A Neolithic settlement on the Orkneys. (credit: Caltech)
The Neolithic Revolution involved the advent of agriculture, which finally allowed people to settle down in ever-larger groups and focus on things other than procuring calories—things like developing written language and forming social cliques. It was one of the most profound events in the collective history of humanity.
But it wasn't just social change. It was a change in the evolutionary environment that shaped the human genome. The genetic variation found in different populations on the globe today provides hints to the ways we all adapted. But analyzing ancient DNA could allow us to identify traits as they adapted in real time.
Alas, ancient human DNA has been pretty sparse. Now, an international team of geneticists, archaeologists, and anthropologists has assembled a database of genomes from 230 West Eurasians who lived between 6500 and 300 BCE and found evidence of selection at genetic loci involved in diet, pigmentation, immunity, and height.
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