Genetic discontinuity between local hunter-gatherers and Europes first farmers

Following the domestication of animals and crops in the Near East some 11,000 years ago, farming reached much of Central Europe by 7,500 before present. The extent to which these early European farmers ere immigrants, or descendants of resident hunter-gatherers who had learnt farming, has been widely debated. We compare new mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences from late European hunter-gatherer skeletons with those from early farmers, and from modern Europeans. We find large genetic differences betwee all three groups that cannot be explained by population continuity alone. Most (82 %) of the ancient hunter-gatherers share mtDNA types that are relatively rare in Central Europeans today. Together, thse analyses provide persuasive evidence that the first farmers were not the descendants of local hunergatherers but immigrated into Central Europe at the onset of the Neolithic.