Megalithic tombs in western and northern Neolithic Europe were linked to a kindred society.

ABSTRACT: Paleogenomic and archaeological studies show that Neolithic lifeways spread from the Fertile Crescent into Europe around 9000 BCE, reaching northwestern Europe by 4000 BCE. Starting around 4500 BCE, a new phenomenon of constructing megalithic monuments, particularly for funerary practices, emerged along the Atlantic façade. While it has been suggested that the emergence of megaliths was associated with the territories of farming communities, the origin and social structure of the groups that erected them has remained largely unknown. We generated genome sequence data from human remains, corresponding to 24 individuals from five megalithic burial sites, encompassing the widespread tradition of megalithic construction in northern and western Europe, and analyzed our results in relation to th

SUBMITTER: Sanchez-Quinto F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6511028 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature