Spatial and temporal heterogeneity in human mobility patterns in Holocene Southwest Asia and the East Mediterranean
Dilek Koptekin, Eren Yüncü, Ricardo Varela, N. Ezgi Altınışık, Nikolaos Psonis, Natalija Kashuba, Sevgi Yorulmaz, Robert George, Duygu Deniz Kazancı, Damla Kaptan, Kanat Gürün, Kıvılcım Başak Vural, Hasan Can Gemici, Despoina Vassou, Evangelia Daskalaki, Cansu Karamurat, Vendela Kempe Lagerholm, Ömür Dilek Erdal, Emrah Kırdök, Aurelio Marangoni, Andreas Schachner, Handan Üstündağ, Ramaz Shengelia, Liana Bitadze, Mikheil Elashvili, Eleni Stravopodi, Mihriban Özbaşaran, Güneş Duru, Argyro Nafplioti, C. Brian Rose, Tuğba Gençer, Gareth Darbyshire, Alexander Gavashelishvili, Konstantine Pitskhelauri, Özlem Çevik, Osman Vuruşkan, Nina Kyparissi‐Apostolika, Ali Metin Büyükkarakaya, Umay Oğuzhanoğlu, Sevinç Günel, Eugenia Tabakaki, Akper Alinazar Aliev, Anar İbrahimov, Vaqif Shadlinski, Αδαμάντιος Σαμψών, Gülşah Merve Kılınç, Çiğdem Atakuman, Alexandros Stamatakis, Nikos Poulakakis, Yılmaz Selim Erdal, Pavlos Pavlidis, Jan Storå, Füsun Özer, Anders Götherström, Mehmet Somel
Abstract
We present a spatiotemporal picture of human genetic diversity in Anatolia, Iran, Levant, South Caucasus, and the Aegean, a broad region that experienced the earliest Neolithic transition and the emergence of complex hierarchical societies. Combining 35 new ancient shotgun genomes with 382 ancient and 23 present-day published genomes, we found that genetic diversity within each region steadily increased through the Holocene. We further observed that the inferred sources of gene flow shifted in time. In the first half of the Holocene, Southwest Asian and the East Mediterranean populations homogenized among themselves. Starting with the Bronze Age, however, regional populations diverged from each other, most likely driven by gene flow from external sources, which we term ''the expanding mobility model.'' Interestingly, this increase in inter-regional divergence can be captured by outgroup-f 3 -based genetic distances, but not by the commonly used F ST statistic, due to the sensitivity of F ST , but not outgroup-f 3 , to within-population diversity. Finally, we report a temporal trend of increasing male bias in admixture events through the Holocene.