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Neolithic family portraits: from genealogy to social behaviour

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Palaeogenomic analyses carried out on individuals from the Gurgy "les Noisats" Neolithic burial site in the Paris basin have enabled two family trees to be reconstructed on an unprecedented scale. An international research team, including the PACEA laboratory in Bordeaux and the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig (Germany), has published the results in the Nature scientific journal. Combined with archaeological, anthropological and isotopic data, the findings shed light on the social organisation of this 6,700-year-old community.

Photo : Bones of the female identified as GLN270A (top of photo, no genetic results) with whom the long bones of the main ancestor GLN270B (bottom of photo) of the extended family tree were reburied. © Stéphane Rottier - PACEA
Bones of the female identified as GLN270A (top of photo, no genetic results) with whom the long bones of the main ancestor GLN270B (bottom of photo) of the extended family tree were reburied. © Stéphane Rottier - PACEA

The Neolithic way of life, based on agriculture rather than hunting and gathering, emerged in the Near East and arrived in Western Europe around 7,000 years ago. The ability to produce and store additional food led human groups to develop new social practices based on wealth, leading to hierarchical systems. The complexification of societies is sometimes reflected in the funerary world, and the Paris basin is known for its monumental funerary sites, considered to be destined for the social "elite".

Reconstructed family tree of the largest group genetically related to Gurgy

The painted portraits are an artistic interpretation of the individuals based on physical traits estimated from DNA (when available). The dotted squares (genetically male) and circles (genetically female) represent individuals who were not found at the site or who did not provide sufficient DNA for analysis.

Drawings by Elena Plain - PACEA

In this context, the Gurgy "les Noisats" site, one of the largest monument-free Neolithic burial sites in the region, raises the question of the identity of these individuals buried according to different practices.

By using powerful new methods for analysing ancient DNA, and by sampling almost every individual in this necropolis, the researchers were able to reconstruct the genealogical trees of two families of unequalled size, documenting in an unprecedented way the lives of the members of this prehistoric community.

 

The combination of genomic data obtained for 94 individuals buried at Gurgy (including maternal lineage - mitochondrial DNA - and paternal lineage - Y chromosome), their ages at death and their genetic sex has enabled two family trees to be reconstituted. The first links 64 individuals over 7 generations and represents the largest family tree reconstituted to date from ancient DNA, while the second links 12 individuals over 5 generations.

The study of genealogies revealed a strong patrilineal structure (social transmission via the father), where each generation is almost exclusively linked to the previous generation via the biological father, resulting in the structuring of the Gurgy community around a single paternal lineage. In addition, the combined study of genomic and isotopic (strontium) data shows a non-local origin of most of the women, suggesting the practice of patrilocality. This system implies that the sons remained living within their community and had children with women from outside Gurgy, while most of the adult daughters in the lineage were absent, having left to join another group. The women who came to Gurgy were not closely related, which means that they must have come from a network of local communities, rather than a single group. The study thus indicates that the Gurgy community is part of a relatively large and fluid network of reciprocal exchange, comprising many potentially smaller local groups.

A breakthrough in our understanding of the social organisation of past societies

Within this patrilocal system, a male individual, from whom all the members of the extended family tree were descendants, was identified as the "founding father" of the necropolis. His burial is unique on the site, in that his remains were reburied in the tomb of a woman, for whom unfortunately no genomic data could be obtained. Her bones were therefore probably moved from her original burial site and reburied at Gurgy, in order to lay the foundations for a new necropolis intended to house her descendants.

These genealogies of prehistoric families, the largest reconstructed to date from ancient human DNA data, represent an unprecedented advance in our understanding of the social organisation of past societies.

According to the authors, it is thanks to the major progress made in the discipline in recent years, integrated into a resolutely interdisciplinary approach (combining archaeology, anthropology and biogeochemistry), that it was possible to carry out such a study, published in the international journal Nature, with the participation of researchers from the Bordeaux Prehistory to Present Time: Culture, Environment, Anthropology laboratory (PACEA, CNRS unit, Ministry of Culture and University of Bordeaux), Stéphane Rottier, Marie-France Deguilloux and Marie-Hélène Pemonge as well as Maïté Rivollat, currently at the University of Ghent and a doctoral student at the University of Bordeaux.

Bibliographic references

Extensive pedigrees reveal the social organisation of a Neolithic community
Maïté Rivollat, Adam Benjamin Rohrlach, Harald Ringbauer, Ainash Childebayeva, Fanny Mendisco, Rodrigo Barquera, András Szolek, Mélie Le Roy, Heidi Colleran, Jonathan Tuke, Franziska Aron, Marie-Hélène Pemonge, Ellen Späth, Philippe Télouk, Léonie Rey, Gwenaëlle Goude, Vincent Balter, Johannes Krause, Stéphane Rottier, Marie-France Deguilloux, Wolfgang Haak
Nature (26th July 2023)

Link to the publication

Scientific contact

  • Stéphane Rottier

    Lecturer-researcher
    PACEA

    stephane.rottier%40u-bordeaux.fr