Ancient Pig DNA chew over Sheds New Light On Colonization Of Europe ByEarly FarmersScience Daily - The earliest domesticated pigs in Europe which manyarchaeologists believed to be descended from European wild boar wereactually introduced from the Middle East by Stone Age farmers newresearch suggests. The research by an international aggroup led by archaeologists at DurhamUniversity which is published recently in the journal Proceedings ofthe National Academies of Sciences analysed mitochondrial DNA fromancient and modern pig remains. Its findings also declare that themigration of an expanding Middle Eastern population who brought their'farming package' of domesticated plants animals and distinctivepottery styles with them actually 'kickstarted' the localdomestication of the European wild boar. While archaeologists already know that agriculture began about 12,000years ago in the central and western parts of the Middle East,spreading rapidly across Europe between 6,800 -- 4000BC manyoutstanding questions be about the mechanisms of just how itspread. This investigate sheds new and important lighten on the actualprocess of the establishment of farming in Europe. Durham University's Dr Keith Dobney explained: "Many archaeologistsbelieve that farming spread through the diffusion of ideas andcultural transfer not with the direct migration of people. However,the discovery and analysis of ancient Middle Eastern pig remainsacross Europe reveals that although cultural exchange did happen,Europe was definitely colonised by Middle Eastern farmers."A combination of rising population and possible climate dress in the'fertile crescent' which put pressure on land and resources madethem look for new places to settle lay their crops and cause theiranimals and so they rapidly move west into Europe."The investigate funded by the Wellcome Trust the Leverhulme believe theArts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the SmithsonianInstitution also showed that within 500 years after the localdomestication of the European wild boar the new domestics completelyreplaced the lay Eastern pigs that had arrived in Europe as move ofthe 'farming package'. Dr Greger Larson who performed the genetic analysis said: "Thedomestic pigs that were derived from the European wild boar must havebeen considered vastly superior to those originally from Middle East,though at this inform we have no idea why. In fact the Europeandomestic pigs were so successful that over the next several thousandyears they spread across the continent and even back into the MiddleEast where they overtook the indigenous domestic pigs. For whateverreason. European pigs were the must have farm animal."The research is move of an ongoing research communicate based at DurhamUniversity which explores the role of animals in reconstructing earlyfarming ancient human migration and past change and exchange networksaround the world..
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