2024-03-14 16:58:19
According to modern ideas, farmers came to Scandinavia from Anatolia. This happened about six thousand years ago. The first farmers also committed the first genocide in northern Europe, leaving no more than 10 percent of the original population alive.
These farmers are commonly associated with the archaeological Funnel Beaker culture. About a thousand years passed, and they were replaced by the bearers of the battle ax culture (also known as the Corded Ware culture). Representatives of this culture repeated the actions of the first immigrants from Anatolia – they almost completely exterminated their predecessors.
Megalith of the Funnel Beaker Culture carriers / © wikipedia.org
Megalith of the Funnel Beaker Culture carriers / © wikipedia.org But since the extermination was still incomplete (approximately 10 percent of survivors), in parallel with the above-mentioned farmers, there were hunter-gatherers, carriers of the pit pottery culture. Judging by archaeological finds, such a neighborhood was observed mainly on the southern coast of Scandinavia.
In addition to changing subsistence strategies, the transition to the Neolithic brought with it changes in demography. Larger, denser populations could potentially create conditions in which diseases spread more easily, increasing the pathogen load on humans. In addition, each new wave of immigrants most likely brought with them new diseases associated with their lifestyle.
Researchers from Stockholm University (Sweden) and the Swedish Museum of Natural History conducted a metagenomic analysis of DNA isolated from the teeth of 38 Stone Age people found at 11 sites in Scandinavia. Results of work presented In the magazine Scientific Reports.
The specimens belonged to different cultures: Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, Neolithic hunter-gatherers from the Pit Ware culture, as well as farmers from the Funnel Beaker culture and the Battle Ax culture.
The map shows the sites where the samples were found / © Nora Bergfeldt et al.
The authors studied the microbial contents of these skeletal samples and thus gained insight into the health and living conditions of ancient people, as well as the possibility of microbial transmission between Neolithic hunter-gatherers and farmers. They were especially interested in pathogens that are transmitted through close personal contact (rather than, for example, through food).
Analysis of 38 samples of remains revealed 660 species of microorganisms. Sequences comparable to those found in hunter-gatherers Neisseria meningitidis, which causes meningococcal disease. This infection is usually transmitted through saliva – for example, by coughing, sneezing and kissing. Although meningitis is easily treatable with modern medical treatments, in the Stone Age the infection could be fatal.
The researchers noted that N. meningitidis found more often in samples obtained from the remains of hunter-gatherers. They suggest that this infection has accompanied the population of southern Scandinavia since the Mesolithic.
During the analysis, scientists also found signs in some samples Neisseria gonorrhoeae, which causes gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted infection. It is not entirely clear who was the first carrier of this pathogen.
Salmonella entericathe causative agent of salmonellosis, was found in two representatives of the Funnel Beaker culture – the first farmers. S. enterica has previously been identified in Neolithic samples from other European sites. It is believed that people began to suffer from the disease caused by it in the process of domesticating livestock.
In one adult woman, a carrier of the same culture of funnel-shaped cups, researchers identified the bacterium Yersinia pestis, causing plague. This is one of the earliest cases of detection Y. pestis for today.
The study authors emphasized that in most cases (except S. enterica) it is impossible to say unequivocally who exactly was the first carrier of a particular pathogenic microorganism: hunter-gatherers or farmers. But it is clear that they actively exchanged these organisms, complementing the picture of the first genocides with outbreaks of infectious diseases.
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