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The presence of scattered prehistoric human bones in caves and sinkholes is common in many regions of Iberia. These are usually interpreted as erratic elements coming from burial contexts, usually collective associations. These burial contexts are very frequent in karst areas of the Iberian Peninsula since the Early Neolithic, mostly in the Late Neolithic, and Copper Age, while findings from earlier chronologies are much more unusual. In this work, we present partial remains of a human skull from the Mesolithic period, recovered from a cave in the Strait of Gibraltar area. Although there is no conclusive evidence pointing to a dismantled burial context, this constitutes an isolated find, where its final location appears to be consistent with gravitational fall followed by water transportation., We are grateful to members of the caving groups GES Casares (Casares Underground Exploration Group) and SE Mainake (Speleo-Excursionist Society), and the town Council of Casares for their help throughout the work of survey and archaeological research inside Sima Hedionda II/IV. The frontal bone SHII/IV/7001-7 (known as Cecilín) was first located by Carlos Pintos Zanca, Juan Antonio Rodriguez Alarcón, Rafael Beltran, and Pascal Boutery de la SE Mainake. CT scan was carried out in the Clinical Veterinary Hospital of the University of Cordoba. We would like to thank especially Dr Manuel Novales Durán (Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, UCO) for his help in the scanning process. We would also appreciate the help of Alvaro Perea (Ergonidámica Clínica, Córdoba) in composing Figures 5 and 6 using the OsiriX DICOM Wiever software. Dating Beta-424650 was funded by an internal research grant from La Trobe University. The “Archaeological Survey Project in Sima Hedionda II/IV, Casares (Málaga)” was partly self-financed by the team members themselves, and also partly (Technical equipment, transportation, other datings, maintenance, and accommodation) with the support of the Casares Town Council. Thanks to the efforts of the last institution, this cave is now gated and protected. This work has been carried out in the framework of the Project “Archaeobiology of the Neolithic of the Southern Iberian Peninsula” (NeArqBioSI) A-HUM-460-UGR18 by Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad. FEDER Programme – Junta de Andalucía-Universidad de Granada. Call 2019. SPG is Juan de la Cierva Incorporación (IJC2019-038830-I) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments and efforts in improving our manuscript.

The taxonomic identification of Capra hircus and Capra pyrenaica from bone remains is essential in order to be able to infer a prehistoric society’s subsistence strategy. Although osteometry is the criterion that is typically used to distinguish both of these species, Sarrion (1988) also defined morphological characteristics for distinguishing them. The objective of this work is to validate these morphological criteria with the genetic identification of ovicaprine bone remains from Palaeolithic and Neolithic levels of the Chaves site (Sierra de Guara, Huesca). The preliminary results indicate that the astragalus and calcaneus are more adequate for identifying Capra pyrenaica and Capra hircus and the discrimination criteria of mandibles and metacarpals are called into question

The main object of this paper is to reconstruct the presence of the knights of the Teutonic Order in the archeological site of Torre Alemanna (Foggia, Italy), one of the best preserved Teutonic production sites. This is an interdisciplinary study that includes archeological and anthropological research combined with the paleonutritional results and radiocarbon dating. Specifically, for this study, the area 5 of the complex has been investigated. The cemetery is located in the northwest corner of the complex, and the burials are probably dated at the beginning of the Teutonic settlement. In order to draw conclusions about their presence, attention has been focused primarily on ergonomics activities, injuries, morphological and metric characters, diet, and dating.

Significance A number of antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs) with varying linkers carrying an uncialamycin analogue as payload were synthesized and tested for their cytotoxicity in vitro and in PDX mouse models. Importantly, a number of these enediyne-containing ADCs were found to exhibit potent and selective in vivo and in vitro cytotoxicities and also displayed a significant bystander killing effect. The latter finding is of particular importance since the currently approved enediyne ADCs (featuring an N-acetylated calicheamicin γ 1 I derivative as payload) are known not to induce bystander killing, thus lacking a possibly beneficial characteristic that could potentially improve the efficacy of oncological therapies.

Significance Archaeological evidence indicates that domestic pigs arrived in Europe, alongside farmers from the Near East ∼8,500 y ago, yet mitochondrial genomes of modern European pigs are derived from European wild boars. To address this conundrum, we obtained mitochondrial and nuclear data from modern and ancient Near Eastern and European pigs. Our analyses indicate that, aside from a coat color gene, most Near Eastern ancestry in the genomes of European domestic pigs disappeared over 3,000 y as a result of interbreeding with local wild boars. This implies that pigs were not domesticated independently in Europe, yet the first 2,500 y of human-mediated selection applied by Near Eastern Neolithic farmers played little role in the development of modern European pigs., Archaeological evidence indicates that pig domestication had begun by ∼10,500 y before the present (BP) in the Near East, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) suggests that pigs arrived in Europe alongside farmers ∼8,500 y BP. A few thousand years after the introduction of Near Eastern pigs into Europe, however, their characteristic mtDNA signature disappeared and was replaced by haplotypes associated with European wild boars. This turnover could be accounted for by substantial gene flow from local European wild boars, although it is also possible that European wild boars were domesticated independently without any genetic contribution from the Near East. To test these hypotheses, we obtained mtDNA sequences from 2,099 modern and ancient pig samples and 63 nuclear ancient genomes from Near Eastern and European pigs. Our analyses revealed that European domestic pigs dating from 7,100 to 6,000 y BP possessed both Near Eastern and European nuclear ancestry, while later pigs possessed no more than 4% Near Eastern ancestry, indicating that gene flow from European wild boars resulted in a near-complete disappearance of Near East ancestry. In addition, we demonstrate that a variant at a locus encoding black coat color likely originated in the Near East and persisted in European pigs. Altogether, our results indicate that while pigs were not independently domesticated in Europe, the vast majority of human-mediated selection over the past 5,000 y focused on the genomic fraction derived from the European wild boars, and not on the fraction that was selected by early Neolithic farmers over the first 2,500 y of the domestication process.

International audience; Archaeological evidence indicates that pig domestication had begun by ∼10,500 y before the present (BP) in the Near East, and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) suggests that pigs arrived in Europe alongside farmers ∼8,500 y BP. A few thousand years after the introduction of Near Eastern pigs into Europe, however, their characteristic mtDNA signature disappeared and was replaced by haplotypes associated with European wild boars. This turnover could be accounted for by substantial gene flow from local Euro-pean wild boars, although it is also possible that European wild boars were domesticated independently without any genetic contribution from the Near East. To test these hypotheses, we obtained mtDNA sequences from 2,099 modern and ancient pig samples and 63 nuclear ancient genomes from Near Eastern and European pigs. Our analyses revealed that European domestic pigs dating from 7,100 to 6,000 y BP possessed both Near Eastern and European nuclear ancestry, while later pigs possessed no more than 4% Near Eastern ancestry, indicating that gene flow from European wild boars resulted in a near-complete disappearance of Near East ancestry. In addition, we demonstrate that a variant at a locus encoding black coat color likely originated in the Near East and persisted in European pigs. Altogether, our results indicate that while pigs were not independently domesticated in Europe, the vast majority of human-mediated selection over the past 5,000 y focused on the genomic fraction derived from the European wild boars, and not on the fraction that was selected by early Neolithic farmers over the first 2,500 y of the domestication process. domestication | evolution | gene flow | Neolithic

The Middle East plays a central role in human history harbouring a vast diversity of ethnic, cultural and religious groups. However, much remains to be understood about past and present genomic diversity in this region. Here, we present for the first time, a multidisciplinary bioarchaeological analysis of two individuals dated to late 7th and early 8th centuries from Tell Qarassa, an open-air site in modern-day Syria. Radiocarbon dates, religious and cultural burial evidence indicate that this site represents one of the earliest Islamic Arab burials in the Levant during the Late Antiquity period. Interestingly, we found genomic similarity to a genotyped group of modern-day Bedouins and Saudi rather than to most neighbouring Levantine groups. This is highlighted through substantial Neolithic Levant ancestry in our samples, inviting an alternative scenario of long-term continuity in this region. This raises questions about the influence of ancient populations and historical migrations to genetic structure in the Middle East. As our study represents the first genomic analysis of an early Islamic burial in the Levant, we discuss our findings and possible historic scenarios in light of forces such as genetic drift and their possible interaction with religious and cultural processes., This work was funded by a grant from the Royal Physiographic Society of Lund (Nilsson-Ehle Endowments) to TG and CV and the La Trobe Internal Research grants to CV. MS was part of the Erasmus Mundus Master Programme in Evolutionary Biology (MEME). TG is supported by a grant from the Swedish Research Council Vetenskapsrådet (2017-05267). MJ and AG were supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council Vetenskapsrådet and the Knut and AliceWallenberg foundation. JS is supported by a grant from Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (European Commission, no. GA 750460; H2020-MSCA-IF-2016). The archaeological research at Tell Qarassa was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant HAR2016-74999-P) and the Palarq Foundation.We thank Arielle R. Munters for initial data processing, Phillip Edwards for fruitful discussionand Frank Braemer for comments on an early draft of the manuscript. The computations wereperformed on resources provided by SNIC through Uppsala Multidisciplinary Center forAdvanced Computational Science (UPPMAX) under projects sllstore2017020 and 2019/8-150.Shotgun sequencing was performed at the National Genomics Infrastructure (NGI) Stockholm.

The authors note that the affiliation for Alexandros Triantafyllidis and Panoraia Alexandri should be listed as Department of Genetics, Development and Molecular Biology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; and that the affiliation for Rose-Marie Arbogast should be listed as CNRS UMR 7044, Maison interuniversitaire des sciences de l'Homme, F-67083 Strasbourg Cedex, France. The corrected author and affiliation lines appear below. The online version has been corrected.

[EN] The current phylogeographic pattern of European brown bears (Ursus arctos) has commonly been explained by postglacial recolonization out of geographically distinct refugia in southern Europe, a pattern well in accordance with the expansion/contraction model. Studies of ancient DNA from brown bear remains have questioned this pattern, but have failed to explain the glacial distribution of mitochondrial brown bear clades and their subsequent expansion across the European continent. We here present 136 new mitochondrial sequences generated from 346 remains from Europe, ranging in age between the Late Pleistocene and historical times. The genetic data show a high Late Pleistocene diversity across the continent and challenge the strict confinement of bears to traditional southern refugia during the last glacial maximum (LGM). The mitochondrial data further suggest a genetic turnover just before this time, as well as a steep demographic decline starting in the mid‐Holocene. Levels of stable nitrogen isotopes from the remains confirm a previously proposed shift toward increasing herbivory around the LGM in Europe. Overall, these results suggest that in addition to climate, anthropogenic impact and inter‐specific competition may have had more important effects on the brown bear's ecology, demography, and genetic structure than previously thought, We are very thankful to all institutions and individuals that provided samples for this study: the Natural History Museums of Mainz (Germany), Rotterdam (The Netherlands), Brussels (Belgium), Barcelona (Spain), Verona (Italy), Vienna (Austria), Sofia (Bulgaria), Budapest (Hungary), Zagreb (Croatia), the Emil Racoviță Institute of Speleology (Romania), the Aranzadi Society of Sciences (Basque Country, Spain), the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals PAS (Poland), and the Zoological Institute of Saint‐Petersburg (Russia). For providing samples from within Sweden, we wish to acknowledge Friedrike Johansson at the Natural History Museum in Gothenburg, Linda Wickström at SGU in Uppsala, Maria Mostadius at the Zoological Museum in Lund, and finally Gunilla Eriksson and Markus Fjellström at the Department of Archaeology, Stockholm University. For access to samples from the North Sea, we are in gratitude to Charles Schouwenburg and Albert Hoekman/NorthSeaFossils. For valuable assistance in the DNA Lab at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, we would like to thank Martin Irestedt, Bodil Cronholm, and Rodrigo Esparza‐Salas. Dr. Rebecka Miller sadly passed away during work on this manuscript. Her contribution was very much appreciated and her work at Trou Al'Wesse was funded by the Region Wallonne. Financial support for this study was obtained from the Swedish Research Council (VR), Tullbergs stiftelse, and FORMAS through the FP6 BiodivERsA ERA‐NET program. The samples from Polish sites were partially financed by the National Science Centre, grant nr 2015/17/D/ST10/01907, “The history of the brown bear (Ursus arctos Linnaeus, 1758) evolution in Central Europe as a key to modern species conservation,” awarded to Adrian Marciszak

Population genomic studies of ancient human remains have shown how modern-day European population structure has been shaped by a number of prehistoric migrations. The Neolithization of Europe has been associated with large-scale migrations from Anatolia, which was followed by migrations of herders from the Pontic steppe at the onset of the Bronze Age. Southwestern Europe was one of the last parts of the continent reached by these migrations, and modern-day populations from this region show intriguing similarities to the initial Neolithic migrants. Partly due to climatic conditions that are unfavorable for DNA preservation, regional studies on the Mediterranean remain challenging. Here, we present genome-wide sequence data from 13 individuals combined with stable isotope analysis from the north and south of Iberia covering a four-millennial temporal transect (7, 500–3, 500 BP). Early Iberian farmers and Early Central European farmers exhibit significant genetic differences, suggesting two independent fronts of the Neolithic expansion. The first Neolithic migrants that arrived in Iberia had low levels of genetic diversity, potentially reflecting a small number of individuals; this diversity gradually increased over time from mixing with local hunter-gatherers and potential population expansion. The impact of post-Neolithic migrations on Iberia was much smaller than for the rest of the continent, showing little external influence from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. Paleodietary reconstruction shows that these populations have a remarkable degree of dietary homogeneity across space and time, suggesting a strong reliance on terrestrial food resources despite changing culture and genetic make-up.