Dataset Information

Mitochondrial DNA Profiles of Individuals from a 12th Century Necropolis in Feldioara (Transylvania).

ABSTRACT: The genetic signature of modern Europeans is the cumulated result of millennia of discrete small-scale exchanges between multiple distinct population groups that performed a repeated cycle of movement, settlement, and interactions with each other. In this study we aimed to highlight one such minute genetic cycle in a sea of genetic interactions by reconstructing part of the genetic story of the migration, settlement, interaction, and legacy of what is today the Transylvanian Saxon. The analysis of the mitochondrial DNA control region of 13 medieval individuals from Feldioara necropolis (Transylvania region, Romania) reveals a genetically heterogeneous group where all identified haplotypes are different. Most of the perceived maternal lineages are of Western Eurasian origin, except for the Central Asiatic haplogroup C seen in only one sample. Comparisons with historical and modern populations describe the contribution of the investigated Saxon settlers to the genetic history of this part of Europe.

SUBMITTER: Ginguta A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8003334 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Mitochondrial DNA Profiles of Individuals from a 12th Century Necropolis in Feldioara (Transylvania).

Gînguță Alexandra A Rusu Ioana I Mircea Cristina C Ioniță Adrian A Banciu Horia L HL Kelemen Beatrice B

Genes 20210319 3

The genetic signature of modern Europeans is the cumulated result of millennia of discrete small-scale exchanges between multiple distinct population groups that performed a repeated cycle of movement, settlement, and interactions with each other. In this study we aimed to highlight one such minute genetic cycle in a sea of genetic interactions by reconstructing part of the genetic story of the migration, settlement, interaction, and legacy of what is today the Transylvanian Saxon. The analysis ...[more]

PMID: 33808521

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Project description:Knowledge of biodiversity in the past, and the timing, nature, and drivers of human-induced ecological change, is important for gaining deep time perspectives and for modern conservation efforts. The Marquesas Islands (Polynesia) are one of the world's most remote archipelagos and illustrate the vulnerability of indigenous bioscapes to anthropogenic activities. Characterised by high levels of endemism across many biotic groups, the full spectrum of the group's flora and fauna is nonetheless incompletely known. Several centuries of Polynesian settlement reshaped biotic communities in ways that are not yet fully understood, and historically-introduced mammalian herbivores have devastated the indigenous lowland flora. We report here on archaeological recovery of a diverse assemblage of plant and arthropod subfossils from a waterlogged deposit on the largest Marquesan island: Nuku Hiva. These materials offer new perspectives on the composition of lowland plant and arthropod communities pene-contemporaneous with human arrival. Bayesian analysis of multiple 14C results from short-lived materials date the assemblages to the mid-12th century AD (1129-1212 cal. AD, 95.4% HPD). Evidence for human activities in the catchment coincident with deposit formation includes Polynesian associated arthropods, microcharcoal, and an adzed timber. Plant macrofossils (seeds, fruits, vegetative structures) and microfossils (pollen, phytoliths) reveal coastal and lowland wet-moist forest communities unlike those observed today. Several apparently extinct taxa are identified, along with extant taxa currently constrained to high altitude and/or interior areas. A diverse inventory of subfossil arthropods-the first pre-18th century records for the islands-includes more than 100 distinct taxa, with several new archipelago records and one previously unreported for eastern Polynesia. The assemblages provide new insights into lowland Marquesan forest communities coincident with human arrival, and portend the considerable anthropogenic transformations that followed. These records also have implications for human colonisation of the Marquesas Islands and East Polynesia at large.

Dataset Information

Mitochondrial DNA Profiles of Individuals from a 12th Century Necropolis in Feldioara (Transylvania).

Publications

Mitochondrial DNA Profiles of Individuals from a 12th Century Necropolis in Feldioara (Transylvania).

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