Southeastern Europe played a significant role in spreading agriculture from the Middle East. Along with the early farming groups came cultural and technological innovations that quickly spread across Europe. Copper mining and processing began in southern Europe around 7,000 years ago. Favorable locations on the Danube and the Black Sea, as well as access to gold and salt, societies in Southeastern Europe thrived through trade with neighboring regions. In parts of Bulgaria and Romania, numerous larger settlement mounds arose, which were connected by a dense exchange network. At the same time, social hierarchies emerged, reflected in the unequal distribution of prestige goods, such as the numerous gold discoveries in the Varna burial ground in Bulgaria.
Archaeological research shows a great similarity of material culture and a stable socio-political network over a period of about 500 years. The genetic homogeneity of Copper Age individuals confirms this stability. Compared to the first wave of early farmers, there were only minor genetic changes, only a slight influence of hunter-gatherers from surrounding regions can be detected.
Beginning of a new era
Around 6,000 years ago, many Copper Age settlements were abandoned for reasons that are still unclear. Climatic changes and the depletion of natural resources may have played a role. Settlement activities seem to spread further north into the forest-steppe areas, e.g. B. in today’s Moldova and Ukraine to have relocated. Huge settlements arose there at the time of the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture. Between 5,500 and 4,600 years ago, the region around present-day Odessa was a melting pot with influences from the late Copper Age, the northwestern Cucuteni-Trypillia culture, the steppe region bordering to the east, and the geographically distant Maikop culture in the North Caucasus. During this period there were a multitude of technical innovations, such as the wheel and the chariot, as well as new metallurgical processes and equipment, which spread rapidly over large areas between the Caucasus and the North Sea.
The genetic analysis of 18 individuals from the period 6,500 to 5,400 years ago confirms the heterogeneity of the archaeological finds. In addition to the local genetic signature of the Copper Age settlers in Southeastern Europe, genetic signatures from the steppes and the North Caucasus could also be detected. This indicates a mixture of influences that met at this contact zone between 6,500 and 5,400 years ago.
Previous archaeogenetic studies have shown that the early pastoral peoples of the adjacent steppe areas of Eastern Europe had a distinctly different genetic profile than the farming societies of Southeastern Europe. This genetic profile was derived in almost equal parts from Eastern European hunter-gatherers from what is now southern Russia and the southern Caucasus. The team of scientists was also able to find this genetic signature in the melting pot around present-day Odessa. “The biggest surprise for us was that we found an admixture of the typical steppe genetic signature more than 500 years earlier than expected,” says lead author Sandra Penske from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
“This means that in addition to an archaeologically proven cultural exchange in the north-western Black Sea region, there was also genetic exchange between groups from the west and east,” adds Svend Hansen, director of the Eurasia Division of the German Archaeological Institute and one of the lead authors of the study. A time of early contact and exchange is thus clearly documented with the new individuals from today’s Ukraine.
It is important to note, however, that no evidence has been found that steppe groups led to the decline of the Copper Age cultures, a theory still held by some 20th-century archaeologists.
The subsequent Early Bronze Age from 5,300 years ago is then characterized by the spread of pastoral nomads in connection with the Yamnaya culture, which emerged from this exchange and contact horizon. »Individuals from present-day Bulgaria and the Ukraine who were buried in burial mounds characteristic of the steppe also bear the typical »steppe signature«. Further inland, however, we also found individuals that still show the local Copper Age profile,” explains Wolfgang Haak from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and lead author of the study.
The reasons for the rapid spread of the pastoral nomads have not yet been fully clarified, but the cultural and technological prerequisites for full-scale transhumance were now all in place. The researchers took a closer look at the different groups associated with the Yamnaya culture. “We see that all of these groups are genetically very similar, suggesting a common origin. However, we also find small influences of local groups, depending on the geographical region into which the pastoral nomads spread«, says Sandra Penske.
Overall, the study draws a highly dynamic picture of the prehistory of Southeast Europe, from which it becomes clear that differentiated, archaeogenetic studies such as this one provide completely new insights into the interactions of prehistoric cultures and the genetic history of this region.