Search

Western Eurasia witnessed several large-scale human migrations during the Holocene 1-5 . Here, to investigate the cross-continental effects of these migrations, we shotgun-sequenced 317 genomes-mainly from the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods-from across northern and western Eurasia. These were imputed alongside published data to obtain diploid genotypes from more than 1,600 ancient humans. Our analyses revealed a 'great divide' genomic boundary extending from the Black Sea to the Baltic. Mesolithic hunter-gatherers were highly genetically differentiated east and west of this zone, and the effect of the neolithization was equally disparate. Large-scale ancestry shifts occurred in the west as farming was introduced, including near-total replacement of hunter-gatherers in many areas, whereas no substantial ancestry shifts happened east of the zone during the same period. Similarly, relatedness decreased in the west from the Neolithic transition onwards, whereas, east of the Urals, relatedness remained high until around 4,000 BP, consistent with the persistence of localized groups of hunter-gatherers. The boundary dissolved when Yamnaya-related ancestry spread across western Eurasia around 5,000 BP, resulting in a second major turnover that reached most parts of Europe within a 1,000-year span. The genetic origin and fate of the Yamnaya have remained elusive, but we show that hunter-gatherers from the Middle Don region contributed ancestry to them. Yamnaya groups later admixed with individuals associated with the Globular Amphora culture before expanding into Europe. Similar turnovers occurred in western Siberia, where we report new genomic data from a 'Neolithic steppe' cline spanning the Siberian forest steppe to Lake Baikal. These prehistoric migrations had profound and lasting effects on the genetic diversity of Eurasian populations., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

On the archaeological finds, written reports and in the composition of the bone tissue, we can suppose that social evolution in Hallstatt--La Tène period proceeded through the three following stages. In the Early Iron Age (Hallstatt period) with funerary furnishings of barrows, seldom, also, of burial grounds, we can distinguish only two groups: a ruler and his court with women and servants. Elements of nomadic and pastoral traditions can be distinguished in the ruling stratum. The second class of people living in bondage has agricultural features. At this first stage of social evolution (approximately between the 7th and the 5th centuries B.C.), in the period of princes, we can distinguish only two social groups--the king (prince) with his court on one side and peasants on the other side. This social stratification determines access to land and, at the same time, ownership of mobile wealth--cattle. The elite accumulates wealth coming also from other sources, for example, in an eponymic locality it mines salt and controls its distribution, other elites of the Hallstatt society control key points of trade, in the first place the trade in amber, being the trade proper provided by foreign merchants. In an archaeological context there appear the settlements of the elite of the refugium. The second social stage with military democracy (in the 4th and the 3rd centuries B.C.) is characterised by several factors: 1st Cheaper weapons, due to their manufacture using products with ensured sources of raw material, 2nd overproduction of foodstuffs, 3rd increase of population. Access to the sources has a larger spectrum, this is why the social stratification of the structured unevenness in this period is taking the form of a pyramid. This social pyramid is confirmed by written reports and also appears in the funerary furnishings. Not only are the ruler and his "court" put in the graves, but also all the members of the clan. We suppose that the new social group of priests, who gained a high social prestige both in wartime and in peacetime, took part in this change of mentality and opinions. Due to the rich admission of the dietary elements Sr and Zn, we suppose that it could be garniture 600 in the burial grounds that represents this group. From the result it can be deduced at 5% significance level (p = 0.0519) that also the relations between the garnitures within the social stratification differ consistently with the region. When strontium content in social groups was statistically tested regardless of the region, differences are found at the 5% level of significance (p = 0.0402) between the group II (males with weapons, females with anklets and with 2 bracelets, 54 skeletons with mean content of 198 microg Sr/g of bone) and group IV (males without funerary furniture, children and exceptions, 31 skeletons with mean content of 154.9 microg Sr/g of bone). Also at statistical testing of lead content, regardless of the region, there are differences at the 5% level of significance between group II (48 skeletons with mean content 1.5 microg Pb/g of bone) and group IV (27 skeletons with mean content 0.47 microg Pb/g of bone). Regardless of region there is an apparent difference in consumption of the vegetal component of diet (strontium) and social marker (lead) between the richest elite group II and group IV covering the persons living in bondage on the level of slaves. The third phase of social evolution of the urban type is characterised by the evolution of oppida. Production is fully concentrated here. An oppidum is a market place formed by agricultural villages. Due to the change of the funerary rite towards cremation and the absence of burial grounds, the social structure can only be judged in a mediated manner by means of written reports. A large number of smaller tribal "kingdoms" are concentrated into several larger ones, comprising even several tribes, such as, for example at the king of the Boeotians and of the Taurisks Kritasir in Pannonia and Norik [1]. In these three phases, social evolution lasted for 6 to 7 centuries and headed towards the state system. It was interrupted by the migrations of the Celts and by external pressure from the Romans and the Germans.

Mythical Greece, Egyptian Alexandria and ancient Rome were the cradle of ancient medicine where the beginnings of anatomy and physiology were combined with nature philosophy of great personalities such as Hippocrates and Galen. A modern contribution i.e. medical chemistry, to European medicine was made by Arab physicians Rhazes and Avicena. Only when clerical dogmatism was overcome, after the discovery of the New world and the development of universities the road to scientific progress ws opened on which started the great surgeon and physician Andreas Vesalius.