Ancient DNA reveals admixture history and endogamy in the prehistoric Aegean.

The Neolithic and Bronze Ages were highly transformative periods for the genetic history of Europe but for the Aegean-a region fundamental to Europe's prehistory-the biological dimensions of cultural transitions have been elucidated only to a limited extent so far. We have analysed newly generated genome-wide data from 102 ancient individuals from Crete, the Greek mainland and the Aegean Islands, spanning from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. We found that the early farmers from Crete shared the same ancestry as other contemporaneous Neolithic Aegeans.

Ancient Yersinia pestis and Salmonella enterica genomes from Bronze Age Crete.

During the late 3 millennium BCE, the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East witnessed societal changes in many regions, which are usually explained with a combination of social and climatic factors. However, recent archaeogenetic research forces us to rethink models regarding the role of infectious diseases in past societal trajectories. The plague bacterium Yersinia pestis, which was involved in some of the most destructive historical pandemics, circulated across Eurasia at least from the onset of the 3 millennium BCE, but the challenging preservation of ancient DNA in warmer climates has restricted the identification of Y.