke, Nobert, Vidarsdottir, Una Strand, Burger, Joachim, Cucchi, Thomas, Dobney, Keith, Larson, Greger, Girdland Flink, Linus, Decorte, Ronny, Çakırlar, Canan, Çevik, Özlem, Hoelzel, A. Rus, Mohaseb Karimlu, Azadeh Fatemeh, Sheikhi Seno, Shiva, Strand Vidarsdottir, Una, Human Genetics, Institut für Paläoanatomie und Geschichte der Tiermedizin, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), Anthropologie Moléculaire et Imagerie de Synthèse (AMIS), Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements (AASPE), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art [Oxford], University of Oxford [Oxford], Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre, Wageningen University and Research [Wageningen] (WUR), Department of Anthropology, Baylor University, Baylor University, Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen, University of Aberdeen, Leverhulme Trust, German Research Foundation, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France), European Commission, Department of Archaeology, Stockholm University, Texas A&M University [College Station], Durham Evolution and Ancient DNA, Department of Archaeology, Durham University, Bavarian State Collect Anthropol & Palaeoanat, Munich, Germany, Bavarian Natural History Collections, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN), School of Earth and Ocean Sciences [Cardiff], Cardiff University, School of Archaeology, University College Dublin [Dublin] (UCD), Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG), Department of Mathematical Sciences [Aalborg], Aalborg University [Denmark] (AAU), and Archaeology of Northwestern Europe
Zooarcheological evidence suggests that pigs were domesticated in Southwest Asia ∼8,500 BC. They then spread across the Middle and Near East and westward into Europe alongside early agriculturalists. European pigs were either domesticated independently or more likely appeared so as a result of admixture between introduced pigs and European wild boar. As a result, European wild boar mtDNA lineages replaced Near Eastern/Anatolian mtDNA signatures in Europe and subsequently replaced indigenous domestic pig lineages in Anatolia. The specific details of these processes, however, remain unknown. To address questions related to early pig domestication, dispersal, and turnover in the Near East, we analyzed ancient mitochondrial DNA and dental geometric morphometric variation in 393 ancient pig specimens representing 48 archeological sites (from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic to the Medieval period) from Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Iran, Syria, and Turkey. Our results reveal the first genetic signatures of early domestic pigs in the Near Eastern Neolithic core zone. We also demonstrate that these early pigs differed genetically from those in western Anatolia that were introduced to Europe during the Neolithic expansion. In addition, we present a significantly more refined chronology for the introduction of European domestic pigs into Asia Minor that took place during the Bronze Age, at least 900 years earlier than previously detected. By the 5th century AD, European signatures completely replaced the endemic lineages possibly coinciding with the widespread demographic and societal changes that occurred during the Anatolian Bronze and Iron Ages., This work was supported by grants from the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/F003382/1), the Leverhulme Trust (F/00 128/AX), the Belgian Program on Inter-University Poles of Attraction (IAP 6/22), the Research Fund of the KU Leuven (BOF-GOA 07/02), the Hercules Foundation (AKUL/09/16), and the Deutsche Archäologisches Institut (DAI). G.L. was supported by an RCUK Academic Fellowship, J.P. was supported by the German Science Foundation (PE 424/10-1), M.W. received a Methusalem grant from the Flemish Ministry for Science Policy, and C.G. was supported by the German Archaeological Institute, Berlin (Research Cluster 1, Project 8999539). All research within the framework of the Sagalassos Project was carried out by the Centre for Archeological Sciences of the KU Leuven. Archeozoological research in Iran was supported by the Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handicraft, and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO); the UMR 7209 of the CNRS/MNHN; the British Institute for Persian Studies; the Cultural Service of the French Embassy in Iran; and the University of Edinburgh. Interdisciplinary research into the Neolithic of Southwest Iran was supported by a joint French Japanese Cooperation project (04.2.444) and JSPS. The archaeozoological study of Neolithic Ulucak has been funded through an individual fieldwork grant from the Institute for Aegean Prehistory since 2008 and C.C. was supported by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (postdoctoral fellowship to non-EU researchers).